While watching the TED Talk, It made me open my eyes on the education

system that our nation is creating for kids. Throughout the video, I thought of children in
my mom’s first grade class and realized we are holding kids back from being creating.
This would help kids build into the people that they actually are. Instead, we are forcing
the ideology that students can not be creating and need to think a certain way. In my
mom’s classroom, I have noticed that she allows her kids to think freely and generate
their own ideas and theories based what they think. I have noticed that the kids seem a
lot more happy to learn and stay engaged longer.
In the video, there was one part that I keep thinking of when watching the rest of
the video. This is when Sir Ken Robinson says “Every education system on Earth has
the same hierarchy of subjects”. When I applied this thought to the education that I
received through my time during elementary,middle and high school. School really was
focused around math and english.This made all the other subjects seem not as
important. The hierarchy system is exactly what it sounds like. The most important
subjects would be on top and the other subject would be below. I don’t understand why
our education system doesn’t just have everyone learn everything at an even level. So,
we would break up the day into different portions that would include the arts and dance.
This would help open up the eyes of the kids and help them realize what they like about
each subject. This would help kids feel excited to learn everyday because, they would
find a subject they truly love and pursue that.
As a kid in elementary school, I noticed my love for numbers and learning all
about history. I continued to learn more and more about both subjects and feel in love
with both of them just as much as the other. As soon as I got to college, my parents
influenced me to go into finance instead of history. Their reasoning was that you
wouldn’t find a job in that field, unless I want to be a teacher. So, when Sir Ken
Robinson says “So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school
when you were a kid,things you liked, on the grounds that you would never get a job
doing that.” I have first hand experience from my parents. Even though I love both
subjects a lot, it felt like my parents were pushing me away from a job in history and to
go with finance because it would be safer and more stable of a job.
When seeking out one of the website, one thing that stood out to me while
looking at the American Montessori Society was the each child is valued as a unique
individual. This is special to me because, I have noticed within my mom’s 1st grade
classroom that all kids don’t learn at the same speed or the same way. For example, I
was helping out one of her students with math one day and the child knew how to do
it,but needed to look at it a different way then the rest of class did it. It made me open
my eyes and I realize that he was a more hands on learner so, we grabbed counters
and perceded to do math with those instead of doing mentally. After a couple of minutes
of review, he picked it up and was completing all the problems on the math worksheet.
So, with my mom’s background with education I believe it is very important that we look
at every child differently.
While reading more and more, I realized that it is “Older students enjoy stature as
mentors and role models; younger children feel supported and gain confidence about
the challenges ahead”. This was very odd while first thinking about this, but it makes
sense. Kids like to have a mentor to help them through stuff situations and why not have
the older kids, that have been through their struggles to support them. It makes a tight
community within this system and allows kids to support kids. I have never heard of this
system before, but seems to be very beneficial to everyone.