I’ve never heard about Ken Robinson before and this was the first time that I took lecture of him. I think he is quite nice speaker. I really liked his speaking style. Thanks to his jokes and anecdotes, I could laugh and didn’t feel bored during the lecture. Without considering whether his speaking style was good or not, shortly after I saw the topic of the lecture, I thought it will be interesting. He said that the public education ruin children’s creativity, which will be the most important thing in the future. In some parts, I could agree with him, but in some other parts, I couldn’t.
Each person has different talents. People no longer think that only academically talented ones are gifted because intelligence of human beings is diverse, dynamic, and distinct, according to Robinson. I agree with him. For example, Gillian who was talented in dancing but doesn’t have any interest in academic stuffs is totally different from me who feel easier to sit in the classroom rather than to jump and turn. Parents and teachers of Gillian should not force her to study history or science, and those of mine should not force me to learn to dance, because Gillian and I are different. To be succinct, education must be applied differently from person to person. At least, in this aspect, I agree with Ken Robinson.
Korean education system is one of the most monotonous and standardized public education. Korean has high university entrance rate in OECD country. People who don’t know the situation of Korea may think that the phenomenon is positive because they assume that high university entrance means that all the citizens are highly educated. No, it’s not. No matter what talent people have, it is natural to apply to be a college student after they graduate high school. A student who wants to be a designer is sitting in economy class and is wasting time. If she studied what she really wants to study, in this case design, she would have felt happier. Definitely there is a problem in such education system. We have to change it.
But, how? Robinson just provided problem of today’s public education but didn’t suggest specific solution for that problem. So, I saw another Robinson’s TED video, which was made about 4 years later from the first one. He talked about the same topic. He’s lecture was good, his speaking was very fluent, so I was pleasant for 17 minutes. However, there was no development in the content of his speech. He knows exactly what the problem is and necessity of revolution in old education system, but still, he couldn’t answer to the question ‘how?’ Actually, educators are making a lot of effort. We can find the example around us. There are many kinds of high schools such as art high school or Maestro school (students learn professional techniques at school). These are kinds of solutions.
In the past, public education system was stuck in a groove because it was the most effective way to raise students appropriately for the industrialized society. But the society changed and the education system also has to change. The important thing is that teachers today are not teaching by rote as they did in the past. I think people have to know educators’ effort and have to participate actively.
