Sir Ken Robinson - Schools Kill Creativity
In the video "Schools Kill Creativity" Sir Ken Robinson is giving a speech at TED 2006. He is explaining why he feels "schools kill creativity." He begins by explaining to the audience that the amount of human creativity is extraordinary. This creativity has made our future unpredictable. He believes education is meant to take us into this future we can not gasp. However, our education system has become so one sided. Our world places the most value on math and science; and art, dance and literature are placed at the very bottom. This style of education is what is killing our students potential creativity. Sir Ken Robinson gives several examples of people who were given the opportunity to express their creativity and how they have given just as much to this world as the smartest scientist. He concludes by expressing his hope for our education system. He hopes that they will come to realize the value of creativity and allow students to express it.
The speech that Sir Ken Robinson gave was truly extraordinary and remarkable. At first glance, you may think our school systems aid creativity. We see band, dance teams, cheerleading, art club, etc. However, these are only the start of creativity. When thinking about creativity, so many "what if's" arise. What if a child was allowed to express all of their knowledge through drawing? What if a child was allowed to dance while they learned? What if a child could express there knowledge through a song? Our education system really never gives our students the chance to do this. In fact, our education system puts down on this. If our students are not sitting quietly in their desk performing math problems, then they are not learning. After watching this video my hope for our future has also changed. I hope that our school systems will learn to embrace creativity! Since many schools have already removed music and art programs from their school systems, sadly I fear we are heading in the opposite direction. What if our world had no music, no art, no dance? Unless our world starts to embrace creativity this could be our future.
Mary, do you feel that we rely too much on test taking and rote memorization? Have you heard of Howard Gardner and his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Some of what you wrote sounds like it. There is a lot of summary here which is good, but I want to know more about what you feel, think, and believe to be the best ways to educate students.
ReplyDeleteMusic, drama, arts, all these things I believe to be valuable to students. It is a shame that they have downsized creativity, for it is through creativity that we express our individual selves. Without it we all do the same thing, act the same,etc.. I met someone that actually learned ballroom dancing, I was surprised because well honestly how many people in your lifetime have you met that can legitimately ballroom dance? He was the second person out of a lifetime of people I have met in 25 years that can ballroom dance. This type of art is very useful in more ways than just one. You notice how it affects an individual for it teaches not only the art of several dances, but teaches important aspects like: poise, grace, stature, moral, etiquette, manners, politeness and so on.
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