New Title "Ponderings"

I decided to change the title of my bog because the other one was, well, just too pretentious. Although I do seek to find and build a bridge between Fine Art and Digital Art, I have decided that i'm going to try to use my blog to also paint a picture of who I am; on the inside.

Several weeks ago we were assigned to watch a video by Sir Kenneth Robinson at the TED conference of 2006. Sir Ken spoke about how our current education system was designed for the 19th century upon industrial-age values. His talk greatly inspired me for several reasons:1) I'm a teacher; 2) I love learning; 3) I love teaching. Thus, I'm interested in the whole notion of just how we human beings think; and therefore learn.

This is not something recent. It is something that I've always been interested in for the past few decades since my initial Bachelor's Degree in 1983. Watching his talk rekindled something in me that was very deep. Maybe, even a sleep for a few years as the day to day reality of teaching week by week; month by month; year by year ticked by.

If school was just a truly academic thing, without the politics of "who to talk to and who not to talk to" for fear of losing your job; the "well at least you're working" attitude of the administration; the parents who think their child is___"fill in the blank, please"; the media and politicians who thinks its their job to diminish public education at every turn. It's no wonder that things aren't so peachy in academia. People, many people would rather pay hundreds of dollars to watch a live sporting event and to emulate it's heros than to pay an equal amount of money to send their child to school with the best possible set of skills they can possibly give to their child: like reading, writing, math, literature, art, music, etc. Instead they pay even more money to "franchise" their child so the she/he is wearing their heros latest gear, yet won't give them a few dollars for a field trip; but he/she has the best, coolest, most hip and up to date sport-shoes around.

Something is wrong! And it's not just that we're teaching from an outdated model as Sir Ken points out. I know that I'm speaking to the choir here; but what can we possibly do? Yes, our current model of public education is outdated, and broken, to boot. What are we to do? The public thinks that the educational mess we're in is because of us teachers. We're easy to blame, we're on the front lines of this battle. It's harder to look in the mirror and see where change begins. Why do we Americans in general despise teachers? Why? Because we've all had an education and since we think we're educated that gives us the right to judge the people in the field, namely us; the teachers. Everyone has had an educational experience, they think that makes them an expert on education.

Well, I drive a car, does that make me a mechanic? I can watch the shuttle launch from my front porch, does that make me a rocket-scientist? Yet every American has had some kind of educational experience and they think this makes them experts in the field, especially if they can speak and have people follow them; such as politicians.

We need to get the politicians out of the classroom and school-board rooms and put people like Sir Ken in positions to make real change. I have a novel idea: why don't we put the education experts into the classrooms, let them do what they've been prepared to do, and let them alone! Maybe then we would have a model of education that not only worked, but allowed the children to thrive! Maybe!

I've looked into the mirror! I know what and where I need to change; and I'm willing to do so! And I am!
Have you looked into the mirror? Hmm?

But, then I'm just "pondering".


http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/