Sir Ken Robinson

When my students automatically say, “I can’t do it” without even trying or ask “what do I do?”, this makes me feel like they need to learn how to think. This is a bit difficult for me to respond to because I work with such young children. I wonder if this is due to their young age and their want for guidance or is it simply that, they do not know how to think? I tell myself they are learning how to think and make it my priority to try to help them develop this skill. I personally try to teach thinking, especially since commencing this journey, but it does not come with ease. It takes practice and thought. Before I would ask the first thing that popped into my mind. Now I have begun to pause before asking questions, taking a moment to reflect, and then providing inquiry that I hope elicits thinking. Unfortunately, most schools that follow after preschool place children in “the box”.  Rather than teaching how to think, I feel that we teach our children what to think. Allowing creativity would unleash the potential of our students. If there is one thing I took away from Sir Ken Robinson’s talk, it would be that.  We cannot stigmatize those that are creative into thinking that what they do has no value. As Sir Robinson stated, intelligence is wonderfully interactive. Creativity and academics feed off each other. Rather than causing a student to feel poorly that they excel in music instead of math, we should embrace that they excel in music and use that as the forefront of their education. That is their way to think. That is their way of expressing themselves and solving problems.