Blog Post 2: By Initia van Tonder
I thought the lecture delivered by Sir Ken Robinson was extremely interesting, especially since I just completed my digital story on incorporating music into education. Like any other institution that exists today, it is always very helpful to understand the foundations of why and how it came into being. Understanding the basis for the public education system as a tool directed specifically towards the industrial and corporate environment, it is understandable why there seems to be such a lack of creativity in the classroom. I can remember several occasions where the choices that I made in education where based specifically on the notion of how I would be able to apply that in the "real world." Often I had to stear away from the things I loved, like music, because I was under the impression that it was of no use to me in the future. I think that redefining and re-evaluating the importance of creative expression as a tool for education is essential and completely agree with the notion that creativity is just as important as literacy in education. I especially liked Sir Robinson's point about intelligence being diverse, dynamic, and distinct. If we all learn in different and unique ways, how can it be the standard that all students are educated to attain the same goals for the future? Like an issue I addressed in my digital story, it is constantly being shown that having the arts and outlets for creative expression in schools, actually improves student's academic achievement. I feel that it is essential that we explore that idea further, and like Mr. Robinson said, think about the amazingly unpredictable and differnt future that children being educated today will face. Though it seems like a daunting task to re-evaluate the trusted and age old system of education, it does not seem possible to ignore the fact, like the depreciation of the value of a college diploma, that education is changing. I believe it is our job as future educators, and even parents, to explore the possibilites of alternative ways of learning and teaching.
3 comments:
Initia, great point about how having the arts or other creative expressions in a school generally improves students' academic achievement. But, how many of our low-performing students actually take these classes or are in school districts that have enough funding for these classes? I think that if we are moving toward more creativity in schools, we seriously need to examine a way to incorporate it into the core classes, as well(for example, kids creating raps or songs to help them learn complex issues). During my student-teaching, I allowed my class to make a CD (from the cover, lyric sheet, to the sound track, etc.) Of course, beforehand I aligned the lesson to the GPS (actually it was the QCCs). The kids enjoyed it, but they first had to understand the material enough to do the project. So, creativity isn't just allowing the kids to be on cloud 9 and just do what "feels" right, but they must accomplish some set goal/objective in the end. The creative part is allowing the kids to have several ways of getting to the same (or near same) result.
Initia I really enjoyed reading you blog post. I liked the video as well when I watched it. He had so many good point about how education has been unfair because student don't all learn the same ways. i hope we can make a difference in education.
I watched the video as well and thought that what he had to say was very valid in fact many times think that creativity is as important as literacy just because we throw crativity out the window and that is not fair to the people that are just natuarlly creative people. As to the point about what you with said about shying away from music. I think that its ridiculous that we teach people to shy away from music when our most worshiped people in this country are rockstars even though it has become incoporated. We look to musicians to pick us up when we are down.
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