ADD and a New Paradigm for Schools: Dr. Ken Robinson

Dr. Ken Robinson talks about a new paradigm for education on this video that is not new to me! As someone who has been trying to change the way my classroom works for the last number of years, I realize the underlying structure of schools needs to change for schools to be modernized. We need to stop teaching subjects as separate entitities, stop teaching students by grade, stop medicating students, stop factory line, stop one-size fits all education, stop education based on age, stop standardization and stop one answer thinking.

Of interest in his presentation is the prevalence of A.D.D. in the U.S. He makes a strong case for A.D.D. being an artificial/fictitious epidemic and a by-product of our education system. Schools are not meeting the needs of our students who are inundated with information from various sources at home and bored at school. He claims these kids are being anaesthesized at school. Intriguing at the least!

He talks about a study of divergent thinking. Kindergarten students tested for divergent thinking scored 98% for genius level at divergent thinking. This is documented in the book "Break Point and Beyond". In this longitudinal study when the kids were retested their divergent thinking ability decreases with time. He claims school is the cause of this decline.

I love his idea of valueing collaborative learning in schools. Makes me think I need to give tests in a different way! Watch the video and see what you think.