Response #4: Animating Our Education System

In class we watched an 11 minute clip about “Changing the Paradigms of Education” by RSA animate, which I’ve included in this post. I for one can get bored quickly during lectures so to me this is a great idea. To summarize what it is, it’s an animation for Ken Robinson’s speech and it helps give visual aide to what is discussed during the speech. The animation is spot on and synched perfectly with his words, making it very understandable. I actually had to watch it a few times and I’m sure there is still much I have missed, it covers quite a bit of ground in a few short minutes.

One of the major interesting points in the speech is the comparison of the American education system to that of an industry. This is sad but true. Our education system is extremely outdated and it pointed this out in multiple ways. Kids are still grouped by age, and manufactured grade by grade in an inefficient way. The education system needs to focus its sights on more individual attention rather than cranking out these standardized tests that are working students to death, and leaving the possibility for bright futures bleak. Class curriculums are designed to make sure these students do well on standardized tests but it fails to answer two important questions. Are these students accumulating this information? Are these curriculums preparing our students for the future? I can answer both of these questions myself with a matter of fact-ly NO.

The other interesting part of the video I quickly latched onto was the fact that the arts are being left behind. Ask any teenager what they love and they will usually answer music. Arts are an escape for many students. Many kids who despise math and find science boring excel in art and English classes. I fall into this category. I was a student in the SCAPA creative writing program here in Lexington and it was something I really got hooked on quick. I learned so much about so many things in this class, and even though I didn’t like every assignment, I found it all interesting. This class helped me build a set of skills, and I’m no engineer or chemist, but writing is what is valuable to me.

I cannot say that the American education system is outdated enough. It was created during the industrial revolution and is designed after the same plans as that of a factory. It spits diplomas out in a way that is mechanical. If students cannot do well in this program they fall behind and are left for nothing in the real world after, with no means of getting ahead in a successful adult life. I don’t know where our government is at in deciding what to do about this, but just watching this video, anyone can agree with the message it is promoting. Schools may not be emitting clouds of smoke or congestion as you pass by them, but know just like any other factory, pollution is spreading, and this pollution is infecting our youth.