Creativity In Ken Robinson's Ted Talks

Creativity drives today’s world, with new technology arriving daily and science conducting itself further. We need creative and imaginative people in today’s atmosphere to bring the world to the next step forward. “Standardized college admissions tests assess only analytical skills, as well as the knowledge base on which they act, and completely ignore creative and practical skills (Sternberg 7)”. Without creative people in this world, where do you think we would be? Not very far. We need practical skills to go throughout everyday life. The standardized tests don’t test for that knowledge base, they test how much short term memory a

Education has tarnished the idea of an original thought and has caused us to “grow out of creativity.” An idea that I am now convinced is a possible reality due to the intellectual, thought-provoking argument made by Sir Ken Robinson that schools do restrain creativity. In Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” Robinson argues that schools do kill creativity by addressing his audience in a sophisticated yet playful tone that keeps the audience entertained and invested in what is being discussed. Robinson connects with the audience by telling jokes, using simple reasoning, facts, and personal stories that allows the audience to be emotionally moved by the argument. Robinson is able to open up the audience to a reasonable idea with only one reasonable solution, and it just so happens to be his. Obviously, a bit biased, Robinson steers clear of self-promotion by recalling stories of other’s accounts and relating to people as a professor instead of a person.

As Einstein, the legendary mastermind behind the theory of relativity, once declared, “Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work.” For decades, scholars and philosophers have debated over the true meaning behind this profound statement. Some argued that Einstein’s words emphasized the virtues of hard work, seemingly asserting that anything was possible; others insistently dwelled upon its other cryptic message: without that 1% of talent, all further effort would be futile. However, both sides agree that it stresses how one must have the drive to work to their best while having the humility to recognize others who simply have the raw talent that they don’t. This hidden insinuation has been etched in my own life, sports history, and music history.

Are we underestimating the importance of creativity? Many times children are not encouraged at home to be creative, either because their parents restrict their ideas, fill their decisions with pessimism, or simply do not pay attention to this matter. However, creativity is a skill that makes the human being flexible and resourceful as well as helping them see problems differently and identify solutions more easily. Many times education will directly contradict creativity. It destroys the innovation of ideas, and stifles the imagination, while claiming it is “teaching.” Sometimes entering a classroom becomes the closest thing to entering a time machine since our teaching methods differ very little from those of ancient Rome over 2000 years ago. In Ted Talk “How Schools Kills Creativity” by Ken Robinson and the article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood” by Leon Botstein, two different opinions about the current educational system are presented. While Robinson believes that the schooling system should work to promote creativity, Botstein says that the concept of a high and middle school is useless and should be abolished. However they both agree on reform. As a parent, I have always been concerned about my daughters’ education, and have always believed, like Robinson and Botstein, that our educational system needs a change.

Sir Ken Robinson’s speech, “Do Schools kills creativity?”, he talks about how modern schools are killing the creativity of students. He makes an entertaining story of criticizing education that reduces the creativity. He challenges the audience, asking how we are educating our children. Ken Robinson was effective in order to explain his theories by using some jokes and personal examples. He starts his speech by saying, that the students who are starting school this year will be retiring in 2065, however, the actual fact is nobody has a clue, what is going to happen in next few minutes. He claims that children have capacities for innovating new things, but schools are not allowing them to show that. Robinson’s TED talk is partly effective and partly ineffective.

In the class readings of “Genius or Not?” Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, shared many views on expertise. When we think of someone who may be a “Genius”, we think of a special individual who was predestined and genetically gifted to excel. Ericsson believed that “Genius” arises from something else; his views focused on how people develop into geniuses and are not just born a “genius”. He believed that the right factors combined to create a “genius”, that it wasn’t necessarily a person who was born with a high IQ. Ericsson thought that the amount of dedication and work a person puts into their discipline in practice and on some level how obsessed they were with the action

In his speech, "Do Schools Kill Creativity?", Ken Robinson (Robinson, 2006) discusses individual's creativity and the role of education in this field. Robinson argues that the major aim of teaching in school is to prepare pupils for their careers. He continues to suggest that "we are running education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can do". (Robinson, 2006, p.7). He also adds that "we are educating people out of their creative capacities". His speech raises questions: "what is creativity?", "do schools kill creativity?" and can creativity be learned?

