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Sir Ken's "Changing Education Paradigms" One of the points made by Sir Ken Robinson that struck me the most, was one that came towards the end of his video. His discussion on divergent thinking needless to say, got me thinking! As he had said, it may be surprising to people that the data from the studies isn't backwards, that we would think that we start out with convergent thinking and as we grow older our divergent thinking would progress. The fact that it is the other way around is somewhat discouraging. By twenty five years and older our divergent thinking is said to be at about the two percent level, so if I sat down with a kindergartner they could most definitely think of more ways to use a paperclip than I could. I think in the education world it's easier to fall into that trap of teaching things one way and teaching the same way to all of our students, especially when we know we have that standardized test coming at the end of the year. Teachers often feel under pressure to cram all sorts of information in, most importantly what is going to be tested, leaving little room for the divergent thinking that students and teachers should be using. I believe Sir Ken's talk on the anesthetizing our students with medicine to control their ADHD also impairs their divergent thinking. Certain medicines are supposed to calm children so that they can function in everyday society, especially in the classroom setting, but by medicating them is their creativity and means for divergent thinking being taken away from them? According to research shown in Sir Ken's video, Kentucky is on the high end in terms of children with ADHD, as a future teacher in the state of Kentucky I know that I need to work that much harder to bring students out of that anesthetized state. In some of my math classes throughout my life as a student I have been both encouraged and discouraged in using divergent thinking. I would get extremely frustrated if I arrived at the same answer as the teacher, but it wasn't accepted because it wasn't done their way. I never understood how arriving at the same answer a different way wasn't acceptable. However, there were teachers who were more than happy to accept answers found a different way, as long as the work was shown. I don't see how as teachers we can discourage divergent thinking when we are taught to teach to our student as individuals, individuals who learn in different manners. I also liked how Robinson stated that in education we often meet the future by doing what was done in the past. As the future changes in everyday life we are often forced to change with it, and this should hold especially true in the classroom. We can't expect our students to be engaged in learning straight from lectures and textbooks when they can't relate it to their own lives. Students today get the majority of their information from the internet, whether it be from their home computer or their phone. Students may read from books outside of school, but that could be on the computer, a kindle, or a nook. We have to allow our students to be active in their own learning, and we can't do that by meeting the future with what has been done in the past. Something else said by Robinson that stuck with me was his talk about goals in education. He stated that in education we may succeed, but we often aim too low. Instead, we need to aim high and succeed. I don't think he meant that leaders and others in education aim low purposely, but maybe do so in order to ensure that all of our students succeed. We of course want all of our students to succeed and can have no child left behind, but that doesn't mean that we can't aim high with our goals. I've learned through previous classes that we get what we expect from our students. If we expect much, we will get much. The end of Sir Ken's discussion on the changing paradigms in education pointed out four key words that needed to be included in the future of the education of our students: vitality, creativity, diversity, and customization. As teachers, we must keep these words in minds when planning for the learning of our individual students. It needs to be out with the old and in with the new.