I have become a fan of TED Talks. One of the speakers that I feel should be listened to more is Sir Ken Robinson. His books are also thought provoking. The topic.....Finding your Element.
He talks about teaching creativity in school. He is not a fan of the present trend of teaching and testing based on a need to create math and science test takers. I have always believed we should find each child's passion and then encourage that. If they love reading, teachers should encourage reading and writing. If it is music, teachers should encourage music and poetry. Science....encourage exploration and experimentation.
We need our young people to take risks, follow passions and reach beond the known. Adults need to take a risk on the young and not get hung up on assuming we know eveything. We need to allow the children to "fail". I always told my students that getting something wrong is not failure if we learn from it. It is only hard if we give the children the message that they are not good enough. We give them that message in two ways. We get upset when they make mistakes. That is the classic way. The more subtle way, but I think more dangerous, we feel we need to step in and blame someone else for their failure. Some call it helicopter parenting. I also have heard the term lawnmower parenting. I cannot think of anything that harms children more than smoothing the way for them. Life just is not like that.
The truth is, if we listen to children, guide them and be there when they struggle to encourage them to get up and try again, we will develop a strong, well rounded society of people who do not have to spend their young adult lives overcoming their education. They can follow their true passions. We will have creative, passionate Auto Mechanics, Plumbers, Scientists, Lawyers, etc We can get past working at jobs we hate. We will have new ideas, new products and a new chance to move ahead in our society.
It has to start with educating the young. Really educating them. Not just producing test takers.
