In deze TED-talk van begin 2010 vervolgt Ken Robinson het verhaal dat hij vier jaar eerder vertelde. Opnieuw deelt hij boeiende inzichten over talent, intelligentie, creativiteit en hoe onderwijs zich tot deze zaken moet verhouden.

“Education, in a way, dislocates very many people from their natural talents. And human resources are like natural resources; they’re often buried deep. You have to go looking for them. They’re not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves. And you might imagine education would be the way that happens. But too often, it’s not.”

Ontwikkeling is onvoorspelbaar

Een belangrijk punt is dat we menselijke ontwikkeling zien als een lineair proces. Ten onrechte, zegt Robinson:

“Life is not linear, it’s organic. We create our lives symbiotically as we explore our talents in relation to the circumstances they help to create for us. But you know, we have become obsessed with this linear narrative. And probably the pinnacle for education is getting into college. I think we are obsessed with getting people to college, certain sorts of college. I don’t mean you shouldn’t go to college, but not everybody needs to go, and not everybody needs to go now.”

We vergeten dat onze samenlevingen draaien op een verscheidenheid aan talenten. Gestandaardiseerd onderwijs is niet voor iedereen het beste. Dit brengt Robinson tot zijn belangrijkste conclusie:

“We have to [move away] from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity and batching people. We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it’s an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development; all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”

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