"We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or, rather, we get educated out of it..."
This video mentioned so many ideas about education that I can strongly relate to. On more than one occasion, I have discussed the different types of intelligences and the organization of current school systems with my colleagues. One of the most intriguing parts of this video was the notion of educating children from the waist up, then the head, then one side (mathematical) vs the other (creativity).
Our current education system is predicated on the concept of academic ability - the system began with that concept to deal with increasing industrialism. We are now well past that point, so why are schools still organized that way? Why aren't other subjects taught with as much importance as math and other academics? Why are we using our bodies as a form of transport for the head when there are so many other types of intelligences that we now know about? (Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences)
Intelligence is diverse
Intelligence is dynamic
Intelligence is distinct
The idea of one person seeing a child as hopeless because she was restless, the other seeing her potential through bodily-kinesthetic intelligence was another part of Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk that interested me. She was hugely successful because someone realized her talent was outside the academics of our "regular" school system.
We can use other tactics for teaching math and academics. We can integrate subjects and make them more applicable for the different types of learning. The world is changing, we should change the way that we are teaching subjects, especially academic subjects. I think this video is relevant to our education 3940 class because of the importance of teaching concepts in a number of ways. It is important to be dynamic in our teaching. We should strive for a learning environment that makes children laugh instead of groan.
Our task, as teachers, should be to educate the whole being. Not just from the waist up, and not just for those whose intelligence fits into the academic subjects. We should be able to collaborate with one another and find new ways to teach subjects in a way that children can feel success and their skills can be applied to the real world, not just toward our ideas of what is important.
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