The Foreword is three inspirational, sunshiny pages short, written by Sir Ken Robinson. Already I feel better! I have read much of his well-respected cutting-edge writing. Banished is the dragging feeling. There is hope. Educational change can and will emerge, even if it has to originate in small communities of dedicated individuals, changing the future for just a few students at a time. We need a whole new paradigm for education, not just an adjustment of the current out-dated system.
After reading Chapter 1 of Creating Tomorrow's Schools Today: Education–Our Children–Their Futures by Richard Gerver (who has implemented the changes he writes about), I am excited about reading the rest of the book. He outlines a future that is already well-documented in which our children will have worked for about 20 different organizations before they retire. We, therefore, he argues, need to cease schooling our youth to accommodate available jobs, but raise our young to "invent the new jobs and ways of working that simply do not exist yet...(and) create a system that creates people who can make the jobs fit them" (10).
"So what kind of people will our children need to be? They will need, above all else, huge levels of self-confidence, they will need to be adaptable, utilize their natural creativity and understand their own strengths and weaknesses. They will need to be increasingly self-aware emotionally and intellectually and be capable of building relationships quickly, effectively and often 'virtually'" (7).
As Gerver starts his first chapter:
"Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it." African proverb.
Let us dream the change we wish to see and then act to see the future transformed.
Sounds like the same old utility based education to me. It seems we must unveil the contemplative model of the human mind rather than endlessly recycling the computational model
ReplyDeleteIf I may add further that not only are our children but we are drowning in an ocean of empiricism; the lowest form of knowledge.In other words our education system has been banished to infinity...which is of course irrational. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea of a more thoughtful education. Classical education also has its merits. We need to teach people how to think once more and how to find joy in learning and knowledge. With instant information at our finger tips, we need to be able to think about it deeply. We will naturally retain what interests us, so we need to keep kids curious and open-minded. It is so sad these days to be in school and see them deadened and lifeless. When asked what they enjoy and have a passion for outside of school, the majority of them say, "Nothing" . It is heart-breaking.
ReplyDelete