Ted talk...”What on Earth is that?” I thought when we were set the task to review one! To be fair it’s like youtube; as in you start in one area and two hours later you have gone through a time warp and finished watching something completely random at the end, be warned!
My review is on a talk by Sir Ken Robinson on “How schools kill creativity”. He is a natural speaker who delivers the content in such a way that it is almost sublime. Using dry humour to convey the points could be a dangerous strategy, however, he delivers his talk making me feel uplifted and enlightened. I found a comment on one of the links to him saying that he has been viewed 21.5 million times, and I can understand why! There is also some good feedback left by the viewers about his talk that could also be of value.
Sir Ken’s talk is definitely thought provoking and the subject matter is a potential can of worms. He makes some very interesting points to arrive at his conclusion, I don’t want to comment on them all or give too much away (just enough to hopefully entice the reader to watch the clip). The concept of creativity in an academic environment has been lost as we progress in life from Primary school onwards. The chances to explore our creativity diminish with the fear of mistakes and failure. Very few scientists or inventors found their optimum goal on their first attempt, so maybe we should instil and promote that from an early age like the story Sir Ken tells about Gillian Lynne.
If creativity was promoted more in schools, it could enhance learning, or, could have an adverse effect and there could be complete anarchy in the classroom...
There are many quality quotes that I could state from his talk; I am just going to mention a couple that I particularly liked.
“Very many people go through their whole lives having no real sense of what their talents may be, or if they have any to speak of.”
“Curiosity is the engine of achievement”
I hope you also enjoy the clip!
Wow, hadn't seen this before on TED but it is great.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately this is so true “Very many people go through their whole lives having no real sense of what their talents may be, or if they have any to speak of.”
I think Wales is slowly catching up to this idea. I work with Secondary School pupils on a Project that is meant to raise aspiration and awareness of entrepreneurship and eventually produce a new generation of business owners people who will create more jobs in the community.
Like your conclusion above, I noticed that especially from Year 11 onwards pupils refuse to speak; the main reason is peer pressure and it is not 'cool' to know something, to engage in a lesson etc.
Since May this year we have also started working with Primary School pupils and their fresh mind, open attitude, lack of fear and abundance of ideas and enthusiasm have been like a breath of fresh air.
I think the question is how can that creativity and lack of fear from Primary be transferred to, nurtured and further developed in Secondary School and later in life.
Thanks for the comment; one of the guys on a lathe yesterday said he was afraid of messing up his job by trying something...I said, try it and see what happens...he had to remake it!! But I said don't worry tell me what you learnt and that ended up being a lot more than if he didn't have to remake the job! Like your pupils, you've have to have do trial and error to improve. He has done some more Ted talks if you're interested.
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