Sunday, 19 May 2013

"Escaping Education's Death Valley": Brainy Educare's Reflection on a TED Lecture


Sir Ken Robinson, "How to Escape Education's Death Valley"

The video above gives a nice analysis on the current state of education. Although the focus is on the American education system, a lot of the points made can be extended to describe what’s happening around the world, and particularly in Nigeria.

The speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, talks of how education is usually approached in a mechanical way: that standard curriculums are designed, and standardized tests are given; yet students, by their very nature of being human, are far from standard. There is no prototype for “the student” and yet our education systems have not advanced to recognize this nuance.

Robinson notes that there are 3 principles under which life flourishes: 
  • Human beings are naturally different and diverse
  • Curiosity
  •  Human life is inherently creative
Robinson goes on to make the claim that education should be re-designed in such a way that the 3 guiding principles, mentioned above, remain at the root of our approach. It is in this way that we can turn schools from places of simply recycled information to places where genuine learning takes place.

Please share your thoughts on these ideas. Are our schools already taking some of these principles into consideration? If not, how far behind are we in doing so? What steps need to happen to get us on track/keep us on track? We at Brainy Educare take pride in the belief that our programs address these issues at their core. However, our work cannot be done alone; instead we need to open up the conversation so that other education stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, principals) can join us in our mission.

Thank you

- The Brainy Team

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