Every country on Earth is reforming education and learning.Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert, gave an enlightening talk about education reform around the world. Education reform is happening less through legislation, and more through an awakening of what creativity, knowledge-gathering, and motivation really are. Education reform is a critical topic as Thomas Friedman (of the NYTimes and ‘The World is Flat’) recently opined that, ‘America’s core competency is is ability to attract, develop and unleash creative talent.‘
Is that competency in danger? Are other countries struggling as well?
Sir Ken Robinson challenges a few key assumptions that stem from the intellectual culture of the  Enlightenment and the economic circumstances of the Industrial Revolution.

• Why do we batch students by age or year? Shouldn’t we batch students by their respective skill in a certain topic?
• Why do we educate students in the same class sizes? Don’t some learn better in large groups, small groups, or even alone?
• Why are all students forced to learn during the same hours? Some students are geared towards morning, afternoon, or evening learning.

The most alarming statistic Sir Ken Robinson provides is from a study on divergent thinking published in Breakpoint and Beyond. Divergent thinking is the ability to think of many answers to a specific problem… this is the first step to problem solving… before we get analytical and make THE BEST decision (this latter process if where business education focuses today). 98% of 1500 kindergartners scored at the genius level for divergent thinking. Their scores went down as they progressed in the education system.
What examples have you seen of successful education reform? What programs are creating vibrant students who are making a difference in the world?






an enlightening talk about education reform around the world