We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For

November 18, 2009 • 2:58 pm

We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For

Having spent over four years exploring the results of our flawed and non-creative education system, and subsequently inspired by the work and voice of Sir Ken Robinson, Lord Puttnam, Richard Gerver and others, I was excited to hear last week via Ken Robinson of a new film documentary that premiered in London last night, We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For.

This landmark independent documentary, inspired and guided by Lord Puttnam and Sir Michael Barber, explores the education system in the UK and asks whether the current system provides young people with the opportunity to develop their talents. High-profile figures sharing their personal experiences and views include Sir Richard Branson, Germaine Greer, Henry Winkler, Bill Bryson, Sir Ken Robinson and a wide range of education experts from around the world.

This thought-provoking film offers unique insight across generations and nations, and reveals a very inconvenient truth about education. The world is changing rapidly but our education system is not keeping pace.

Sir Ken Robinson’s 2001 book “Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative” was and remains one of my greatest working inspirations and his second book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, published this year adds to his belief that individual talent, human capacity and creativity should be enhanced in schools, not stifled.

Interestingly, only last month we heard Thomas Friedman offer his opinion as to the need to understand today’s education challenge and a new era of, what he describes as, ‘The New Untouchables’.

I do hope this film reaches everyone and not only asks if the current system is providing young people with the right opportunities (we know the answer to this one), but I hope it actually instigates the revolution we so desperately need. “We don’t need to reform education, we need to transform it”, explains Sir Ken Robinson.