In 2006, Monterrey, California Sir Ken Robinson gave a TED talk that challenged creativity in education, he stated that schools squander children’s creativity. Robinson had many humorous stories, but the story about Julian Lynn is by far the most influential. This happened in the 1930’s, she wasn’t responsible in school and had a short attention span. Her mother took her to a doctor and described Julian’s problems. The doctor then took the mother out of the room and flipped on a radio; when the door shut Julian started dancing. The doctor and her mother watched, the doctor commented that she is not sick, she is a dancer and suggested enrolling Julian in dance school. Today the doctor would have told Julian that she had ADHD and she would be on medication. Thankfully, Julian’s parents took the doctor’s orders and she became both a successful dancer and a multi-millionaire.
In Sir Robinson’s TED talk, he said that in education systems today a student’s academic performance determines who they are. Schools are quashing students dreams before even starting them. Like Picaso said, “All children are born artists,” but schools don’t seem to see it that way. Robinson mentions that we have a great capacity for creativity and we need to use it in the future because the most successful people will have right-brained jobs and use right-brained thinking. Schools teachers and administrators need to be closer to the students, if students are having problems then administrators should be able to solve their problem. Sir Robinson also said the educational system is taking away dreams from students that don’t perform well academically. If a student can’t sit still in class or is disinterested in a subject, it doesn’t mean they have ADHD, all people have ADHD in one topic or another. One student might love history, but can’t sit still in math while another might be the opposite. Students should have a passion and it doesn’t have to be through education, they need something that will motivate them to succeed and enable them to succeed.
Sir Ken Robinson, a humorous British guy, approached the audience with jokes and humorous stories, but educated the audience about some enlightening truths. His speech was so unpredictable; it was difficult to choose which emotion to respond with. He either made you freeze in shock or made you fall out of your seat with a laugh attack. In less than 30 seconds after he came on stage, he had the crowd laughing. His process was simple, but very effective. He started each point with a joke or a story; then after the crowd stopped laughing he would shift to his intellectual ideas and soon receive a round of applause. His best story was about Julian Lynn, and how with a simple change of schools and subjects, instantly changed her. The speech was very inspiring, it left me -and probably many other viewers – thinking there are better alternatives then medicating students.
What matters is…there is a flaw in our educational system and it is imperative that we fix it. To do that, we need to have classes that focus on right-brained thinking so students can show their creative potential. For example, a movie I saw called Big shows what it would be like to have a children’s creativity inside an adult’s brain. The boy wants to be big, so a fortune he receives from a machine makes him big by the next morning, however he remains a child inside. Because he’s retained his creativity, he interviews for a job at a toy company and through his right-brained thinking, the business becomes very successful. If schools would teach in a more right-brained approach, then students could become more creative as adults. I can relate to this as Ms. Smith’s English Honors class was the first creative academic class I’ve experienced. I’ve always been a creative thinker, but English this year has developed my thinking to a higher level. I wish that schools provided a more creative education starting in Kindergarten, then we would all be prepared for the future with the ability to develop the next cutting edge product. After all, if technology is our future, then schools need to implement technology at a young age and a creative approach to learning, and students will be motivated to learn and develop solutions for the future. For the world, this is a big step since I have only experienced education in America; but Sir Robinson said, “Every education has the same hierarchy of subjects.” He also said that no countries will have dance class the same amount of time they would have math class. Many countries have a more dogmatic approach to education, but the world needs creativity and technology because it is a big part of our future. Sir Ken Robinson said, “Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”
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