Mr. Robinson is a very talented speaker he managed to get his points across while still remaining enthusiastic and humorous. One of the first things he said was that the children that are just being born will retire in 2067! How do we know what to teach them? Why should school systems limit themselves to reading, writing, and science when there is so much more out there to learn. We as educators should be preparing the students for anything that might come there way. He joked and said that we only educate the students from the waist up and focus on the brain especially on one side. According to Mr. Robinson creativity is any new creation that has some kind of value. Unfortunately being creative isn't valued as it should be in the public education system. He said that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it or get educated out of it. He also stated that there are many brilliant and creative people out there that think they aren't because everything they were good at in school wasn't valued. That is such a shame, imagine the things that they could have created or imagined if they had had the support and encouragement.
Another point that stood out to me in the speech was that young kids aren't afraid to take a chance and aren't afraid to be wrong. I remember when I was little always asking questions and being curious about everything. The thought of being wrong never deterred me from anything. But, by the time I began middle school I became anxious about tests and about making mistakes. I believe this was from the pressure from my parents and teachers to do well on tests. I began to lose sight of the things that I found interesting. Mr. Robinson stated that, "If you're not prepared to be wrong then you will not come up with anything original." I couldn't agree with him more. I hope that when I begin my teaching career I can help kids discover their talents and creative abilities.
I remember feeling the same way as a younger student. We used to be able to do all sorts of silly things and think they were great. Think of all the little kids who proudly bring home their macaroni barely glued to a piece of paper. They have the ability to only see things from their perspective and have not yet had the influences of the world to block that self-confidence. They are willing to jump into everything head first with no worries when it comes to learning. It isn’t until they are older and have lost that do-no-wrong attitude that they start to doubt themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of not being afraid to be wrong is one that I believe plagues us as educators as well. I had a history professor tell me today that she thinks to be a good teacher you cannot be afraid to make mistakes and that you have to try new things all the time. “Sometimes you have to try a new book and see if it will flop big, or you have to show a new video to realize it is a million times better than the one you showed last semester.” I agree with her. Sometimes it can be really intimidating to try to fix something that doesn’t necessarily appear to be broken, but if we do not continue to change with our student we will be doing them a complete injustice.
I totally agree with your post it is so imperative that we not only teach our students but we must also give them the chance to learn for themselves. We as their, "educational guides" if you will, must allow our students to explore, to make predictions, to make mistakes, and we must allow them to fall down and get bacl up again. If we constantly tell them not to fail we are only setting them up for failure. Creativity in our classrooms is not something that can be overlooked.
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