Sir Ken's Inspiration for the Future of School Design

If you had asked me over the last year to name just one person I'd like to spend a few minutes with, I'd have named Sir Ken Robinson in a blink of an eye.  Seeing his "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" TED Talk video (see below if you need a reminder) sealed the deal for me, I must admit.

He was the keynote provocateur at a wonderful event that brought representatives and decision makers from all over Portland, OR together to talk about the future of learning for their city.  The event:  the Rethinking School Facilities Summit. 

Having had the good fortune of hearing him speak yesterday (see below) and spending time one-on-one chatting with him afterwards, I have to say I was not disappointed.  MediaSnackers' DK -- a speaker at the event as well; a speaker that blew people away as a matter of fact -- and I were fortunate enough to catch Sir Ken before he headed out for the night.  Amazing guy who made time for us in spite of a packed schedule.  In fact, I am even more inspired by his mind, his storytelling, and his ability to open eyes because of the chance to talk with him one-on-one. A truly remarkable visionary. And a good soul.  Definitely feel very fortunate to have access to him at this point in my life and career.

Midway through his talk yesterday, he offered all of us a reminder that meaningful systemic change is not about the technical.  It is about the ideological:

"One has to challenge things that are taken for granted.  Stuff that is obvious is the problem."

Certainly a fine bit of fuel for the conversational fire, but it was when he began talking about the research-based longitudinal studies demonstrating the 'loss of creativity' of kids from the age of 3 through their adult years due to the educational systems we employ that you began to really appreciate how vital a voice like his is when you're imaging the future of learning.  Or, as he said:

"Nobody wants kids to stop being creative.  But it is still built into the system."

Explaining it a bit further, he spoke on behalf of 3 misconceptions of 'creativity' that seem to foster such a system where we emphasize the academic/intellectual over the creative at most turns:

1. Misconception:  Only special people are creative.  The average person can't be. 
2. Misconception:  Only special things are creative.  Certain disciplines -- art -- are considered creative, whereas others are considered rational.
3. Misconception:  Not much we can do about it.  One is born creative or not.

When an educational system not only values creativity and fosters imagination, it assumes all people are creative -- just in differing ways; it assumes that all things can be creative -- whether it be sculpture or mathematics; it assumes that creativity can be taught -- as opposed to something only a rare few are blessed with.  As a business/organizational leader?  Frankly, I want graduates who retain their creativity. So do my clients.  So do my colleagues.  So does the larger ecosystem of society.  How we foster an educational system that realizes the long term R.O.I. (return on investment) with creativity being held at the same level as academic intelligence in school appears to be the real question.  Forget math/science scores.  The future doesn't need great test-takers to help our kids become change agents.  It needs folks with vision and aptitude in one package.  And in ways we've never dreamed of since our educational system was born.

Sir Ken then shifted the conversation to asking everyone in the audience to rank themselves in terms of a) creativity and b) intelligence.  Two points were being made.  1) Just about everyone ranked themselves lower in terms of creativity and 2) we're asking the wrong question.  What did he mean?  Well, typically we default to a question such as:  "How creative is...?" or "How intelligent is...?"  In both situations we fail to realize the unintentional weakness such a question suggests about us as an educational system.  His suggestion?  Re-think the question:

1. Instead of "How creative is..?", the proper question for the future of learning (and all things of value to us) would be "In what way is...creative?"
2. Instead of "How intelligent is...?", the proper question for the future of learning (and all things of value to us) would be "In what way is...intelligent?"

Easy to revel in this man's mastery of language, example, and story -- especially when he talks about having lunch with Paul McCartney or John Cleese -- but the real joy was spending time in a quiet conversation with him afterwards and tapping into a series of ideas/questions that promises to keep us talking long after this wonderful event in Portland.  Being reminded that the future of learning depends on our ability to embrace creativity as a critical part of all academic ventures, not as a 'value-added' component that is slowly killed over time by the system itself.

My only challenge now?  Deciding who I'd love to spend 5 minutes with in the next year! 

As noted above, here's the The TED Talk -- "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" -- A joy of a video, something that really begins to showcase the gift that this man is:

Comments

[Douglas]

I listened to his TED talk and found it to be one of the best they had up there. He's not only a smart guy, but a pretty good speaker. It's hard to stand up and have an interesting talk for 20 minutes, much less without slides or fancy animations.

When I get some time over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to listen to some of the others there. A lot of them are very fascinating.

[DK]

It was a great experience to meet the 'scouser' - humble with sincerity!

DK

PS Thanks for the kind words my friend...

[Dave]

Well, now I really want to meet him too! I was impressed with his Ted Talks when I wrote my Square Peg, Round Hole post (linked to my name) back in December, and now I know that went well beyond just a good presentation... thanks for the post.

I am really starting to wonder how we will get out of the standardized testing/ranking of schools paradigm? We want our kids to be 'change agents', as you say, but we force-feed them an unchanging meal.
I'm guilty too, it isn't like I am a creativity chef. I try to be progressive and challenge my students in new ways, but it needs to go beyond just asking different questions, it needs to get to the point where expression of creativity is the meal that we feed them at school... not just the appetizer or the dessert.