Sir Ken Would Love This

Thanks to one of my favorite blogs, The Principal of Change, I found this video.  It is awesome, and it reminds me so much of Sir Ken Robinson's The Element, which we used to read in College Comp II but now read in College Comp I.

I was lucky.  From an early age, maybe 13 or 14, I knew what I wanted to spend my life doing: teaching.

There have been bumps and struggles along the way, but I have never doubted that.  Likewise, today I have never been more sure of the fact that teaching is what I was meant to do with my life.

This video drives home a simple point.  It asks the questions, what would you do with your life if money was not an object.

Sure, you might say, that's all idealistic pie in the sky stuff.  And maybe it is.  But the narrator of the short film, Alan Watts, makes a profound statement - because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you'll spend your life completely wasting your time.  You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living.  That is to go on doing things you don't like doing.  Which is stupid!  Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.  And after all if you do really like what you're doing it doesn't matter what it is.  You can eventually become a master of something.  And then you'll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is.




Amen.

The author of The Principal of Change makes these two points:

Whether you agree or disagree with the video below, I have a couple of thoughts/questions:

1. Why would it be bad to believe that you can make a living following your passion?  Many push back at this notion, while often talk about how schools need to change to meet the needs of our world.  If students walked away from schools being happy in their lives and caring of others, would that not be a sign of a success?
2. The video below should be watched and discussed with students, while also helping them examine what it would take to get to a place where you could successfully follow their passions.  This, to me, is a great video to spark deep and meaningful conversation.