RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

[DeSwiss]

Run time: 11:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U   Posted on YouTube: October 14, 2010 By YouTube Member: theRSAorg Views on YouTube: 10176   Posted on DU: October 15, 2010 By DU Member: DeSwiss Views on DU: 547

 

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. ~ Albert Einstein

[JDPriestly]

1. Very interesting. But, families can do a lot to encourage

children to discover their true selves.

Let's face it. There are some very boring things that you just have to learn. Math tables for one. Some children will move beyond just the math tables and start to play with numbers. But some children need one-on-one encouragement to follow their play instincts to do that. Parents can encourage children to play with numbers and telling stories and other things that are usually learned very systematically.

In my experience, once children spend a lot of time in groups, they begin to develop the desire to conform and fit in and their individual creativity wanes. That's what I saw happen with my own children.

One of my daughters was very, very, very good at math. She happened to run into a teacher who just gave her a math text and said "Go." My daughter went. She would have been slowed down by a group.

This is an interesting video, but I don't agree with everything this man says.

I do agree that the whole ADHD fad is just that -- a fad. An awful lot of very brilliant people happen to be ADHD.

My generation, thank heavens, did not know about ADHD. We just let our minds blissfully wander. So our grades suffered a bit in elementary and high school because we were didn't measure up to the classroom yardstick. We made up for it in graduate school where creativity and individual research were more important.

[DeSwiss]

2. I agree with your point.....

...about parental involvement, in general principle. However, I think we must also recognize the fact that we are fast moving into a time where many parents are themselves not that far from being functionally illiterate - or are in fact functionally illiterate. I think the variability in this factor depends upon the location of the school and the relative commitment shown toward public education in various areas of the country (I'm looking at you red states!).

Therefore, I would think that any parental involvement today must necessarily be closer to how my relationship was with my own father who had only completed the 8th grade in back in 1935. By the mid-1960s he was in no position to directly assist me in learning algebra, a form of mathematics he didn't understand. So likewise if today's parents have a educational support role to play, then I think that it'll have to be clearly defined.

- And I also agree that we shouldn't be drugging children into submission just because our education system stinks.

[Bullet1987]

3. Nice vid!!