Among All Living Breathing Americans, One Out of Four (26%) is a Student.

[NYC_SKP]

Based on a US Population Total of 311,000,000.

64,000,000, or One of Five Americans, are K12 students (public and private)

Another 17,500,000 are post-secondary students.

That's a total of 81,000,000. Add to that the number of teachers, support staff, admins, and others involved in the education world and you approach one in three working Americans.

:wow:

So, I cannot for the life of me figure out why education takes such a back seat to every damned other thing to the average American, almost like it's a nuisance, a pest.

I'm posting this topic in General Discussion instead of Education because I think it's too important to be left to just educators, if that makes sense.

I never get tired of Ken Robinson's "Changing American Paradigms"

And this isn't new, but many may not have seen the RSA Animate Version of this TED Talk.

I hope you enjoy it... Would love to hear your thoughts...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U





:patriot:

[sabrina 1]

1. It is hard to understand why education is viewed as a

business, how that ever was allowed to happen. NCLB, eg, was written by Businessmen, with virtually no in-put from educators. And it shows, it's obvious that no one who knows or cares about how children learn had anything to do with the creation of that travesty.

The success of a nation depends so much on its system of education. Nations without a focus on that fact tend to be third world countries.

We have the money to have the best system in the world, but that money currently is going mostly to private businesses who are taking advantage of an educational system designed by and for Big Business.

I have to leave right now, but will definitely watch the TED talk later.

[NYC_SKP]

2. The sense of community responsibility and collective interest in our society has eroded...

Where I first attended school, in the country in a one school district, everyone cared about every child, and the parents (and businesses) were involved in everything.

Over the past few generations, everyone has build walls and barriers, we've become specialists and left education to departments of education and school boards and staff.

"It's not my job" is, I suspect, what's on most people's minds.

Yet, arguably, nothing can be a more powerful agent for permanent change than how we educate our youth.

It boggles the mind.

:patriot:

[sabrina 1]

3. I had time to watch the video before leaving. Wow, that is well

worth watching. I could not agree MORE with his conclusions regarding how children's intellectual capabilities are actually STIFLED by the 'education' system, and especially by standardized testing. Which should be abolished as far as I am concerned. And his point about separating children by age. So correct.

Brilliant, we are going in exactly the wrong direction regarding education but so much money is invested now in the current system that it will be a long, long time and many lost generations, before the 'enlightenment' he speaks about ever happens. And how can it happen when everything we are doing is preventing it? A vicious cycle.

Children start out loving to learn. I so agree with him on the medication of children also. As a teacher I am happy to say I have never agreed to sign for a child, (starting at four years old btw) up for any kind of medications no matter what their doctor advises.

Great video, thank you for posting it.

[FarCenter]

4. He has the origins of the mess wrong, and schools should focus on skills needed for learning

First, up until around 1875, there wasn't very much in anything other than basic grammar school. Secondary education was undertaken by a very small number of pupils, for example in the English "public schools" (which were actually private schools). Family money and status were the usual criteria for entrance. University student populations were even smaller, and focused on turning out professionals like clergymen, doctors, etc. Their other function was to provide sort of a fininshing school experience for young gentlemen, who could network with their peers and whose credentials in society were enhanced by having attended the right Univerisity or College. The four years spent on sport and social activities while getting a liberal arts education were often followed by a year of travel before settling down to some position in the family business, politics, a profession, etc.

The notion that a college education had vocational utility, other than for specific professionals, came later. A college education was a mark that your family had arrived socially and economically and that you could spend 4-5 years and a lot of money before needing to go to work.

After 1875 the percentage of young men attending secondary education swelled greatly, particularly in Germany where more education was useful for an expanding corp of officers. I think that the demands of the military for more educated noncom and low-level officers was as great an impetus for the growth of schools as the need of industry for more educated supervisory and mangerial personnel. In any case, college was not seen as essential to becoming a successful businessman, and most farmers and workers were educated by apprenticeships and on-the-job training.

Perhaps because Robinson is an academic, he places more importance on the academic role of schools and universities. Indeed, one of the functions of the universities was to train the next generation of teachers and professors, but this was not the major role. The research university, which undertakes large programs of discovery, especially in sciences and engineering, is also a more recent invention growing out of the land-grant university system.

At present it is true that we don't know what education will actually be required in the 21st century. However, we do have an unprecedented access to information via the internet and digial publishing and interaction of all sorts. This access will provide a great advantage to the person who actively pursues his own education throughout life.

Therefore, schools and universities should formulate their curricula with two goals in mind:
1. develop the student's skills and abilities to educate him or herself throughout life, and
2. acquire a basic set of information and practical experience to fit into a starting job.

Education is not something that you experience and complete by a given age.

[Quantess]

5. Great video clip.

Love the illustrations.