Outstanding and inspirational

Submitted by Mateja Milharcic (not verified) on August 11, 2008 - 05:01.

Outstanding and inspirational! Hearing Sir Ken Robinson's speech has made me think of how the school system where I live works or better yet, where is slows down and blocks. It made me contemplate, what and how I, as a special ed teacher and family therapist working with parents of children in mainstream schools, can do to promivate creativity and the potential every human being possesses in themselves.

Mateja Milharcic from Slovenia

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Quite Agree

Submitted by Dr Charles Parker (not verified) on July 27, 2008 - 22:27.

Geoff,
I completely agree with your remarks regarding the revolution of information, with no historical precedent, and the new science directs us to new more useful recommendations from brain science to "just living."

The applications in neuroscience are staggering as we are awash in a sea of descriptive, limited diagnostic subsets so superfiical they are rapidly becoming almost useless.

You must be talking to de Bono... the Kaleidescope of brain science, supersedes the old telescopic view of human behavior. The Diagnostic manual is old, superficial and hopelessly inadequate with the new science.

This crisis is of human resources... simply because we have undervalued the everyday man. Academia leads the hesitant way,looking gingerly at bell curves remarkably exposed by Taleb in The Black Swan. Yawn.... But the promise is in the open communication with everyman... the truth is there,

So I much agree, as an old friend of de Bono, we must join together with creativity and intelligence. Constructive change can only take place within the context of non-Aristotelian thinking.

Creativity is disparaged - as many are terrified of change and new learning. Old information worked a bit, and therefore encourages denial.

Thanks for the excellent remarks,
cp

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Transforming education

Submitted by Anonymous high school teacher (not verified) on May 31, 2008 - 20:08.

Sir Robinson's speech was absolute truth, however far too vague in actual HOW-TO's for me. (Perhaps I need to read his book.)
Talk is cheap.
EVERYONE knows “the Emperor” is naked. Most of us are no longer even afraid to utter it and some of us are shouting it. We are shouting however into an echo chamber,the only thing echoing back is apathetic, disconnected, enabled teenagers.
Where is the place to go if you are the one who believes you know how to design and make the emperor's new clothes?
Everyone is talking. Even those who haven’t set foot in a classroom in decades for example. Some are doing things in their own classrooms or schools but that will never cause the kind of transformation he is calling for and we all know is necessary.
The real question is how do we create any kind of united force for this transformation? Especially in public education where politicians, who will believe the mathematical impossibility that all children can score above 50% or that one set of tests can gauge learning, are in charge? The teachers, who really could actually CREATE answers, are ignored at best, or at worst, blamed for the ‘revolution’ Sir Robinson describes.
And yet some of us have to keep fighting in the trenches…or there is no hope.

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Systematic Change in Education

Submitted by Julie Ales (not verified) on May 31, 2008 - 08:52.

I agree 100% with Sir Ken on the need for a systematic change in education -- and how we incorporate creativity in our curriculum. What will this look like? I imagine that we will see classrooms where project based learning is fundamental, where cross grade level students mentor each other, where students take a key role in mentoring teachers on technology (they are way ahead of most of us anyhow!), where students are able to create work that incorporates technology in every discipline. To create systematic change, we need to listen to voices from many sectors. How can we open our education system to the world? How can we open our school doors to the community right outside? Meaningful resources are right there - waiting to be asked. We need to embrace voices from leading sectors of society -- business, the arts, sciences. There is a place for everyone at the table. Thank you, Sir Ken, for your consistent voice of educational reform. -- Julie

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Creativity in schools

Submitted by K. Rosko (not verified) on May 29, 2008 - 12:04.

Thank you Sir Robinson (and Edutopia) for discussing creativity.

Sadly with the emphasis on NCLB we find that one of the major areas that not only allows for but encourages (and actively teach) creative thinking skills, the Arts, are slowly being eliminated or scaled back to make room for more science and math.

However, if our children cant apply those concepts and skills in an innovative and creative way - what do we have?

Unfortunately I think we also see much education as reinforcing the "standard" answer over the unusual (the old "theres only one correct way" mode of thinking).

To address the first comments by anonymous - I agree.
I think we not only need to rethink education and how educators teach, but how parents see education.
Many see the worksheets as the solution, and fail to see that by doing something as creative as making butter in class for example, you can teach reading, writing and math in a creative way.

Many parents see the butter, but not the math (the only legitimate way to teach math would be with a math worksheet).
Most students however, 20 years later, will remember the butter more than anything else.

I do believe however, that with continued work, and with the efforts of people like Sir Robinson, we may turn the tide.

I am constantly reminded (and remind anyone who will listen) of that scene from Apollo 13 which shows classic creative problem solving at its finest.
The crew is suffering from CO2 poisoning and the canister from the landing craft is a different size and shape that the one from the command module.
The scene shows one engineer throwing a load of everything contained in the craft on the table and saying to the others "We need to make this (lunar module), fit into a hole made for this (command module), using nothing but that".

Creativity at its finest.
Check and see how many of the designers of the Mars Rover were also artists and/or musicians on the side.

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Bravo to Sir Ken Robinson - A Real Edutainer!

Submitted by Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg (not verified) on May 29, 2008 - 08:01.

Sir Ken Robinson is the living epitome of what I have have researching about, speaking about, writing about, and now teaching about as an educator who is also a professional entertainer as a producer and director. The past 5 years I have interviewed and researched edutainment and convergence through this lens, and I too have found that the same creativity and communication that drives the entertainment field is the same creation and communication that must drive the field of education in a knowledge based economy. For better or for worse, education is the real driving force behind the economy, the ideas and the technology that makes the global economy work. Edutainers like Sir Ken Robinson engage us all, they compell us to think, and most importantly they create within us a desire to be creative. The bottom line is that creativity brings the fun back into education because the quality of one's education is often a reflection of the communication of the educators that one has had contact with in our lives. Bravo Sir Ken!

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Reflecting on "Creatively Speaking" Movie

Submitted by Naomi Harm (not verified) on May 29, 2008 - 06:46.

Sir Ken Robinson's global message is so very powerful which addresses our state of education in direct comparison to our ecological environment- wow- this is reality!

Transform your teaching and learning environment to reflect true creativity! (Naomi Harm)

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Creativity: A Strategic Priority

Submitted by Ed Greene (not verified) on May 29, 2008 - 05:47.

The context of a "theory of change" presented by Sir Ken Robinson, and the need for "transformation" in our approaches to people, policies and practices in education, are vitally important. The linear thinking and the way education and educators work deserve examination. This thinking process toward transformation has been something I've been exploring in the Netherlands through Dr. Jef van Kuyk's Pyramid Approach to Early Learning (www.pyramidprinciples.com) and in the writings of Daniel Pink in his book "A Whole New Mind." Thank you Sir Ken.

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Creativity in Education

Submitted by Dolores Boutin (not verified) on May 28, 2008 - 20:52.

Sir Ken Robinson is on the right track. Individual creativity needs to be encouraged and developed, also group creativity, bouncing ideas off each other and appreciating each other's input. Where does creativity come from? Meditation, contemplation, knowledge, play, the acceptance and appreciation of creativity allow it to happen in all its forms. We need to value these things both in our culture and in our education systems.

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