In “Changing the Paradigm” Ted Robinson expounded on how the current education system strategies are ineffective and outdated. The ways of education today depends on the education strategies from the past which are not compatible. Previously students had a predetermined schedule of life. They would go to school, work hard, go to college and then get a job. Unfortunately in the economy now, this saying is no longer valid. It is becoming common for people to get a degree and not be able to get a job swiftly, and the children take notice. The children do not want to be involved in school if they cannot reap enough benefits from it as soon as they graduate.  This leads to distractions in and outside of the classroom. When some of these students seemed to be more distracted than others it is considered ADHD. Robinson mentions the idea if ADHD and how it is dealt with.

 Students are being diagnosed with this condition and being treated in a deadening way. The medication that are used to “help” these children turn their focus from the entertainment they prefer to the old basis of learning, is dangerous and ineffective to the learning abilities of these students. Young children who minds are not fully developed and would not be able to sit or focus for a long period of time regardless of whether they are in a school setting or not are given these heavy drugs. Instead of figuring out ways for students to become more engaged in the lessons, they subsequently lose interest and drive to learn in class due to these mind numbing drugs.

Robinson feels the standard way of grouping students judged by their age and not capabilities is not beneficial. In a sensitive setting such as education every child is different. Some have special requirements such as how well they work with others and how many people they can work with and others do not. Robinson does not think they should separate students from a whole but they should collaborate with students who share the same capabilities regardless of age. Personally, grouping children by their age is not completely unsuccessful because children can be influenced by their academically advanced peers to do better. If children, teenagers and adults are mixed, it can be discouraging for the older students to be in the same learning level as a child that is six years younger than them.

 

As I work on my observations in class it is common that some children are more focused than others at times. It is also common to see children not fully understanding certain lessons. The biggest issue that I see in the classrooms are the time schedules. Each day it is required that students go over a number of subjects in a strict time schedule which does not allow the students or the teachers to be able to work together in each subject fully. In what I learned from Robinson is that the education system is conceived in an unnatural state. The children are grouped by one single factor which is age, those who are not able to focus on uninteresting topics to them must be treated and overall individualism is not recognized and used to grouping abilities.