Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Sir Ken Robinson:Human resources are like natural resources- you have to dig deep.

The latest Sir Ken Robinson's talk on TED argues that not only is there a climate crisis we have to deal with, but there is also a crisis of human resources; as humans, we make very poor use of our talents.

Unlike the recent interviews and posts (bring them on folks) from unschoolers grown up who love what they do, SKR says most people he meets "endure rather than enjoy" what they do. When he meets that person in the minority who loves what he does, he loves what he does "because it speaks to his most authentic self."

"Human resources are like Natural resources-you have to dig deep. They are not just lying on the surface," SKR argues.
"We need a revolution not an evolution but a transformation."

Uhmm. Unschooling anyone?  Unschooling is about challenging the industrialized one size fits all model-challenging by its very nature what is unversally taken for granted-the norm.

SKR has it right when he says that "life is not linear it's organic." And so is learning and education; "We have to reconstitute our abilities."

"It's about passion; what excites our energy, our spirit," he continues.
We need to make the move from an industrialized, manufacturing model based on conformity ....to a model based on principles of agriculture, since human flourishing is an organic process we should be creating conditions under which flourishing it. Personalizing education."

I would like to use another metaphor-that of the hunter/gather model where we hunt for knowledge; where we stalk it, where we are aware of proportion, boundaries,where we take with these natural limits in mind, where we revere the world that we live in and give back what we take. It's more exciting,more of a challenge!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved this talk! His Abe Lincoln quote was awesome as well :)

Unknown said...

ref-the idea of digging deep to find the human resources and that they are not lying around on the surface. I would add that you have to believe that they are there-that they actually exist in the first place. We tend to believe that we can 'make' people a certain way-or that we know what is good for them. Especially those with the good intentions!

Anonymous said...

Interesting talk. We need talented teachers who could maybe start up their own centre or school and offer classes and let the children pick what they want. Oh Wait! Taht's a college or university isn't it? What's wrong with having this type of set up for young children and youth too?

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