The Tyranny of Common Sense

When should we go to college? Should we even go at all?

"The tyranny of common sense," Sir Ken Robinson uses this phrase in his TED Talks video when talking about education.  He is saying that people tend to conform to certain sets of ideas that have been used within society for a long period of time, and even if they don't make sense to us personally, we still partake in them for whatever reason.

He mentions the idea of linearity: "It starts here and you go through a track and if you do everything right you end up set for the rest of your life."  Robinson is referring the the education "track" that most of us cling to rather than doing what we may personally benefit from.  Preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, and then college and maybe graduate school; it's a repetition millions of people go through without veering away from the distinct set up.




But Robinson does not believe that life should be "linear" like that.  He uses the word "organic" to describe how he thinks life should be; life should be natural rather than every step planned out by society throughout time and then by people following that specific path, thinking that's the only way they can be successful.  Robinson, along with other experts who speak with TED Talks, believe that we should create our life in accordance to our talents and in relation to the circumstances we are faced with.

"I think we are obsessed with getting people to college."
Robinson feels as if not everyone needs to go to college now.  In other words, people shouldn't necessarily go to college right after high school just because everyone else is doing it.

"Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability."
If everyone went to college to get an education that make people able to get certain professional jobs, then our world wouldn't work.  Our society depends on an endless variety of jobs, in which a large sum of don't require a college level education.

Overall, Robinson concludes that we should not be following the standards that our society has set for us.  We need to base our life off our of personal talents and our aspirations or dreams/wants.  It is not necessary for all of us to go to college or even to aim to go to college, unless the job we for sure want requires a specific form of education only available in college.


Database: http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html