Education: Agricultural not Industrial

In class today we watched Ken Robinson's "Bring on the Revolution" on TED in which he calls for a revolution in education. He suggests that we need not reform a broken, outmoded system, but rather we must fundamentally change what we do to/with kids. The metaphor Robinson uses is a shift from an industrial model (factory-like, all kids learn the same things at the same age levels, in preparation for 'university') and move to an agricultural model, where leaders in business, technology, and web 2.0 tools work with educators to help create the correct conditions for growth. Teachers become not factory managers, but rather farmers nourishing a variety of crops. Robinson is a compelling, humorous speaker. And he's very convincing. One premise on which his argument rests is that not all students need to go to university, "at least not right away". Here I would agree. the one question I continue to have, however, is university expectations. Whether the student wishes to go immediately to uni, or perhaps later, to some extent I feel as a HS teacher as if we have an obligation to prepare our students to meet certain admission standards. These standards likely need to change, change so we recognize the diversity of talents that our students bring to the classroom that are so often ignored.