Gayle Dauterive responding to Sir Ken Robinson - Bring on the Learning Revolution

Such an interesting presentation! One of the first things Robinson says in his talk is that there are two types of people: those who don't enjoy what they do and those who love what they do and who feel that what they do is what they are. For the majority of educators, I would say that it is true that they love what they do because it is who/what they are.

Robinson's major point was that education dislocates many people from their talents because of the fact that it is so linear. Our current education model puts people on a linear track from Kindergarten to college, requiring that students conform to something they may not be cut out for or that may not provide them with the best learning environment. He uses restaurants as an example saying that our educational system is like a fast-food restaurant where everything is standardized when it should be like a Zagat or Michelin restaurant where things are customized to local circumstances. He believes that we need to transform education by customizing learning to the circumstances of the population, by personalizing education to the people who are being taught. We have sold ourselves out, according to Robinson, to a fast-food model of education that is impoverishing our talents, spirits, and energies. Human talent is diverse and we all have different aptitudes, but we expect all students to learn the same things in the same way. We are all passionate about different things, however, we require everyone to learn the same things in the same way.

One question that was posed was: In your school setting, what changes would need to take place in order to realize Robinson's vision of personalized learning. I think the biggest and most difficult change would have to do with the teachers themselves. Making this shift to personalized learning would require teachers to change the way that they currently teach and they way that they think about teaching. It would require a new mindset, a new way of teaching, a restructuring of the classroom, and a "buying in" by the teachers. Many people are afraid of change, especially when it is something as drastic as moving from one way of teaching to another, and I think this would be a challenge in my school.

I think it would also require the school to change its make up, scheduling, and philosophy of education. Schools are typically set up to have 24+ students in a room with one or two teachers who teach all students the same thing at the same time. Yes, many teachers use differentiated instructions in their classrooms, but even this doesn't seem to be enough to accomplish the personalized learning that Robinson talks about.

I think it would also require a "buy in" by the parents and school community. Most parents were taught the same way their children are being taught and moving from this to something else would, I think, be a concern to parents. I have seen a large group of parents come down hard on the school for changes that seemed to be minor to the administration and teachers, so changing the entire system would create quite a stir. All of these things would need to be taken into consideration before deciding to make the change.