Sept. 15th, 2024
New Ways of Learning
This is a small video that I remember seeing in high school, and it relates well to the course content at hand. Although it may be a little on the theatrical side, its portrayal of our stagnant education system is easy to grasp for any audience.
Do we need to reimagine education? Yes. As shown in the short film Most Likely to Succeed, today’s education system is suitable for the creation of 19th-century factory workers. Its structured days are broken down by bells and blocks to increase organization, not education, claims speaker Ken Robinson (12:36). This method of education doesn’t prepare today’s students for entering into the modern workforce, one that requires critical thinking and ingenuity over structure and obedience.
Now that we have established the need for change, what’s the next step? Why don’t we change everything today? The steps forward will take time as there are obstacles for teachers to overcome. One difficulty is that teachers of today have been taught how to teach in this system. Additionally, the costs of creating new programs and classroom redesign would fall to teachers. Even if these weren’t issues, parents would have to agree to these changes. Concerns of students being prepared for post-secondary education would provide pushback, regardless of the validity of the claims.
I am looking forward to learning about alternatives to the current system, a system that is seemingly not fit for many. Although I believe many of the changes from the documentary would improve our systems, I have some concerns. I worry about students who need rigidity and firm instruction to learn. I need due dates to make sure I get work done. In my years of elementary, if the teacher wasn’t breathing down my neck and forcing me to work, it wouldn’t get done. Alternatively, less structure may have had more of an effect on me and forced me to take more responsibility.
For those reading, please comment if you feel the video represented how you felt after Rich’s lecture or if it was too off base.