For this blog post, we were given the task of watching a TED talk
and writing thoughts we had in response to the video.
Simply, I searched ‘popular TED talks’ into Google and stumbled upon a link to a YouTube video of a TED talk called "How school kills creativity".
Like any other student, I gravitated towards this video because I can use it
for reasons in the future for why I don't have to go to school: My mom would ask, "Rachael, why aren't you going to
school?" and I would obviously respond, "Because my creativity is low,
school is killing it" HA-HA!
Sir Ken Robinson in this video (see below) talks passionately
about how school does not promote creativity like they do mathematics or
English. He says that when kids go to school they grow out of
their creativity. Interesting…
He defines creativity as the process of having original ideas that
have value.
One statement that stuck out to me was how he said that literacy
is just as important as creativity. Later, he embellishes by stating that dance
is as important as math. I love how simply,but potently he articulates those comparisons.
However much I want to agree with him, I cannot. Although I feel
like some schools do put you into a cookie cutter situation of his learning
hierarchy that he mentioned, the education that I have received, at least at my
current school, is different.
Going to a unique private school, whose main focus is to prepare
you for the future in the career path that best suits and interests you, this
“dance being as important as math” statement has been a large part of the education that I receive.
Proudly, I am not a dancer, or a singer, or even an actor, I play sports. The
community at my school has really embraced who I am and has interlaced my
talents and passions into my schoolwork. At the end of the school year, every
student does a big project to show what they have accomplished in English
class. The student can choose whatever topic and method to
portray their work that they have done, relating to a common theme. Last year, I remember creating a
presentation about the sports I play to present my work.
I feel like the high school that I go to, does a fabulous job of
embracing the creativity of students. We are allowed to follow whatever passion
we may have and even do it with peer support.
Robinson did bring up other points on how the academic ability of
students has engulfed our view of intelligence and I would like to end on a
quote by Albert Einstein,
Hey Rachael,
ReplyDeleteI watched the same video about how Sir Ken Robinson thinks that schools are killing education and I wrote my post on him as well. Just like you said, I want to agree with him but I can’t. I understand that certain schools focus on subjects such as math and English more than the arts, but I certainly do not think that schools are “killing” our creativity. In my experiences I have found that the schools that I have gone to have done the exact opposite of what Robinson describes but have instead motivated me to become more creative. I also thought it was interesting how you talk about your experiences with last years English assignment. That is a brilliant way of countering his argument and displaying how school actually insert this creativity in us. Over all I agree with your thought and think that you made a great argument against his idea that schools kill creativity. Great job!
Kimya