Posts Tagged ‘sir ken robinson’

Lately, I have started to use places like e-lance to outsource simple tasks. So far it has worked out great. I can pay someone to do tasks that would give me less return than the other ones I am focused on. You can also use it to outsource projects that you don’t like to do or tasks that you don’t know how to. Outsourcing also helps you gain management skills and learn to more efficient. Two skills that are considered extremely important in today’s world for getting ahead, yet the school system discourages it.

Now I am not saying that kids should be paying, bribing, or bullying someone else to do their homework. I think that a well rounded education is important. Especially at a younger age. making sure the student completes their project by themself teaches them hard work and helps them learn more by making sure they read the material. But what about when they get older. What about students in high school and college?

They are supposed to be learning things to prepare them to be successful in society and in the workplace, yet most of the skills that will really matter aren’t taught in school. Students are taught about comparative advantage, but they never get a chance to put it to the test. Instead they are forced to be average and well rounded.

The problem is that schools focus on theories and the real world focuses on results. The real world only cares that the final product is the best one. No one cares that one person did the research and one person wrote the papers. Especially if that meant it took less time and produced a better product. While this would be seen as cheating in school, this would be considered a great way to work in the real world.

In the work place it’s good to have to have a lot of talents, but it’s even better to have something you are excellent at. Something that you do better than everyone else. This is rarely, encouraged in schools, and even less so if it is not related to one of the major subjects (math, English, or science).

This is even worse in college. These are students who are planning to have more complex, higher paying jobs. So why isn’t a business student actually taught to manage, or a science student taught to outsource their research. This type of experience would surely help more than losing hours of sleep searching through books. Learning to manage and outsource your work would help you the rest of your life. Learning to manipulate the system to write good papers (in the teachers eye) and take good tests is not quite easy to do once you understand the system. It also doesn’t transfer very well into the workplace.

Finally, I leave you with this video by Sir Ken Robinson on Education.

I first found out about TED Talks about a year ago while watching Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen give a presentation about how to present. Since then I have become quite addicted. It is a chance to watch some of the most creative and talented minds tell their stories.

Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson gives an amazing speech on how schools are killing creativy. This speech motivates me every time I watch it. Not only does he make some amazing points, but he keeps you interested the whole way through.

Great Advice

“Wherever everybody else looks, look somewhere else and go do something different.” Words from Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Charles Elachi in his 2008 Serious Play video hosted by TED Talks. This has got to be one of the best pieces advice I have heard in a very long time and something that I wish I would have figured out a long time ago. You can find the full video below.

Funny and creative

I have watched the following video at least three times. Ze Frank, famous for his How To Dance Properly site gives a comical speech about technology and also the various ways which he incorporates it to help others be creative. You can find a lot of his creations at zefrank.com.

Funny And Talented

The Raspyni Brothers performing their comedy and juggling is another video that I have watched several times. They are actually guiness Record holders, but don’t take themselves too serious. Something I should probably do a little more often as well.

Great with Words

Poet and pop-up book creator Rives sums up the 2006 TED Talks.