Philosophy
After delivering two of the most popular TEDTalk presentations to date (here and here), the always-engaging Sir Ken Robinson is back to provide a fascinating analysis of the roots of the current educational crisis.
The educational system of the 21st century, he argues, is based on an 18th century model based on the intellectual culture of the Enlightenment and the economic circumstances of the industrial revolution. As such, schools are based on a factory line model that fosters uniformity and shuns creativity and originality (I would personally blame that on the industrialist model, not on the Enlightenment, but you get the point).
Could this drive toward standardization and social conformity help to partially explain the growing incidence of children being medicated against attention deficit disorder? Are the children really the problem, or is the problem perhaps to be found in the historical and sociological filters through which we develop our expectations of them?
And as usual, I'm also including the complete talk, along with the subsequent Q&A for those of you who may be interested:
Check out more of these awesome RSA Animate presentations.
.
- Hans Rosling - The Magic Washing Machine
I don't know about you, but when Hans Rosling speaks, I listen. It's like this adorable man is incapable of being uninteresting :) In this TEDTalk presentation, he argues that the greatest invention of the industrial revolution is the washing...
- David Brooks - The Social Animal
Our mastery over the physical world over the past few centuries has been based on our newly acquired ability to understand the structural intricacies of that world. Understanding that world has required that we make certain reductive assumptions about...
- Tim Jackson - An Economic Reality Check
As you may have noticed, we are living in an increasingly consumerist world, and while certain quantifiable criteria of economic progress have become more prevalent than in any other time in history, and (as Matthew Taylor recently argued in his talk...
- Matthew Taylor - 21st Century Enlightenment
While demonstrating and overcoming the intellectual and practical shortcomings of dogma, tradition, authority and oppression prevalent in the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment brought about a fantastic intellectual, social and political revolution, as well...
- Free To Choose - The Power Of The Market
The roots of the idea of a free market can be traced back to the Scottish Enlightenment, but perhaps no scholar has done more to promulgate the Utopian dream of a free capitalistic society than the late and influential 20th century economist from the...
Philosophy
Sir Ken Robinson - Changing Education Paradigms
After delivering two of the most popular TEDTalk presentations to date (here and here), the always-engaging Sir Ken Robinson is back to provide a fascinating analysis of the roots of the current educational crisis.The educational system of the 21st century, he argues, is based on an 18th century model based on the intellectual culture of the Enlightenment and the economic circumstances of the industrial revolution. As such, schools are based on a factory line model that fosters uniformity and shuns creativity and originality (I would personally blame that on the industrialist model, not on the Enlightenment, but you get the point).
Could this drive toward standardization and social conformity help to partially explain the growing incidence of children being medicated against attention deficit disorder? Are the children really the problem, or is the problem perhaps to be found in the historical and sociological filters through which we develop our expectations of them?
And as usual, I'm also including the complete talk, along with the subsequent Q&A for those of you who may be interested:
Check out more of these awesome RSA Animate presentations.
.
- Hans Rosling - The Magic Washing Machine
I don't know about you, but when Hans Rosling speaks, I listen. It's like this adorable man is incapable of being uninteresting :) In this TEDTalk presentation, he argues that the greatest invention of the industrial revolution is the washing...
- David Brooks - The Social Animal
Our mastery over the physical world over the past few centuries has been based on our newly acquired ability to understand the structural intricacies of that world. Understanding that world has required that we make certain reductive assumptions about...
- Tim Jackson - An Economic Reality Check
As you may have noticed, we are living in an increasingly consumerist world, and while certain quantifiable criteria of economic progress have become more prevalent than in any other time in history, and (as Matthew Taylor recently argued in his talk...
- Matthew Taylor - 21st Century Enlightenment
While demonstrating and overcoming the intellectual and practical shortcomings of dogma, tradition, authority and oppression prevalent in the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment brought about a fantastic intellectual, social and political revolution, as well...
- Free To Choose - The Power Of The Market
The roots of the idea of a free market can be traced back to the Scottish Enlightenment, but perhaps no scholar has done more to promulgate the Utopian dream of a free capitalistic society than the late and influential 20th century economist from the...