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How to Escape Education's Death Valley. Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. Ted Talk. Web. Apr. 2013.

Sir Ken Robinson discusses the state of education in America. He describes it as a mechanized system, when it should be a humanistic system. Often times, schools stifle creativity and expression in both the students and the teachers. The teachers are forced to use a standardized curriculum that leaves no space for student exploration or curiosity. He compares the problems with America's education system to Death Valley in California. Death Valley is not dead, it is dormant. Under the proper conditions, life can flourish.

Sir Ken Robinson is an incredible human being that I have admired for a few years now. He truly understands how to fix our educational system. Towards the end of the Ted Talk, he talks about Finland's educational system, which is consistently ranked one of the best in the world. They have their problems as well, but overall the system is excellent. I believe that can and should be used as a model for each state.

1. He briefly mentions that change should occur in each school and not from a district or government standpoint. How can this happen? What would it look like? How would it be different than it is now?
2. Would the American people be open to the idea of adapting an education model like Finland?
3. Hypothetically, if our system were to stay the same but the teachers were to change, how can we work around the rigid standardized curriculums?



The Key to Success? Grit. Perf. Angela Lee Duckworth. Ted Talk. Apr. 2013. Web.

Angela Lee Duckworth reveals the single element that she believes would allow any student to succeed in school regardless of IQ or GPA. After teaching for several years, she left to become a psychologist. She studied learners in a variety of settings and set out to answer the question "who is successful here and why?" She found that grit was the determining factor in all different settings that she studied. In Chicago schools, students with more grit and desire to learn were more likely to graduate. Interestingly, she found that grit is often unrelated, or even inversely related to "talent."

I absolutely agree with what Angela Duckworth says in this video, however it seems rather obvious. I wish she had presented evidence or data that showed her "grit survey" or any form of the information that she gathered while studying grit in the field. I was intrigued by a question that she asked the audience; how do we get our kids grittier? What inspires a student to push themselves and persevere through difficult times? This is where more data would be extremely beneficial.

1. How did the results about grit differ in different settings?
2. Did the results differ for different age groups?
3. Did Duckworth discover how different age groups were inspired to persevere and have grit?