Do schools kill creativity? Sir Ken Robinson

Do schools kill creativity? We were introduced to Sir Ken Robinson during an ICT session; as part of this brief we must write about a ted talk that inspires you and this has inspired me.  In this TED Robinson starts to talk about the three themes which display, ‘the evidence of human creativity’ (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007) and how we cannot predict the future in terms of society, the environment, etc. Therefore, the role of the facilitator is vitally important; children have astonishing ‘capacity’ that we want to enhance not stifle. Teaching can be a very organic process, which can often be unpredictable and so you can never full plan for the future; so how can we educate for the future?
 

He does not give the answer in this talk, but the most important message I got form this TED was that ‘creativity is as important as literacy and should be treated with the same status.’ (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007) I completely agree with this statement; to deny creativity, in any sense, would stunt original thought and personal expression. A world with no creativity, I feel, would be a dreadfully boring place; where no one would take any risks and these chances are what you need for your mental growth. 
Robinson discusses the notion of kids being more susceptible to take chances and he believes that, ‘if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with something original.’ (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007) This is something we all fear becoming, the failure and this is what is fundamentally wrong with our society.
 

Robinson brings about the idea that this fear perception of failure is starting to transcribe through to the business world, where companies ‘stigmatise’ mistakes of its employees. Even the national education system pushes for perfection; in this world it seems ‘mistakes are the worst thing you can make.’ (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007) As a consequence of this way of thinking we are educating people out of their gifts. He gives a famous quote by Picasso, ‘all children are born Artists, the problem is to remain an Artist as you grow up.’ A brilliant quote, Artist in the lose term could mean anything, you do not need to be able to draw or paint to be creative; for a while now I have been trying to think an something we do that does not consist of us being creative. I have not been successful in answering this yet.
 

Around the world the way we educate is quite similar, in the sense, we have the same hierarchy system; we value the same subjects for their purpose in our economy. These top end subjects are Mathematics and Languages, Humanities, then the Arts; even in the Arts there is a chain of command again Art, Music, Drama and Dance. Recognising that we have a pecking order within the system makes you question why? Back before the nineteenth century public schools did not exist, they came about during the industrial revolution and were designed on two ideas;

 

• The useful subjects at the top, hence, the need for a hierarchy system.
• Academic ability –universities designing the system in their own image.

A lot of creative people are being lost in a system like this and in our ever growing, diverse society that way of thinking is becoming outmoded. Today education is looked upon as gauge of academic ability, but due to the influx of students each year a degree does not hold the same value. Robinson states, ‘more people are graduating now than in the whole history of education; due to technology and its effects on how we learn, and demography, and the explosion in population.’ This is showing in the academic inflation of the accreditation system and our education system must reflect this.
 

Robinson sums up by emphasizing the need to change the way we educate the world, as it does not suit the needs and modes of our economy, society, environment, etc. We know three things about intelligence; 

• It is diverse – we think in many ways, visual, audio, kinaesthetic, abstract, movement.
• Intelligence is dynamic – creativity comes through interacting in different ways.
• It is distinct – unique to us all and learning has to redirect this. 

         (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007)

 

The way Sir Ken Robinson has delivered this talk has inspired me to learn more about his work, I believe he is looking at the education system with the right approach. We are ever growing intellectuals and the more we learn about how we take in information, the greater the need for change in the system. It should become almost like a living organism, growing with us so we can continue to improve as a race and better the economy, improve the environment and try to ensure a safe future for the next generation. I will definitely be blogging more on Sir Ken Robinson, a great leader of inspiration.   

Works Cited

Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?. 2007. [Film] Directed by Sir Kenneth Robinson. America: TED Talks.