First off, I once again had to use the technique that we used in class of watching the video twice in order to be able to fully grasp what was going on. The drawing aspect of the video is very interesting, and helpful in a way, but it can also be very distracting. One reason I enjoyed the drawing throughout the video was that it made what Mr. Robinson was trying to say easier to understand. Some of the terms he used I had never heard before, but seeing the drawing helped me to understand his arguments.
The arguments posed in Mr. Robinson’s video are eye-opening as well as alarming. He points out many of the flaws into today’s educational system that most people are oblivious to. One of the things that Mr. Robinson alludes to that I found most interesting was the surprisingly high rate at which young children are being drugged across the nation for “disorders” such as ADHD. Studies done by the American Psychiatric Association show that as of 2007, 5.4 million children from the ages of 4 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD. That’s roughly 10% of our children. Equally as alarming, the percentage of children with a parent-reported ADHD diagnosis increased by 22% from 2003 to 2007. This statistic alone goes hand in hand with Mr. Robinson’s claim that ADHD is not an epidemic, but merely a sort of “medical fashion.” I also thought it quite interesting that the map drawn in the video which shows the rise of ADHD diagnosis increases towards the eastern seaboard was completely accurate. Why this is true, I have no idea, but it’s rather peculiar. Something I also found was that boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that boys are more easily distracted than girls to begin with.
I also liked Mr. Robinson’s explanation of the reasons why countries are trying to reform public education. I never really have given any thought to the reasons behind educational reform. He said that there are two reasons for it: cultural and economic. He brings up a good point when he says that countries are trying to figure out how to educate their children in a cultural manner, all the while trying to keep up with globalization. Every country has their own traditions intertwined with public education. Each country you go to probably does things a little different. I cannot agree more with the fact that they are doing things to try and meet the future with the techniques of the past. Times have changed and kids don’t learn the same as they did in the 16th century. In order for kids to learn in a time of changing economies and technologies, the learning structure has to change as well. Techniques that have been effective in teaching students for so long are losing their appeal to students. The same things that have worked for the past 200 years aren’t going to work forever. Things such as grouping kids by age rather than academic ability, or even small things that are out dated such as teaching an entire class with a text book and a chalk board.
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