I stumbled upon this video while reading Steve Hardy’s blog and was impressed by Sir Ken Robinson’s presentation of the topic. It’s not a new topic and definitely nothing truly profound but Robinson’s presentation made some excellent key points. Especially the point of — “suddenly degrees aren’t worth anything”. He also pointed out the fact that we need to look at intelligence differently. One of the beliefs I gained on my own and have promoted is the fact that marks or grades don’t mean much. They don’t actually measure a person’s abilities and understanding effectively. Some of the most intelligent and innovative people I have met failed courses over and over and over again.
The main problem that we’re left with after Robinson’s talk is the fact that we all have dreams, and those dreams are oriented by wants and needs. These wants and needs revolve around money. Money is unfortunately a major motivation. I’m not saying that we all adhere monetary value to everything, but we are definitely adhering ourselves to a society of consumption that revolves around monetary value, as opposed to having the monetary factor as simply a piece of the fabric of society. Robinson spoke about the fact that we (the education systems) “have mined our minds in the way we strip mine the Earth of a particular commodity”. I believe everything or everyone is connected and the desires that we all have have been influenced by something that is related to money, which we require to fulfill those wants and needs. In order to do that, our education system has been built with these beliefs as the foundation. Why do we go to school? To get a better job. Why do we want a better job? To get better paid. Why do we want to be better paid? To survive. To enjoy life. To raise a family. To buy the things we want. etc.
From my opinion, there is no real solution to the whole problem as it requires radical re-thinking and throughout history, radical thinking has not necessarily worked unless it became a populist belief or there has been some sort of revolution. So the first step to take is to watch Sir Ken Robinson’s talk on creativity, and then the second step will be to decide how you want to live your life. ha! I’m not sounding grim! Well, we have the freedom to choose what paths we take and that’s exactly what we are exercising. We get to decide the future!
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