22 January 2008 - 1:56Ken Robinson on Creativity in education

I have found that education is one of the most passionate subjects that you can bring up in day to day conversation.  Why?  Because everyone’s experienced it, you had to go, and what happens in education seems to dictate your life path.  There are more opinions on education than there are people, but some opinions are more valuable than others.

Ken Robinson- do schools kill creativity?

Official spiel- Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize — much less cultivate — the talents of many brilliant people. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: “If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk, please stop whatever you’re doing and watch it now.”

My spiel- He gives a quote from Picasso half way through, “All children are born artists.  The problem is to remain an artist when we grow up.”  Above and beyond the (noble) desire to have artists in our society it is the ability to do something that is the purpose of education.  Creativity, the soul of an artist, is being able to put one’s own work, one’s own idea, out there in contest with the world to survive or fail.  A school does not need to make a musician or a dancer out of a pupil to have that pupil benefit from creativity and the teaching of creativity.

If you look at the true geniuses of our day in any subject- medicine, science or business- you will find that the titans of their field are not only passionate about their own subject but have an artistic talent that they pursue or a creative hobby that while not typically labeled ‘art’ is nonetheless an expression of their mind and not merely ‘work’.  The entire linux revolution I credit to the joy and excitement that comes with being able to change the code yourself and not merely tred where others have gone.

Do not confuse Creativity and Art.  Art is a beautiful Creation.  Creation itself is necessary to be effective in any field, artistic or not.

For other educational success stories I also recommend “Teach like your Hair’s on Fire” or “There are no shortcuts” by Rafe Esquith, who is an educator down in Los Angeles who teaches his underprivileged inner city 5th graders to perform Shakespeare while getting them to score in the top five percent in the country academically.  I’ve been talking with him by e-mail and he’s asked me to help him find donations to purchase XO laptops (from the One Laptop Per Child program) for his students.  If you want to help him, leave a comment here or visit his site.