Industrial Influences

To contextualise how radical Robert Owen's approach to lifelong learning was for its time, we introduced Ken Robinson's TED talk 'Changing Education Paradigms'. In this talk from RSA Animate, Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools' dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. This shows how the industrialisation of Owen's time laid the foundations for the education system we have today, yet Owen's vision was for something very different to the system we now have. Is his work an opportunity missed?