by Simone on 04/13/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

aside from being entertaining and funny - it's an important view to look at educating the new generation... thanks for sharing...

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by tygergolf on 04/14/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

it's a fabulous talk, of course (i especially enjoy his notion of academic inflation wherein degrees mean less and less at each level), but he doesn't give a specific plan to action. is the answer in schools as it is in business these days--a long tail of highly targeted schools? or is what we call add/adhd really just the nature of the majority of today's kids, meaning we need a complete overhaul of how we teach on a broader scale? there is certainly small-scale evidence of each around the country in many education initiatives, but few seem to have a model that can easily be extended beyond a single school. also, if we take the long-tail idea, at what point should students be put in separate schools for separate talents or learning abilities? and on what basis? are there hard measurements that can be used? can we leave it up to the kids at all? and what if they want to change schools every year or two? there are obviously no easy answers here, but it's clearly something that needs to be discussed in earnest. as sir robinson says in the video, the greatest minds are struggling to determine what the world will be like in 5 years, yet little thought is put into how the education system will look in the years after that when kids who are already born will be going through the routine we've all been through.

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by Laura on 04/19/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

I think he actually does give a pretty clear plan for action – schools need to put as much focus on the arts as they do in standard academics. If adhd is often just a misdiagnosis of a kid with art vs. math talent, or whatever, then it's pretty likely that would show up in their academic achievement record. If teachers from different areas (languages, sciences, movement, visual art) are seeing differing levels of performance from your child, then you probably know pretty quickly what area your child should be focusing in. And it's also really important for schools to make it clear that there are very satisfying careers to be found in all of those areas of focus as well. Most schools try to shoehorn kids onto one of only a few meta job paths (doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, etc). "Graphic designer" wasn't even on my highschool counselor's radar. None of the meta jobs my school touted were arts related.

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