Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk

*May I just state that this TED Talk is quite unfair simply because Sir Ken Robinson has a fantastic accent that makes every word he says sound brilliant. It's difficult to critique a person with an accent. But here goes.

When I heard the word, "education", I started to believe that this speech would be yet another bland attempt at convincing children to stay in school, facilitated by one more successful snob telling us that if we stay in school we could end up "just like them". I, however, soon realized that Robinson's TED Talk isn't about education at all. It is, instead, painting a picture of the nature of children. He hooks listeners in with stories and little jokes, and keeps them in with thoughtful analysis of the children in today's flawed education system. I found it quite interesting when Sir Robinson began to speak about how the education system was designed to be just a naturalization process into college. Is this true? Day after day we are fed the line, "It will look great to colleges!" or perhaps, "Only one year of language is required here, but you will definitely need more to get into college." It seems as if everything we do is tracked for college. Pointless standardized tests, nondescript surveys, that mean basically nothing to us, yet they decide our entire future.

Another thing that Sir Robinson did quite well was appealing to the common man. His story about his friend and the Royal Ballet is inspiring. Everyone has a dream, whether is be to become a professional skiier, or to publish a bestselling novel. All too often, those dreams are set aside, if only because the dreamer didn't know where to begin. The education system today drives me crazy. It forces everyone to learn the exact same thing in the exact same way. Can you tell me what a brilliant dancer and choreographer would ever do with 4 years of science? Hint: Not a lot. To me, what's worse than having a dream that is set aside by other more "necessary" tasks, is a passion unrealized because one was forced to do other things instead. I would love to take sociology. And theater movement. And jewelry. The list goes on forever, however, because I have to take so many other classes, (Spanish, chemistry, Business Tech, etc.) I cannot. I might have the potential to be the best psychologist the world has ever seen, but I will never realize that potential due to the fact that I have to take four years of science instead. Which leads me to another point. I can promise, swear, cross-my-heart, that I will never end up in a profession that involves science. Ever. Science makes me want to attack someone and openly admit to doing it. Science makes me want to do really bad things. Yet, due to the fact that I'm "only a teenager and have no clue what my own preferences are or where my life could take me" I'm still forced to sit through it.

Sir Robinson has brilliant storytelling skills and an interesting perspective on children and education. While he sometimes used language that was unnecessarily large, I found myself quite inspired by this TED Talk.