A Paradigm Shift in Public Education

Below is a video of an amazing “doodlecture”. I don’t know who the drawing is by, but is a lecture from Sir Ken Robinson on the problems with education, and the need to change the “education paradigm”.



Robinson is correct in saying that our schools today outdated because it is largely based upon the economic model of the industrial revolution, and grouping kids into batches. For example, I never even thought about the pointless conventionalism of grouping kids based upon grade. There are a couple of issues I feel the need to raise:

First, I have an issue with saying that our major problem in education is that we anesthetize children in schools. While I do have concerns about to over diagnosis of ADHD for students, I am not one of those who sees the prescription of ADHD medication (Ritalin, Adorol, etc.) to children as one of our society's great evils. Those medicines are not for every child with ADHD, but sometimes, children do benefit from their use. This comes from someone who grew with an ADHD diagnosis (it was called ADD at the time).  The use of such medicine greatly helped me to not only do better in those "borning schools" but better focus and function in other areas of life where focus is imperative. This point lead me to have a fascinating debate with Lisa Nielsen of the Innovative Educator Blog on Twitter. It was on her blog where I originally found the video.

Secondly, for all the problems Robinson outlines, he doesn’t really suggest alternatives for schooling. I won’t fault him too much for that, because that probably wasn’t what he was trying to do. But as a teacher and someone who is interested in what education looks like in this country, I wish I had something more practical to work with.  Having said that, I am feeling a little more inspired to look for those answers (for starters, I suggest “What Would Real School Reform Look Like?” by James Farwell)

In addition, I hope that this videos inspires other teachers to look for various methods of teaching and differentiating instruction.  I know it is sometimes hard as a teacher to look past applying the conventionally comfortable teaching style of pencil/paper/reading/lecture/etc.   But we have got to do a better job of trying newer and exciting lessons in our own classrooms, as well as encouraging the use of non-traditional ideas to our peers and in our districts.