School 2.0 Reflection Tool

Ken Robinson’s speech about creativity in our public education systems is enlightening in the way that he delves into the role of creativity in exposing the rigidity of our public school systems and  in the way that they are designed only towards defining academic success and intelligence within a narrow and out-dated context. Public school systems have historically positioned subjects within a specific hierarchy in which math and science are on top and arts are on the bottom. This is because society has always viewed schools as a place where students get their education in order to get a job, and because certain careers with certain skills are more valued in society than others, students are steered away from certain courses in school such as the arts and literature and as a result, the strengths and interests of students in these areas are devalued. This stands in conflict with Ken Robinson’s position that intelligence—in the way we measure and conceptualize it now (through the three R’s of the education)—is diverse, meaning that we think and react to stimulus in different ways, and dynamic, meaning that creativity comes about through the interaction of different ways of seeing things in a classroom environment. Looking at the way schools have destroyed students’ creativity by channeling their efforts within a narrow set of subjects and instruction methods reveals the importance of the NETS standard of “Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity”; specifically the idea to  “promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.” The speech gets across the basic idea that students learn in different ways and have different strengths. And if teachers do not realize this, some students will already be at a disadvantage in the classroom when we don’t take into account the advantages and strengths they do have. This kind of idea will have a substantial impact on my approach to teaching by promoting the idea of diversity; both in my method of instruction and accommodating to the way students absorb information differently. Moreover, watching the video reiterates the idea that it is often the case that students get engaged with the subject matter not because of the nature of the material per se, but the way the material is presented and the way students can manipulate and approach it in the way that best fits with their learning style.