Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson's main point of his TED Talk is that school systems, worldwide, segregate the arts to a lower level of learning. This segregation of the arts in schools drains students of creativity.

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

Although both Greene (1995) and Freire (1998) subscribed to an existential philosophy of the individual, they differed on how said individual’s potential could be attained. In order to implement change, the need for out of the box thinking is paramount for both Greene (1995) and Freire (1998). For the latter, reflection of one’s activities would cause them to restructure that which they already know, leading them to try novel approaches in accordance with the amount of reflection they do. For the former however, no amount of reflection can enable us to think outside the knowledge that has been constructed for us, unless it involves imagination. Without it, we are doomed to reify the discourse that already exists, be it the general dominant discourse, or the discourse, now standardized, that tells us how to reflect ‘critically.’ Because of this, we need to tap into the creative and imaginative potential that resides within every one of us, allowing ourselves to become more attuned to creativity, to different ways of thinking. Once that is accomplished, we will be better suited, as educators, to foster our students’ creativity, creating a curriculum that embraces divergent thinking. This will then enable the students to realize their unique and unbounded potential, unfettered by the constraints of the dominant discourse (Peay,

One of the focuses in Gilbert's “Reporting Live from Tomorrow” is that there are a variety of shortcomings associated with imagination when it comes to hypothesizing what will occur at a later time. One of the listed disadvantages is that “When the imagination paints a picture of the future, many of the details are necessarily missing, and imagination solves this problem by filling in the gaps with details that it borrows from the present” (179). This is obviously quite relevant because between my teenage years and my sixties, there are more than likely a lot of factors such as interests, hobbies, and even capabilities that are destined to change. For example, it wouldn’t be a very substantial claim to say that in the future, I’d find happiness through things such as gaming. This is because this interest is very much associated with the present and my own youth, a time period where my hand-eye coordination and reflexes allow for such, which is an important point that could likely be glossed over by imagination. With one possibility out of the way it provides a clearer image on what to consider as a more likely hobby in my old age, two examples being painting or illustration. Painting and illustration are hobbies that I’ve enjoyed for a long while, and have devoted much time to alongside gaming. In addition to this, they are both more general, common hobbies that are less

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.

To work is to solve problems”(Rose,251). Therefore, Joe and other’s like him are engaging in and displaying the core elements of Western intelligence everyday. Workers are not the only ones that feel the heat from peoples’ misconceptions about certain things, education systems get a lot of grief due to misinformation and assumptions. The most prevalent educational system that is connected to awareness is the liberal arts. Liberal arts students “come to terms with complexity and diversity, and otherwise devise means to solve problems”(Ungar,196), but a liberal arts education is often thought of as overpriced and obsolete. There is a movement towards career education-“leaving out the ‘frills’ like learning how to write and speak well…[and] how to collaborate with others on research”(Ungar,191). Sadly, “history is filled with examples of failed social experiments that treated people as work units rather than individuals capable of inspiration and ingenuity”(Ungar,191). Every person is capable of creative thinking regardless of their level of a formal

To begin, people are not as ambitious in their thought as they have been in years past. Hanna Rosin claims that “There are measures, for example, of creativity which have gone down in this generation, and creativity...is being able to think in ways that are different…[being able] to be an independent thinker, essentially.” Rosin presents this as a result of extra protective measures taken by parents and

If you search almost anywhere on the internet about creativity and public schools you will run into a video by a man named Sir Ken Robinson. He emphasizes that schools kill creativity in every way. On the other hand, President Barack Obama disagrees whole heartedly. Both of these men agree that creativity is important to children and schools but they disagree on whether or not creativity is being implemented in schools. Robinson stated in his lectured at TED 2006, “I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it” (Ken Robinson. TED2006). He goes to say that

Everyone in the world has goal. Another meaning of happiness is whether or not people are satisfied with status quo. Like everyone said “the more satisfied, the more happiness.” Likewise, vitality depend on happiness. Only the person who has vitality has creativity. That is the law can’t be violated. The reason why less people can become a leading creator is education. Every parents send their children to school in order to get better education. They think teacher can find children talent, and explore ability. However, they can’t!

Growing up I have always been several steps ahead with my education. In order for my skills to thrive, I had to be ingenious about how to gain knowledge. Being innovative and learning was fun in these early years. I can remember that one of my learning pals was a character named Reader Rabbit. He helped me learn to think and wonder. Where did Reader Rabbit and the innovation disappear to? It was like a magician with the rabbit in the box. Where exactly did the rabbit go? I had my eyes on the box the whole time! Did I miss something? It is hard to believe that someone so focused can be misdirected so easily. Today’s educational system is the magician, fooling schools into focusing in the wrong areas.

“We know that your son was frightened, but what we don’t know is who frightened your son! And he

While the first word that comes to one’s mind when he thinks of a child might not be fearless, anyone who has spent considerable time with children definitely knows

Creativity is equally as important as literacy, and we need to start treating it that way in schools around the world. According to Ken Robinson’s claim in his, “How Schools Kill Creativity” speech, he believes this to be exceptionally true. All children are creative and talented, however, we have grown up in a world where we believe that it’s wrong to exemplify our creativity. Robinson uses both, pathos, and ethos to help make his claim. He arises emotion in you; he causes you to really think, to trust him, and to question ultimately, how things are being done in the educational system. We as a world have become so consumed with the idea of putting each child into a category of what they’re going to be successful in, regardless of their creativity or passions. You’re either good at math, science, or English; everything is based on your academic ability. What happens then to the people who aren’t academically smart, but are more creative? They are then made to feel that what they have to offer the world simply isn’t good enough, but the truth is, it is good enough. Over time however, we are taught out of our creativity. Schools around the world kill creativity by instilling a sense of fear in the child that what they are doing, and how they feel is wrong, this ultimately discourages them, and they fall victim to the industrialized educational system that we have present day. Robinson believes now more than

Ever since I’ve been young, it seems that there has been one question that could never be escaped; what does the future entail? This answer to this question is hardly ever finite, and changes throughout life similar to the pattern of Earth’s crust. When we are young drastic changes occur, however as we age the change becomes increasingly stagnant. In an ideal life one finds their niche and all change in desire will cease. I am still in my metamorphosis phase, however I have discovered that a large portion of what I want to do comprises my ability to write.

My future is something I often think about. Most often, the questions that arise include the common doubts of “Am I doing this right?”, or even the occasional midnight philosophical questions such as “Why are we here?”, and so on. For the purpose of this essay, I will focus on the factors that have allowed me to reach this point in my life and how these factors influenced and continue to influence me, in order to provide me with a visualization of my future.