Changing the Paradigm

A few weeks ago, I was drawn to the RSA website (http://www.thersa.org/ ) and saw a video of Sir Ken Robinsons lecture on changing the education paradigm.  Sir Ken Robinson was born in England and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Marie-Therese and children James and Kate. Sir Ken Robinson is an international author, speaker and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education and arts bodies. He was Director of The Arts in Schools Project (1985–89), Professor of Arts Education at the Warwick University England (1989–2001) and was knighted in 2003 for services to education. Of special interest to him are the ARTs subjects.

He is author to a number of books, exploring creativity and some have been reviewed by famous people, including John Cleese. You can look at his website for a list of his books with reviews. http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/who

When talking about schools and education, Sir Ken Robinson says that we are all born with great talents. We are all creative but schools suppress many of these innate talents. He says that education suppresses these talents because education is based on the old industrial idea of creating workers who can fulfill the needs for that society. There are the useful subjects and the useless subjects, of which the arts are included. This includes art and drama. The useful subjects are those that basically will give financial security for a future career.

People do their best though when they are in their element, they are doing things that they have a natural talent and aptitude for. The old model of education is obsolete and business should realize that if workers are happy, then so business will prosper. We should not suppress the creativity of the people. We need to educate our children for a future economy and cultural identity.

We need to change the paradigm of education for a new world. We need to build education around the model of personhood that does not deny the difference in people and their different talents. I find his ideas around testing particularly interesting. He says that we are taught at school to sit still and not look at answers for our tests. In life, we are encouraged to collaborate and collaboration is the stuff of growth.

We need to create an organic metaphor for education that is based on identity, community and feeling that includes and celebrates creativity, vitality and diversity and that is customized to fit all children.


Education currently follows a linear pattern. We raise our children to believe that if they conform, do good in school and follow the right path, you'll get to university or college, and end with a good job. Life is not linear. It is organic. It changes constantly. Why are we teaching our children along the same model as the fast food industry, a model of conformity? Its more about customizing and personalizing education for the future.

When I think about how about opening up education to the arts and not just focus on literacy and numeracy, I can see how exciting education could actually be. Children have standards rammed down their throats from such an early age and their creativity is stifled out of them , whilst they are told to sit and not move and listen and not fidget.Children need to move, they need to get outside and they need space in which to grow and learn. How exciting to bring learning outside to an outdoor classroom to enable children to express themselves in a creative, hands-on way. Integration of curriculum into the garden can help children flourish.

More on Ken Robinson can be found at http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/watch