After delivering two of the most popular TEDTalk presentations to date (here and here), the always-engaging Sir Ken Robinson is back to provide a fascinating analysis of the roots of the current educational crisis.The educational system of the 21st century, he argues, is based on an 18th century model based on the intellectual culture of the Enlightenment and the economic circumstances of the industrial revolution. As such, schools are based on a factory line model that fosters uniformity and shuns creativity and originality (I would personally blame that on the industrialist model, not on the Enlightenment, but you get the point).
Could this drive toward standardization and social conformity help to partially explain the growing incidence of children being medicated against attention deficit disorder? Are the children really the problem, or is the problem perhaps to be found in the historical and sociological filters through which we develop our expectations of them?
And as usual, I'm also including the complete talk, along with the subsequent Q&A for those of you who may be interested: