Throughout primary and elementary school its no secret that art and music were my favourite subjects. They were often used a "treats" for good behaviour, given to us on a Friday afternoon.
Why? Because in the world of Education old habits die hard. Math and Science are still viewed as the most important subjects. I can see where this point of view comes from but isn't it slightly stone age-ish? Does the world really need that many engineers? Nah! Don't get me wrong Math and Science are VERY important but why isn't Art, Music and Drama. What a boring world we would have without music, colourful art and movies!
So what is Ken saying about all this? He thinks creativity should be fostered in the school system and every student has something special to offer. You really can't argue with that. I enjoyed the part of his speech about the little boy who was playing the wise man (the one who brought frankincense) in the Christmas school play. When presenting the gift he confidently said "Frank sent this". Like Ken, I admire the fact that children are not afraid to be wrong. It reminds me of a story a former primary teacher told me. One chilly day the teacher asked a little girl in her class to close the classroom door because she did not want to let the draft in. Over the next few days this little girl was absent. The worried teacher called the little girls mother and asked why she had been missing school. The child's mother says her daughter had been saying she was sick when really she knew there was some deeper rooted issue. The teacher then asked to speak to the child directly to try to understand what the problem was. When she asked the little girl what was wrong she told her she was scared of the Giraffe in the hallway. Both the mother and teacher were more confused then ever. After a few moments the teacher suddenly understood. She had told the girl to close the classroom door so the "draft" does not get in, due to her Newfoundland accent it sounded like "Giraffe"! Anyway my point is why would anyone want to take away this wonderful trait children have? They are brave little beings, not yet corrupted by others opinions. Not to mention they are very entertaining.
Now, I must talk about math! I'm going off on a tangent here (pun intended). The question is what does Ken Robinson's speech mean to you with regards to teaching math? First and foremost math needs to be taught in an interesting way. I'm not exactly sure how I would go about doing that but that's why I took this course...right? I think it should be taught in a way where the student discovers and learns with minimum direction. It needs to be hands on, interactive and social. Math should be taught to foster creativity and what better way to do so then to let students explore it using their natural curiosity.
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