Sir Ken Robinson, Knighted in 2003 for his work in the field of creativity and innovation, presents a fascinating perspective on the state of our education system.
In a short entertaining lecture on youtube (20 minutes), he lays out his perspective that public schools around the world take children who start with deep impulses toward being creative, and train that out of them in an effort to teach them to conform, and to “live in their head.” He quips that if you want to see an out-of-body experience, go to an academic conference.
His view seems very consistent with the curriculum of emotional growth schools, who have found that a successful school will engage the body and emotions/spirit of a child as well as their mind. This “whole child” approach seems to be consistent of the vision Robinson seems to have in mind.
His latest book: The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything – is the latest explantion of his philosophy.
I would welcome comments on Robinson and his perspective.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Lon,
First off – beautiful blog! Full of great content and provocative questions.
The idea of killing creativity at schools may emerge when you read Richard Louv’s book. His argument centers on the importance of UNSTRUCTURED play in nature and the role it plays in psychological well-being. While Louv’s argument seems to dovetail with Robinson’s and is especially applicable to traditional education, I wonder what his perspective would be on emotional growth schools?
Immediately the emphasis that many emotional growth schools place on nature comes to mind. These types of schools do not have play grounds made of pure concrete. However, the emotional schools don’t cater to the unstructured aspect of play that may help catalyze creativity.
Thank you for bringing this question of “one size fits all” educational system standards to my attention. Working with teens who have different learning styles shows that our education system pushes out those kids who don’t thrive in the standard form. The emotional growth schools cater to a wide range of learning styles, setting teens up for success.
Thanks Mike. I just moved Louv’s book to the top of the list.