Shadowing Sir Ken Robinson

Summary

Ken Robinson calls for a transformation of education that helps people discover and develop their particular talents. He contrasts people who merely endure their work with those whose work feels central to who they are. In his view, too many educational systems disconnect learners from their abilities by assuming a single route and standardized outcomes. He proposes a more organic model, in which educators create conditions for different people to flourish.

Key points, in order

1. Innovation requires questioning assumptions that seem obvious only because they are familiar. Robinson uses changing habits around wristwatches to illustrate how practices can outlast the circumstances that originally made them useful.
2. He challenges the idea that everyone's life should follow a direct educational track toward college. A firefighter's story illustrates both the harm of dismissing a vocation and the value communities receive from diverse forms of skill.
3. Standardization is compared with fast food, while personalized learning is compared with responding to local conditions. He stresses that ability alone is insufficient when someone feels no interest or energy for the activity.
4. The closing agricultural metaphor shifts attention from manufacturing predictable results to cultivating growth. Technology and teachers' talents can support locally developed approaches, and Robinson ends by asking adults to handle children's hopes with care.

Five useful phrases to practise

Choose a caption line to open Repeat mode. Listen, then say it after the speaker.

1. 4:16 And human resources are like natural resources; they're often buried deep.
2. 5:16 It means challenging what we take for granted, things that we think are obvious.
3. 9:19 I don't mean you shouldn't go, but not everybody needs to go, or go now.
4. 13:56 Often, people are good at things they don't really care for.
5. 15:03 All you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.

Based on the video’s captions. Original video: Bring on the learning revolution! | Ken Robinson · TED.

Everyday phrases from this video

• that's true
• at the moment
• a couple of

• Level: B1
• Accent: British
• Length: 18 min · 212 lines to practise
• Speed: about 149 words a minute (an average pace)
• Words: about 2,590; the talk asks 12 questions

What to focus on in this talk

Use the college examples to practise explaining alternatives rather than a single fixed path.

What this talk trains

Sir Ken Robinson speaks for about 18 minutes: roughly 2,590 words in 212 caption lines. The pace stays fairly even, about 143 words a minute in the first quarter and 156 in the last. Overall it is faster than 22 of the other 66 talks on Sada. Its sentences average 13.2 words, no longer than the middle of the library (14.3), and 12.3% of its words fall outside the 3,000 most common English words (library middle: 12.9%). It asks 12 questions, so there is plenty of question intonation to copy. Phrases that fast speech often shortens come up again and again: “have to” (11 times) and “want to” (2 times).

Lines from across the talk, and what each one trains

One line from each quarter of the talk. Press a line to open it in Sada, ready to record. “Linking” marks words that run together: a word ending in a consonant sound joins the vowel that starts the next one.

1. 4:20 You have to go looking for them, they're not just lying around on the surface.

   “have to”: fast speech often shortens it to “hafta” when a verb follows. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Linking: say “lying around”, “around on” without a break between the words.

2. 7:31 Great. Now, those over 25, could you put your hands up if you're wearing your wristwatch?

   “could you”: fast speech often shortens it to “couldja”. Listen for whether the speaker does here. A question: listen to where the voice rises or falls at the end, and copy it.

3. 12:20 "You've been around for 36 months, and this is it?"

   A question: listen to where the voice rises or falls at the end, and copy it. Linking: say “been around”, “this is”, “is it” without a break between the words.

4. 14:37 We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model,

   “have to”: fast speech often shortens it to “hafta” when a verb follows. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Linking: say “what is”, “is essentially”, “an industrial” without a break between the words.

Words that keep coming up

Words outside the 3,000 most common English words that Sir Ken Robinson uses more than once. The number is how often each is said. Look up any you don’t know, then press it to practise the line where it first comes up.

• talent ×8
• crisis ×6
• circumstances ×6
• fireman ×5
• kindergarten ×5
• climate ×4
• ourselves ×4
• disenthrall ×3

How the pace changes through the talk

The fastest minute starts at 9:26 (about 222 words a minute): practise that minute once the rest feels easy. The slowest starts at 0:56 (about 94): a good minute to warm up with.

Measured from the caption timing, so the numbers are close, not exact.

How the talk opens: press any line to practise it

1. 0:16 I was here four years ago, and I remember, at the time, that the talks weren't put online.
2. 0:23 I think they were given to TEDsters in a box, a box set of DVDs, which they put on their shelves, where they are now.
3. 0:34 And actually, Chris called me a week after I'd given my talk, and said, "We're going to start putting them online. Can we put yours online?"
4. 0:41 And I said, "Sure."
5. 0:43 And four years later, it's been downloaded four million times.
6. 0:51 So I suppose you could multiply that by 20 or something to get the number of people who've seen it.

How to practise this talk

1. Warm up on the slowest minute (from 0:56) or on the opening lines above.
2. Then take the chosen lines above one at a time: a shortened phrase, linked words, a question.
3. On each line, press Record and say it after Sir Ken Robinson (Repeat) or along with them (Shadow), then open Compare and go again until every word is green.
4. Save the fastest minute (from 9:26, about 222 words a minute) for last.
5. At one minute a day you finish the whole talk in about 18 days, and Sada shows your first try against your latest.

More talks to practise

• Sir Ken Robinson — How to Escape Education’s Death Valley (B1 · 144 words a minute · same speaker)
• Sir Ken Robinson — Do Schools Kill Creativity? (B2 · 165 words a minute · same speaker)
• Angela Lee Duckworth — Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (B1 · 148 words a minute · same level)
• Bill Gates — The Next Outbreak? We’re Not Ready (B1 · 150 words a minute · same level)

Famous talks to shadow →