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.
The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learning, and from that irreverence love may spring.
When a teacher calls a boy by his entire name, it means trouble.
Today we read books 'extensively,' often without sustained focus, and with rare exceptions we read each book only once. We value quantity of reading over quality of reading. We have no choice, if we want to keep up with the broader culture.
I don't think that we are completely dominated by what we have inherited from the past, but it is the case that as far back as you can go - just to Homer, but also to the literature of Rome, the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - what you will find is that women's voices are not taken seriously.
The thought of these vast stacks of books would drive him mad: the more he read, the less he seemed to know — the greater the number of the books he read, the greater the immense uncountable number of those which he could never read would seem to be…. The thought that other books were waiting for him tore at his heart forever.
Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it.
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