Natural standards

[M.T]

Entertaining and insightful clip into national (natural) standards - doesn't matter if you are a fan of govt policy in this area or not - still pretty good.

Seems relivant for our current situation discuss and share you views.

[Pseudonym]

Hey good topic, MT.

Here's a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert, arguing much the same thing.

[severe]

Excellent videos. Thanks for sharing. I know people who will find these insightful.

[two_phat]

National standards are a joke. They are not beneficial for children, teachers or society. They provide no educational value - they are cheap political tool used to win votes by hiding the real facts and dangers from the public.

On a slightly related note.....this says alot...

listener-500x351 by bwheezy, on Flickr

This is another video from Ken Robinson - one of the most popular TED talks ever.

[M.T]

Great videos and ideas guys! i'm still very new to the whole idea and this has helped me understand it better. It used to be so simple you went to school and you listened to what the teacher had to say and if you one of very few pupils you retained some of the information or went to Uni got a degree and made something for yourself. I was one of slower kids at primary but with alot of attention I caught up to the others and turned out not too bad so if you take away that special attention and increase class sizes how are kids like me supposed to keep up?

Had no idea how much politics can dictate what kind of education you would receive and seems to be getting worse

[severe]

Well MT, it was always known that education is aimed at middle-class white outcomes. The dominant cultural hegemony dictates what success equals, and what fail equals.

Though politics are meant to reflect what we want, we are also part of the outcomes they reinforce.

The best thing a teacher can do is inspire kids to always ask questions, and to never give up searching for the answers. They learn in spite of teachers and parents (though shit teachers or parents certainly shape kids too). Another is to give them self worth, regardless of ability. After all, who wants to be a clone. We all have strengths, we just have to find them.

I don't remember teh lessons from school, but I do remember the teachers who made a difference.

John Key is a hypocrite. He put his kids through private schooling because of smaller class sizes, and now he wants larger ones.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10810207

Can we really tell if a teacher is crap? how? by looking at national standards comparisons? What a joke.

Teachers are the scape goat, while other factors are not spoken about. Like parenting.

[Pseudonym]

two_phat, that video you posted is awesome! Ken Robinson is an amazing speaker. Quite apart from the fact that what he says is interesting and thought-provoking, he's brilliant as a stand-up comedian too.

I followed a related link from your video to another one of his talks, and found this video below. In it, he talks about modern education being like a fast food restaurant - every branch is standardised and the output is processed to the point where it's no longer good food. Go to a Michellin-starred restaurant, and you'll find they take pride in being unique and producing quality.

He also compared teachers to farmers. I wouldn't mind betting that's where the inspiration for M.T's video came from.