Some of the younger generation has lost the ability to become creative. Gardner states, “I had a steady stream of young people from East Asia; Chinese, Korean, Japanese, saying, ‘we want to be creative. Tell us 23 steps to being creative,

In Creative Schools, the second potential solution is the recognition of student’s unique abilities. A quote about this potential solution is, “All students are unique people with their own hopes, talents, anxieties, fears, passions, and aspirations. Engaging them as people is the heart of raising achievement” (Robinson and Aronica 56). This quote represents the main idea from this solution, recognizing and supporting the talents of students instead of shutting down their unique skills. The source of this factual evidence is the fact that all students are unique in one way or another. This reform an revolutionize the system and how students are perceived.

“Do Schools Kill Creativity?” by ken Robinson is a very powerful speech, as well as a good insight on the other side of the spectrum. Mr. Robinson begins his speech he mentions the amount of creativity we as humans have and how we have no such idea where we are headed in the future. Ken makes a point that we are educating and have been educating people to be prepared for the future. He asks why. We do not know what the next few years bring, how do we educate people properly for it. As Mr. Robinson continues he makes a point that creativity should be as important as literacy within education. Throughout the speech he gives countless examples where simple creativity and being different has brought people success and lead them down a path that math or literature never could.

When individuals ask about creativity, typically they have pre conceived notion of what is creativity. Studies from Business insider claims that school are trying to limit creativity by forcing classes that are little to no interest to students. Those who ponder the idea about what is truly creative are individuals who can be reason with. The art of creativity is one's own perspective; what one accepts as ludicrous other might believe to be brilliant. A ted talk by Sir Ken Robinson's proven this statement by using a child who fidgets a lot as an example of how most saw her as ill, but actually she's a talented dancer who later on became a prodigy in ballet. So, if schools took away her creativity, then she wouldn’t have reached her full potential.

In all fifty states there is a system wanted for killing all 50.4 million creative minds. This system is the school system. Students in schools are being robbed from their creativity by the school system by the school system not being mindful of how many different minds there are in all the students. There are so many different careers in the world to match these students creative minds. Sadly the schools of today’s generation are not properly preparing students for all these creative careers.

Do Schools Kill Creativity? TED is a non-profit organization that serves to present ideas that are worth spreading through strong rhetoric and persuasive appeals. In his eminent Ted Talk, Sir Ken Robinson discusses how public education systems today disregard creativity as an important component within the academic growth of students. Robinson focuses on the importance of creativity by creating a variety of arguments, which persuades the audience to take action upon this heavily ignored issue. His use of pathos, ethos, and logos makes an entertaining case for creating an education system that nurtures rather than undermines creativity. Throughout his speech, Robinson emphasizes pathos by his use of humor and discussion of personal

In the article “Is Creativity Endangered?” written by Cecilia Conrad , she goes on to state that most people who are able to come up with new innovative ideas often spend most time going against the norm, because of the lack of creative expression. “That said, people with innovative and cutting-edge ideas have likely spent much of their lives swimming against the tide.” One of the reasons being that in educational studies of creativity has been that teachers don’t particularly enjoy personality traits that involve creativity. Research has proven to us that teachers do not want students with a creative personality, like accepting authority and giving blind loyalty (Cropley, 1992). Usually children and students who have creative minds are seen

In this essay I will explore the correlation between intelligence (IQ) and creativity (DT), and whether one is influenced or can be predicted by the existence of the other. The relationship between IQ (intelligence quotient) and creativity has been an anchor point for psychological research. Numerous amounts of psychologists have carried out research in order to find evidence to support this idea of a correlation or evidence to disprove the hypothesis that IQ and creativity could be related.