Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms – In this dazzling RSA Animate production, Sir Ken Robinson touches on the influence of industrialization on education, the epidemic of ADHD, divergent thinking, and the amazing capacity of children before it is “educated” out of them.
Sir Ken Robinson: How to Escape Education’s Death Valley – In this witty yet poignant talk, Sir Ken Robinson likens the current education system to California’s death valley, and offers us hope of the potential waiting beneath the surface.
Sir Ken Robinson: Schools Kill Creativity – Sir Ken Robinson entertains, challenges and inspires us in this talk about where schools have gone wrong and what might be done about it.
Sugata Mitra: The Child-Driven Education – In this TED talk, Newcastle University professor Sugata Mitra describes his famous “hole in the wall” experiment, which led him to support what he calls “minimally invasive education”. In a nutshell, he gave children in areas of poverty access to a computer and the internet. Then he left them alone and observed. What he discovered is truly amazing, and can be summed up best by his own words: “Children will learn to do what they want to learn to do.”
Check it out…it’s pretty cool.
John Bennett – Why Math Instruction Is Unnecessary – A math teacher who proposes getting rid of higher level math? That’s right. According to John Bennett, 99% of us don’t use higher math in our every day lives. So why should we have to learn it? This video not only explains why middle school and high school math shouldn’t be mandatory, it also offers a suggestion about what to do instead.
Dr. Peter Gray: “School is Prison” – When people ask me why on earth I’m unschooling, I love being able to cite actual research that supports it. Dr. Gray’s talk about why schools don’t work from a very basic biological standpoint is fascinating and informative. It’s kind of a long video, but well worth it!
Class Dismissed: A Documentary by 3 Story Films – Class Dismissed asks the question, “What happens when a family takes their education into their own hands?” This documentary follows a family making the transition from public school to homeschool. Below is the trailer; the movie can be streamed here.
Race to Nowhere: – This documentary takes a hard look at how the current education system affects the well-being of children. The trailer provides a link to rent this movie through YouTube. You can also find it on Amazon.