Saturday, February 21, 2015

Changing the Education Paradigms

We would like to dedicate today's posts to three of our favourite talks, among the many that we have shared in this past year. These presentations touch upon the main reasons we decided to start this blog. The first one by Sir Ken Robinson covers a new vision for education, the second one by Benjamin Zander the transformative power of classical music and the third one by Rita Pierson the need for every child to have a role model, an inspiring teacher that is able to connect with them on a real, human, personal level.

Sir Ken Robinson  is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources in education and in business. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers on these topics, with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been viewed more than 25 million times and seen by an estimated 250 million people in over 150 countries. His 2006 talk is the most viewed in TED’s history.
In this talk from RSA Animate, he lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools' dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. An important, timely talk for parents and teachers.
"Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with gold and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." (W. B. Yeats) And every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. And we should tread softly.
-- Watch "How schools kill creativity" (2006)
-- Watch "Bring on the learning revolution!" (2010)
-- Watch "How to escape education's death valley" (2013)

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