Sir Ken Robinson

SIR KEN ROBINSON’S TALK

Introduction

He introduces the subject of the conference by saying it is divided into three parts: human creativity, future, and capacity of children for innovation.

Main body

1. To begin with, he explains that creativity is as important as literacy by giving some funny real examples with children. i.e.: A teacher asks a girl: - what are you drawing? and she answers: - It is a picture of God. The teacher replies: - but nobody knows what does he look like. And she murmurs: - they will know in a minute!

He adds that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.

2. He continues the talk by saying that we don´t know what is going to happen in terms of future, since in every public education curriculum Maths and Language are at the top as most important subjects followed by Humanities. Art and Music are at the bottom. He explains that it is like that due to the fact that there was no public education until the XIX century and these two subjects were the most useful ones to work in an industrialized society. Now it seems that the whole purpose of public education is to produce university professors without taking into account all those extraordinary creative people.

3. Finally, he explains the extraordinary capacity children have for innovation illustrating this part with the case of Gillian Lynne, who was a child with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) when nobody knows that this disorder existed. As she failed in school, her mother took her to a doctor who recommended that the girl should attend dance classes. She became a dancer, important choreographer and now she is multimillionaire. Someone gave her a chance to develop her creativity.

Conclusion

He concludes by saying that we have to be conscious of the richness of human capacity and rethink the fundamental principles in which we are educating our children so they can face the future.

Good morning friends, just an exercise to practise "for and against essay". I have to recognize that it has taken me more than an hour to do it. It is a hard work for a Sunday morning. See you on Tuesday.

“SCHOOL PLAYS A MORE IMPORTANT ROLE THAN THE FAMILY IN SHAPING ONE´S PERSONALITY”

Did school play a major role in the development of your personality than did your family?

One point in favour of the role of schools is that it is at school where children first learn to socialise. Since the ratio is twenty-five pupils per class as a minimum, they get used to treat with different kind of characters and personalities and they will learn to solve many kind of situations and troubles between them, what means socializing.

An additional argument in support of school is that young people are exposed to a wide variety of subjects. One typical example of this are extracurricular activities such as visits to public buildings (police station, post office, fire station…), or trips to school farms , public library, theatre, etc.

What is more, the average child spends as many as eight hours a day in school, which is a logical reason to think that school´s influence is enormously important in his life.

On the other hand, most children have a closer relationship with their parents than with their teachers, which imply that a child’s psychological features are formed by following the patterns given by his or her parents.

Moreover, so much of the school day is devoted to competition and preparation for examinations that there is little time left for personality development. In example, in terms of primary education, the weekly time dedicated to subjects such as Maths, Sciences  or Languages is nearly the triple than the one spend in subjects such as Alternative Education, Arts or Citizenship.

Furthermore,  children usually spend five years of their lives at home before they even go to school. That is because they see their parents as the model to follow and of course children rely on them and turn to them any time they need help or support.

To sum up it is true to say that school plays a fundamental role in the formation of an individual personality. However, it is obvious that when we talk about unstructured families, usually the patrons followed are the ones given by the family and only in limited cases children are mature enough to understand that what they are taught at school is the good path to follow.

After several attempts, I gave up at last, and now ‘To the Lighthouse’ sleeps comfortably on my bookshelf.  Can you see it? It is the one on the top right corner. It is in the section of English books, it is not as big as I would like but I am proud of having and English book section. Anyway, two weeks ago, I went to Granada with my family and as always, I like to go to librería metro to have a look and there it was, the book bound to be read by me. I know for sure that it is not as good as ‘To the Lighthouse’, since I rely on Emilio’s opinion about this book, but it has cliff-hanging scenes that urge me to continue reading. It is also certain that I am not learning as much vocabulary as I could by reading the former one. Nevertheless, I am getting new words and enjoying that is my aim. Well, the book concerned is ‘The forgotten garden’  by Kate Morton, I recognise that it sounds just like a romantic novel, the kind of Jane Austen’s, but no lovers around, not at the moment, just an Australian woman looking for her grandmother’s roots in England. The searching is awkward since Nell (the grandmother) was a foundling. The action takes place in three different stages:  1913 when Nell is abandoned, 1975 the living period shared by the two main characters and 2005 when the authentic pursuit is undertaken.

As suggested before, the book is quite simple. Notwithstanding, you can find beautiful descriptions from time to time, as the one that follows:

"...He was a scribble of a man. Frail and fine and stooped from a knot in the centre of his knobbled back. Beige slacks with grease spots clung to the marbles of his knees, twig-like ankles rose stoically from oversized shoes, and tufts of white floss sprouted from various fertile spots on an otherwise smooth scalp. He looked like a character from a children's story. A fairy story."

Hi again, howizitgoin´?

there is a Waterboys´  song roaming my head all this days, and I wonder why since it has nothing to do with Easter, well the thing is it is wonderful and I just want to share it with all of you. Enjoy it!

Good morning everybody, I continue waking up at seven, and following the same routine, the only difference is that I am not going to work; even so, I cannot find time enough for me. It is supposed that I would have spare time to study English but Gods are against me, I´ve got so many things to do… My house is cluttered up with clothes to iron, books to order, toys to pick up, and children to feed, for not to mention my cat, she never leaves me alone. Now she is here, by the keyboard, trying to debar me from writing anything.   I wonder if I will be able to mend all this mess any time.  My husband does his part but it is of little avail since when everything is more or less tidy, mess begins to appear again, I don´t know how. By the way, do you think I´m lying?  Here you´ve got a proof:

This is my son´s bedroom and it reminds me of one of those teenager´s bedrooms that appear in American films, aren’t you gasped?  I was, but it is just a room and I´m not dejected, I just close the door it is the most reasonable thing to do when you´ve got more gripping things in which spend your time.

By no means, I´m going to abandon the C1 adventure, I am relentless, I am not going to give up, and we will see where this “crazy train” is taking me. Meanwhile I´m enjoying this travel a lot.

And speaking of crazy train, here you´ve got a version of this Ozzy Osbourne´s song by Bullet For My Valentine. Let be clearly understood that I don´t like heavy very much.

All aboard
Crazy,but that's how it goesMillions of people living as foesMaybe it's not too lateTo learn how to loveAnd forget how to hate
Mental wounds not healinglife's a bitter shameI'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I've listened to preachersI've listened to foolsI've watched all the dropoutsWho make their own rulesOne person conditioned to rule and controlThe media sells it and you live the role
Mental wounds still screamingDriving me insaneI'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I know that things are going wrong for meYou gotta listen to my wordsYeah
Heirs of a cold warThat's what we've becomeInheriting troubles I'm mentally numbCrazy, I just can not bareI'm living with something that just is't fair
Mental wounds not healingWho and what's to blameI'm going off the rails on a crazy train