Education

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Watching this video from class was a unique experience for me. Ken Robinson questioned and proposed that we defy the traditional education system that has been set up in the modern world so that it is adapted to a modern society. We no longer live in the Industrial Age, when public education for everyone was just being established. In order to reform the educational system, I think that Ken Robinson meant to say that the world has changed since then, so we must change with it instead of staying with the old system. There are a lot of distractions in this world that make students unable to focus, and yet if this happens, we are punished. As standardized testing quantities increase, so do the number of people prescribed with ADHD.

What this shows me in relation to imagination as a way of knowing is that maybe knowledge is emphasized more. In school, we learn about facts: enthalpy changes, trigonometry, American history, and so much more. But for all we know, it might all be wrong. Revolutionary ideas such as the fact that there might be more stuff inside of the atom change our whole knowledge system. And if you ask what the source of these great ideas is, it is almost always the same: imagination.

So here is how I see the educational system that I experience everyday: pre-existing knowledge that was conjured in the minds of scholars is repeatedly taught to me. However, my ability to think off of us through my imagination is hardly required as a tool. Why do I need to figure out the reason for why this equation is true when people have done it for me already? What if it's wrong? No one really cares though, because most people don't doubt knowledge that is agreed upon.

The problem is that I simply don't know an easy and possible way to change the education system. I'm not a powerful person or a genius like Einstein whose words may actually be enough to bring this change. Still, I am unsure if even these kinds of people would be able to think of a way to change a system that has been used for centuries. Even if we look past the Industrial Age, education has mostly been in the form of learning more about knowledge to expand this, rather than using imagination as a tool to do the same tasks in a more independent way. People like Ken Robinson have identified the source of the issue, but I wonder if anyone has a solution.