As a teacher candidate I enjoyed the perceptions of Ken Robinson, David Orr and Ken Osborne and understand the value of coming to terms with a belief on schooling and education as we will be the front line. We will be the disseminators of knowledge in the capacity of educators, teachers and facilitators for the greater good of our community, which requires an awareness of what we are really doing and what we are getting into.
I agree with David Orr that it is easy to see us as the pinnacle of human achievement when looking at the specifics of our modern, technological and developed world when one does not take into consideration the bigger picture around us. Each of our feats has come with dire consequences that he explains in his 6 myths. I see David’s myths as being derived from the consequences of developing people that have a mastery of a single subject without the development of either the person themselves or understanding of that subject across its environment (curriculum). This smaller picture has allowed us to be too close to the subject and its goals that we have forgotten our responsibility to society as a whole. In the beginning of the article David summarizes his feeling nicely when he talks about the loss of values, human beings, consciousness, questions, and conscience over acquisition of theories, concepts, abstraction, answers, ideology and efficiency.
I liked it when Ken Robinson said that intelligence is diverse, dynamic and distinct and that a lot of our talent is squandered due to the imposition of mandated beliefs in a universal (globally) education system. I enjoyed his view on that there is more to education than a useful, practical and efficient way of thinking and that people should not allow the system to strip our minds in search for a particular commodity-attainment of success. One thing I strongly agree with is Ken Robinson’s belief in the room needed to breathe for individuals that allow for true thought which is fraught with mistakes. We must be allowed to err and make mistakes regularly, but this goes against the idea of success; it goes against our systems of grades (pass/fail). We are being educated out of it as we are our creativity. After spending many years in Asia I now have seen many different systems that exist and understand better the effect of a process of education on a student. I do believe that there is strong correlation between a process (culture) that embraces mistakes and their willingness to be creative.
As a summary I would like to extend a notion as described by Ken Osborne. As educators we must ensure a balance and alignment between schooling and education and to ensure that competing agendas do not interfere with our contributions as educators to society. The process of (life-long) learning and self-development must be embraced both in and out of the classroom and that schools are merely tools; places that allow for sequential development throughout and across a curriculum due to its hierarchical framework.
