A little less conversation, a little more action

It is true to say that we need a new type of schooling. Despite the many studies, theories, reports, talks and presentations by those who have idealised and philosophised over the matter, the triteness of the school system remains - like a needle stuck on a record, (or a scratched CD I should say); it just keeps repeating.


School has always set out to teach the masses to think one way. It is a difficult one to address as schools are institutions firmly set in stone; they are a long standing service for the tax paying public, who, fundamentally, accept that their school attending kids receives an education that is standardised - nothing more, nothing less. While governments that come and go, ensure that the machine continues to grind and churn out the next generation of tax paying workers. It’s all down to economics.


Not a very inspiring basis to jump start or whittle out the hidden genius’s amongst us. The structure of schools from as far back as two hundred years or more, was to put children into two groups - academic or non-academic. The academic children were instructed using approaches led by classic, scholarly style teachings which worked to ones advantage on the face of things, while the talents of the non-academic types went largely, unfounded and undiscovered. The natural skills of children who perhaps understood the material world better than the written word were often left unidentified and were rarely acknowledged.


Nowadays there is not much change, and more and more it is the grades that count. Having lower grades brings about a sense of worthlessness and failure, is less appealing to colleges and universities, and, therefore, opportunity and choice is lessened. Yet, the mind is a wondrous thing. So what happens to the talent and individualised thinking? What happens to the spark and imagination of youth? What replaces the space that greatness should have filled? Why and how does school fail the majority?


If you’re interested in how we might make change happen in education and how we might make it last, then please click on the link below, watch the video and pass it on. It is not dull. An excellent piece of animate work has been crafted around a talk delivered by creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson. He is a principal speaker in many things including business, the arts, and health.

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