Sir Ken Robinson and the flaws of the education system [09/01]

"The first day is vital, of course, but it's on the second day that the real work takes place." I whole-heartedly agree with Lindsay Lightner and perhaps that is why I felt even more nervous on Wednesday than I had on Monday.

I had planned on discussing with them the central arguments of Robinson's video and then showing them a few relevant sections. At the start of class, we went round the class where each of them spoke about what they thought constituted creativity and then we watched the relevant section of the video. It was very refreshing to see that very few of them limited creativity to the 'arts' and that they thought that the term could encompass someone's personality, sense of style or even the way one applied themselves to a text.

I gave them a prompt on how they felt education hindered the growth of creativity and when they handed in their informal writing we had a whole series of issues, which I was hard-pressed to fit into the space of the blackboard. The issues ranged from the imperfection of the grading system, the rigidity of codes or guidelines in academic analysis, the problem of replication as a result of these guidelines to standardization of ambition, authoritarianism, conformity and even issues of gender.

Initially, I had planned on splitting them into four groups and organizing a mock debate, but the way the issues of creativity and what they felt to be the inherent problems of the education system threw up a very involved discussion in class, I felt that I had to leave that for another day. While we were on the issue of creativity, I drew their attention to a more recent lecture by Robinson 'Bring on the Learning Revolution' and we incorporated the notion of talent and creativity in our discussion. One student said that he understood explicitly what Robinson means when he talks about how most people feel that they are devoid of talent. This boy was forthright in talking about his talents or the lack of them thereof, but I have a feeling that he was not the only one in the class who felt the same way. Unfortunately, that was not something that could be fit into the purview of our discussion but I am pondering over the advisability of having them talk about this in the discussion board.

What I specially enjoyed while reading their writing, was that even if some of them had a few common points, the way they interpreted or explained the problem was unique. I gave them a check plus or minus for the informal writing that they did in class. There was only one boy who I couldn't evaluate because he walked in really late and though I did mark him present, I have issued a warning at large about late arrivals.

For Friday, I asked them to come prepared with Katz and Gopnik and bring hard copies of the text with them. I intended to have them discuss these essays in relation to the Robinson video.