I remember first watching this animation in my fourth year of high school and not appreciating what it was Sir Ken Robinson was trying to put across.

Four years on, with all the new experiences and knowledge that I have gained within that time, I understand now what it is that the talk represents and I also now appreciate it to a very high level.

We live in a society that is forever changing. We have to adapt to new things on a daily basis regardless of what age or ethnicity we are. So therefore, why do we not do this in schools? We need to change the way the children are expected to think and as Sir Ken Robinson says; we have to encourage divergent thinking and encourage children to learn and think for themselves in this is ever changing society.

However, this cannot be done if we, as teachers, stick to the normality and traditional methods of teaching that we have been accustomed to since the education system came to light. Sir Ken Robinson states; “they are trying to meet the future by doing what they did in the past”, this quote reiterates the fact that our education system has mainly remained unchanged since schooling became freely and readily available however, we as a society have changed drastically and our education system has not kept up with the change.

Due to this, I feel that this is the reason that Sir Ken Robinson divides children going through the education system into two separate categories; ‘academic’ and ‘non-academic’. I feel that if we were to turn away from our traditional approaches to teaching then we may just be able to abolish these categories and allow all of the children in the education system to get the best they can out of it and have less children deemed, failed by the system.