Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk S/R

Sir Ken Robinson’s “How Schools Kill Creativity” strongly illustrates the point that creativity is being seen as unimportant in education. The education system around the world has started to drive the creativity out of children as they grow older, and Robinson states that instead of making the future seem almost impossible, people should make it seem open to children. Intelligence has become no more than basic school subjects, yet that does not lead to help the future generations succeed in creating new things. Many children who possess creative talents that are not encouraged or taught in school often do not realize the capability they possess. Education continues to belittle the importance of creativity as children grow older.
In “How Schools Kill Creativity”, Sir Ken Robinson correctly argues that creativity should now be as important as literacy in education in order to lead to a more successful future. Children are noticeably more creative when they are young, and as they grow up education draws that creativity out of them so they are more focused on school education. Below is a young child’s drawing of a bird from memory.
(Bartel)
An older child who had been through some years of schooling, had been used to seeing birds drawn like this in the math textbook:
(Bartel)
They were asked to draw a bird, and the drawing resulted in this:

(Bartel)
The creativity levels drop, because kids are so used to seeing generic birds in the textbooks they are taught from. They no longer draw a realistic bird, they draw what they assume is meant to be a bird to them instead. Robinson makes the point that people slowly become more afraid of making mistakes and being wrong, which limits the chance of new, original ideas coming to life. Kids should be encouraged to express the creativity they hold to enrich the future with so many more possibilities. Children of all ages would be more engaged in school if creativity was pushed more than it is today. High schools particularly tend to stick with the more traditional, textbook way of teaching and that does not appeal to all kids. As a high school student, Robinson’s talk related to how school is for me a lot of the time. Many classes believe learning from books and testing is the best way to teach, but Robinson’s argument would make a huge difference in the way I learn and in how education in general is viewed. Education is often a dread to students everywhere, and creativity could bring it back to life. The world has begun to realize the importance of being creative in a community.
(Arts for LA)
70% of Americans in this poll agreed that we take creativity for granted, and 62% agreed it is being stifled by education. As Sir Ken Robinson clearly displayed, creativity is vital, yet is not used in education as much as it should be. His somewhat humorous way of illustrating education putting down creativity kept the audience engaged and thinking about their own experiences in education. He effectively made connections with the audience, and brought attention to a serious subject. Education will lose its overall effect on youth if creativity continues to be diminished in schools.

Works cited


Arts for LA. "Global Concern That Creativity Is Suffering at Work and School: Arts for LA." Arts for LA. 13 July 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.artsforla.org/news/global-concern-creativity-suffering-work-and-school>.

Bartel, Marvin. "Stereotypes and Divergent Thinking." Creative Thinking Decreases as Children Get Older. Goshen College, 23 Aug. 2008. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <https://people.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/11-13-01/Effects-of-Stereotypes.html>.

1 comment:

  1. Great illustrations to accent what you are saying- make sure to lead in to each source. Also, make sure to keep pushing that thinking. After you have exposed those problems, what are the solutions? Spend more time explaining your analysis of his speaking style with connections to what you would apply or not do in your own speech.

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