There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why?
Ken RobinsonRead
When my son, James, was doing homework for school, he would have five or six windows open on his computer, Instant Messenger was flashing continuously, his cell phone was constantly ringing, and he was downloading music and watching the TV over his shoulder. I don’t know if he was doing any homework, but he was running an empire as far as I could see, so I didn’t really care.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the distractions faced by students today while they attempt to focus on their homework.
Ken Robinson humorously describes the chaotic environment in which his son attempts to do homework, filled with distractions from technology and media. He suggests that while it may seem like his son is not focused on his schoolwork, he is actually managing a range of activities that reflect the multitasking nature of modern youth, ultimately implying that this may be a new form of engagement rather than a problem.
In practice
During a seminar on modern education, I shared this quote to illustrate the challenges students face with technology.
There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why?
Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.
Creativity is the greatest gift of human intelligence.
Teaching for creativity aims to encourage self-confidence, independence of mind, and the capacity to think for oneself.
Helping people to connect with their personal creative capacities is the surest way to release the best they have to offer.
Creativity involves putting your imagination to work. In a sense, creativity is applied imagination.
I imagine a school system that recognizes learning is natural, that a love of learning is normal, and that real learning is passionate learning. A school curriculum that values questions above answers...creativity above fact regurgitation...individuality above conformity.. and excellence above standardized performance..... And we must reject all notions of 'reform' that serve up more of the same: more testing, more 'standards', more uniformity, more conformity, more bureaucracy.
I strongly recommend that students with autism get involved in special interest clubs in some of the areas they naturally excel at. Being with people who share your interests makes socializing easier.
In the end, what makes a book valuable is not the paper it's printed on, but the thousands of hours of work by dozens of people who are dedicated to creating the best possible reading experience for you.
We wish to learn all the curious, outlandish ways of all the different countries, so that we can "show off" and astonish people when we get home. We wish to excite the envy of our untraveled friends with our strange foreign fashions which we can't shake off.
I read a lot, I write a lot, and I have conversations with people I think are intelligent and wise.
I first learned that there were black people living in some place called other than the United States in the western hemisphere when I was a very little boy, and my father told me that when he was a boy about my age, he wanted to be an Episcopal priest, because he so admired his priest, a black man from someplace called Haiti.
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