Tara practically beseeched me today to watch this animation of Sir Ken Robinson talking about public education.
She and I talk about education a lot, with each other, and with other people. I tend to say broad simple things like, "The education system will become irrelevant and it's up to us to create a new way that works for us and our kid(s)." And, "Follow his lead (our son's). He knows better than anybody what's best for him." And, "I'm not worried about the schools, we'll probably home school him." I believe in simple solutions to complex issues.
Tara is more a researcher than I. She'll read deep and wide on a subject to find the chorus of voices that both persuade her and say well what she already intuitively believes. After she watched the RSA animated video of Sir Ken's talk, she said, "I don't know there's anything else that needs to be said about public education. I'm sure now that I don't want our kids going through that." That's what I've been saying he (our son) is saying.
This RSA video practices a bit of what Sir Robinson is preaching. it has aesthetic value, it engages our creativity and curiosity (I kept watching to see how the animation would progress as much as for the speech), and it cleverly leaves us hanging wondering what else he said. It's good experience and interface design.
And it points to the simple solution to the complex issue of public education. Bucky Fuller taught to change the environment, rather than trying to change behavior. The paradigm shift, the environment change, that Robinson is pointing toward doesn't like marginal improvements to the factory system. It looks like turning the world into our classroom, encouraging people to follow their own passions and interests, and having education be a continuous diverse process, not a standardized product.
I don't know exactly what that looks like. The point is, no one does.
A few years ago I wrote an essay on Learning Is Not What You Know Now. What we know now is how to create what Seth Godin identified as cogs. We numb what is uncomfortable with medication for individuals and regulation for the system.
What we want is open to us to co-create. Senses wide open, aesthetically, uncomfortably and excitingly fully alive.
P.S. Presentation Zen has good thoughts, and links to the full Sir Ken Robinson talk.
