I don’t know. But I do think we need to change education paradigms to suit the world we live in. “Changing Paradigms” is one of the best and conservatively sound presentations I’ve seen on the fundamental problem with education as it’s currently being done. This is a presentation given by creativity expert and education reformer Sir Ken Robinson at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), in which he tackles such questions as the lies the current education system tells to students about the meaning of their education and about their future, the way the current educations system numbs students’ natural abilities and stunts their potential rather than furthering it, and what about its very makeup is based on a worldview from 250 years ago that is now direly outdated, as well as how to reform the system so it serves everyone.
For a short, animated version of some of Ken Robinson’s main points about education reform, see here:
For Ken Robinson’s full-length speech at the RSA, see here:
Even though at first Sir Ken Robinson’s presentation may seem a surprising pick for conservative takes on education reform, in fact it upholds the essential conservative values of democracies: all men are born equal, all should have a chance to work hard and best use their abilities to advance through merit, and teachers (in this case) should be held accountable not to the checklist they can hand in at the end of the day, but rather to the success of having taught their students the information and thinking patterns the students need to be successful in their life after education — including the ability to think outside the box in a constructive fashion, in order to succeed in concrete ways.
