Here’s another great video from Sir Ken Robinson via Ted. It’s a follow up to his “Do Schools Kill Creativity” talk from 2006. The most interesting topic Robinson covers is changing the educational model.
We have built our education systems on the model of fast food. This is something Jamie Oliver talked about the other day.You know there are two models of quality assurance in catering. One is fast food, where everything is standardized. The other are things like Zagat and Michelin restaurants, where everything is not standardized, they’re customized to local circumstances. And we have sold ourselves into a fast food model of education. And it’s impoverishing our spirit and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies…
…So I think we have to change metaphors. We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity and batching people. We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it’s an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development; all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.
And if you do watch the video make sure you watch the whole things. Robinson closes with a great quote from W.B Yeates.