Ken Robinson video - Brave New World

In the video, Robinson talked about how education is like an assembly line in present time. Children are grouped in grade levels by age, and are all given the same tedious, boring information. Every year we are paired with the same peers. This is not a great way to teach kids because some younger kids are better in a certain area of knowledge than some older kids, and vice versa. But before I go on about that I want to show how this education style relates to Brave New World. In the book, the world has developed into a factory. Children are created through test tubes and conditioned to fit their jobs and social class. They are brought up in batches until they are ready for work, just like in our world. I also see a connection between ADHD fighting drugs in our world and soma. Drugs that shut down ADHD are just making the person effected sit down and be like everyone else. Many people that had or have ADHD have gone on to do great things such as Michael Phelps. Giving them drugs is just shutting them up as well as their potential. Soma does the same thing in the Brave new World society. Lenina tells Bernard he should "take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You'd forget all about them." This just make me think of ADHD because kids with ADHD have loads of potential. I would say that it is even an advantage to have ADHD. Bottom line is that the school system is becoming more robotic as time goes on. There is less divergent thinking as you grow up in the education system. The government in Brave New World wants their people's thinking to be convergent, just like them our thinking becomes convergent as we grow up. This is a problem and I think the school system should change to help students become better divergent thinkers. I appreciate our English class because it lets us dive into theories about the books and videos we watch and read, so that we can better understand them and be more divergent in our thinking.