Sir Ken Robinson, educator extraordinaire ....
Ken Robinson was one of the last speakers at TED2010 today. He was also one of the best, with a powerful yet simple message about change in the education system - valuing each of us for what we are, and not continuing with the "fast food, industrialised" approach we currently have. Each child is unique and should be treated as such.
I thought it might be fun to copy a few tweets which give an idea of his key points (and the great audience response)
@missrogue "Every day our children lay their dreams beneath our feet. We should tread lightly." Sir Ken Robinson #TED
@brainpicker Sir Ken Robinson: "Our education system is impoverishing our spirits as much as fast food is depleting our bodies" #TED
@brainpicker #TED Ken Robinson: It's not about scaling the solution to education, it's about a grassroots model of personalized solutions
@TEDNews: Sir Ken Robinson at #TED: We have built our education systems on the model of fast food. Standardized, not customized to local circumstances
@brainpicker #TED Sir Ken Robinson: People are often good at things they don't care for, but it's about passion. About what moves you.
@mickyates "A watch is a single function device - Ken Robinson's 20 year old daughter - so I don't want one" #TED
@Michaelgnovak: RT @brainpicker: #TED Sir Ken Robinson's book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, is a MUST read http://is.gd/8jUKl
@brainpicker "Human communities depend on a diversity of talent" Ken Robinson #TED #quote
Here's Ken's Huffington Post article from today on a slightly different - but related topic ..."Imagine a World Ending Slavery"
"As part of the work we do in education, my wife Terry and I are committed to promoting a world in which all children live in freedom. This is why we support the Tronie Foundation in its work to ensure that all children live free of exploitation and have the opportunity to laugh, play and go to school. Many estimates agree that there are now about 27 million slaves in the world, more than at the height of institutionalized slavery in the 19th century. These are men, women and children held against their will with the threat of violence and little or no pay to do what ever their owners demand. Often these are what are known as 3D jobs -- dirty difficult and dangerous -- that few people with a free choice would tolerate. It's estimated that roughly half of all slaves are children.
The good news is that there are people and organizations around the world fighting separately and together to end slavery in all of its forms. They range from government agencies to private foundations and the, often heroic, efforts of lone individuals. All are committed to ending practices that degrade all of us. One such organization is the Tronie Foundation.
Rani and Tron are acting from first-hand experience. They found their separate ways to the United States as children. Rani was sold and resold into slavery as a child in India and then into illegal adoption in the USA. Tron was shipwrecked off the coast of Vietnam after his father's desperate attempt to save him from being abducted as a boy soldier. As adults and parents, they are now committed to the global struggle to offer the gift of freedom to every child.
People around the world are ringing in a New Year. This could also be a new time of awakening. For the United States, freedom is a founding principle. Here especially we should support those who do so much to defend it on our behalf and for the children we all say we cherish. Take a look.
http://TronieFoundation.org/donate
"Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. ‘All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education’ (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers for training, education enterprise and culture.For twelve years, he was Professor of Education at the University of Warwick in the UK and is now Professor Emeritus. He has been honored with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design for services to the arts and education; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts."Labels: education, ideas, Ken Robinson, leadership, Social Development, TED








