Ken Robinson's "Schools Kill Creativity"

This man is brilliant!!!! His insight on the importance of eduaction is so true, this is one issue that nearly everyone has a vested interest in. It effects everyone, no matter who you are. I would also agree that creativity is also very important in our process of learning for our children, but I also think that it needs to be said that teachers have to have the ability to be creative in the class room. This, to me, is almost as important as the creativity of kids, because if the teachers cannot teach creatively, the students will not be able to let their creativity flow.

The issue of being wrong is so relevant to education, because this obsession with getting the "right" answer is ruining kids exploration of the problem itself. I can say that I am pretty much a direct product of this idea. I want to be able to give the answer that my teacher wants and I am terrified of being wrong. I think it has hugely effected my creativity because I cannot do a project or assignment unless I have explicit directions on what I am supposed to be doing I get frustrated, which stems from my fear of being wrong. I have been told ever since I was a little kid that grades were pretty much the most important thing in the world! And so based on our current type of grading system if you are right you get A's and if you are wrong you get F's. This is frightening.

This bit about the arts is something that goes way over my head because I have never embraced that side of me. I used to love drawing but I would judge my pictures against others art and I would think mine is bad, because it did not look like theirs. I was scared to be wrong so I stopped, I said that I wasn't creative, that wasn't me because my art wasn't like the art I had seen. There was no point in me doing it if I wasn't good. Now I am in no way saying that if I had kept with it and did not care that my art wasn't "good", I would be a famous artist. I am simply stating that embracing that side of me could have helped with a lot of things in the future, including this class, and creative writing. I squashed that bit of creativity and now I am really regretting it.

I was homeschooled for 6th and 7th grade and I completely hated it because I had to teach myself there was no one really there telling me what to do or giving me explicit instruction. The thing I realize know is that in those two years I probably learned more, about myself especially then I ever had before. I know that homeschooling is not the solution for everyone (it wasn't for me either because of the lack of socialization, but perhaps something that brings some of those elements into the public education system.

The dancer he spoke of is a prime example of different ways that children learn, you can't shove them in a box and expect them to be the same as everyone else, like Ken Robinson talked about in the other video, this creates conformity and is that what we want? We as future teachers and possibly parents need to undersatand that by assuming that all students learn the same and grading them and creating pressure for them to "succeed" in the way we see fit is DETRIMENTAL to their growth.

Again I say this man is brilliant and he should be our president!!!!

Ken Robinson for President!!!! Save our education system!!