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Do Schools Kill Creativity?


I remember, quite some time ago I was introduced to a Ted talk titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” It is still one of the most popular Ted talks ever published to date, and not without reason. The speech was by a man named Sir Ken Robinson, and he is, quite frankly, one of the most brilliant speakers I’ve heard in my life. He has an uproarious sense of humor, with a large helping of sarcasm, but at the same time, he can communicate a very serious message. His speech, as his title suggests, is about how the school system effectively educates society out of creativity.

He walks onto the stage at the very beginning seeming rather awkward, even confused, and begins addressing the conference members about the events prior to his speech. It seems irrelevant at first, but he artfully brings it back to education, the topic of his speech. This seemingly clumsy opening gives a sense of exposure. It gives an impression that he is up-front, and not some genius that we can never live up to. This allows his audience to relate, subconsciously establishing ethos within the listener, and you can tell throughout the rest of his speech that his audience is very at ease, attentive, and ready to laugh along with him at his self-deprecating and sarcastic jokes.

Throughout his speech, he assesses how our current education system seems bent only on producing university professors, completely discouraging mistakes as the worst thing you could possibly do. Your success in life depends on you number of mistakes. However, if everyone is afraid to make mistakes, how are we supposed to try new things? We’re trained to the point of being afraid to do so. We cannot be creative if we are not prepared to be wrong, and frequently so. This argument very effectively uses Logos, following a logical progression in order to reach his conclusion, and committing no notable fallacies in doing so. I was very much compelled by this speech, and even thought on the subject on my own after the fact, calling into question our educational system myself, and I came to the same conclusion. Our lack of freedom to experiment, and potentially learn from our own mistakes as a result, inhibits our creative capacities as human beings, and we should seriously reconsider our educational system as a whole, even if that requires us to reconfigure it entirely. Obviously this is no small undertaking, but in the long-term, it is something that cannot be ignored.
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Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 6, 2017 at 2:07 PM

    Riley, you did a great job describing the overall atmosphere of the scene. By your description, it can be seen that the speaker's personality really adds to his proposal. His concern for creativity can be shown through his own creative voice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 7, 2017 at 4:31 PM

    I agree with Mr. Robinson on this issue. In science specifically there is a huge flaw: each experiment goes exactly as planned. The whole premise of science is exploration but a student who wants to become a scientist will learn in the classroom that each experiment they preform will have an expected outcome. Just something to think about.

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  3. AnonymousMay 9, 2017 at 5:53 PM

    This is Awesome, your writings are very well developed. Never read yours, because I was afraid. Anyway, It was very impressing. Also, it is very true that they do limit the process of trying new things. Well done Riley.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 10, 2017 at 8:08 PM

    I really liked how you analyzed his entrance and introduction. I would have never thought of it like that and completely agree that it shows that he is just like everyone else. Great job describing his speech and analyzing it thoroughly.

    ReplyDelete

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