In this video Sir Ken Robinson(2006) points to the hierarchy of languages and literacies in education. He argues that creativity should be emphasized in schools in the same way as reading, writing and math. This argument raises another accepted division in education that I think has become a barrier for learning: The division of disciplines- even in the field of early childhood where we separate art from dramatic play or blocks- creates an artificial division of thought and being that limits our experiences of the world. Sir Ken Robinson says “we think about the world in all the ways we experience it” (t. 13:05):
The English version of this text is available on Google books (Saint-Exupéry, 1943, p.1-2): http://books.google.ca/books?id=-Hkez1E8jJoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+little+prince&hl=en&ei=9G3hTIqnMoiWsgOLnIi8Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Sir Ken Robinson speaks about how the depth of education is measured by academic success, despite the evidence of the world we live in, where success exists in all shapes and sizes. He challenges the way this focus on academic success seems to create a division between mind and body. David Jardine (2002, p.6) takes this much further using ecology theory:
"Ecology tells us that there is no center or foundation to this
web of living interconnections, just small, lateral, interlacing
relations of this to this to this, splayed in moving patterns of
kinship and kind (wonderful terms for pedagogy to consider)."
Through this perspective Jardine disrupts the dominant ideas created by the scientific discourse that suggest we can isolate materials, behaviours and concepts to analyse and perfect them. This reduction and simplification serves some purpose for understanding objects, people and ideas in isolation, but it also reminds us that nothing exists in isolation. Why is education so often set up as an isolated discipline when “our lives and the life of the Earth involv[e] a vast, vibrant, generative, ambiguous, multivocal, interweaving network of living interconnections?” (p.6).
De Saint-Exupéry, A. (1943). Le Petit Prince. New York: Harcourt, Inc. Retrieved from http://books.google.ca/books?id=i5yLUd056GoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=petit+prince&ei=jobhTK-QN5_wkwSqpOXICA&client=firefox-a&cd=2#v=onepage&q&f=false
Jardine, D. (2002). Speaking with a Boneless Tongue. Bragg Creek: Makyo Press. Retrieved from http://people.exeter.ac.uk/PErnest/pome16/docs/jardine.pdf
Rosinson, K. (Speaker). (2006). Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity [online video]. New York: Ted Conference LLC. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Thank you for bringing the video Sir Ken Robinson’s talk (2006). His talk made me think about a human intelligences as well as hierarchies in education field. Emphasizing the importance of creativity, he also reminded me of Albert Einstein’s famous quote "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Creativity and imagination are great human intelligences. Our education field which focuses on academic success today has weakened those intelligences. This makes me wonder again and again the fundamental question “what is education?”
ReplyDeleteSir Ken Robinson used the example of Gillian Lynne’s life as a dancer. As a young child, she could not be still. She needed to move her body to think. This illustration links me to Lucy’s point “another accepted division in education that has become a barrier for learning: The division of disciplines- even in the field of early childhood where we separate art from dramatic play or blocks- creates an artificial division of thought and being that limits our experiences of the world.” Lynne’s intelligence would not be grown if she was put in the place to learn things separately. This point brought me to wonder how we educators look at child’s learning, experiences, and skills as a whole. We strive to set up learning environment for children with “learning goals” that we think or expect what children learn FROM it.
I see that children are really learning more than we can imagine or estimate. Their whole bodies are sense of organs. From a moment to a moment, a child is working and learning with the whole environment. I wonder if we need to separate art table, dramatic play, block area and more.