Charles A. Orders
PHL/458
July 7, 2014
Jarrod Hyde
For this assignment, I chose Sir Ken Robinson’s talk on how schools kill the creativity of the children they teach. In his roughly 20 minute speech in Monterey California, in February 2006, he took center stage to deliver a humorous monologue on the spark of creativity. He pointed out that it was his belief that everyone has an interest in education, and it runs deep with us as a society, because it drives the way our culture performs. His talk points out that education is the catalyst preparing us for the future. His speech addresses the fact that that right now no one knows what the future will hold for us. In 20 years or even five, we are unable to predict with any certainty what the world will require of its population. The question is because we don’t know what the future holds how do we educate for it? No matter where you travel in the world today the education systems are set up in the same general order of importance. Math, Science, Language, and Humanities always are at the top of the education list, with creative activities such as Arts, Dancing, and Theater at the bottom. In his speech, he spoke of the education system of today being antiquated to the developments over the last 50 years. The current system developed in the 19th century to accommodate the educational needs of industrial growth has lost its edge. Today's world with its growing population and advanced development will require creative and innovative ideas to continue forging ahead for the future. In order to come up with new creative ideas to pave the way for the world of tomorrow, we will need to develop the creativity of our children. With the current education system, this will be an issue unless the system is allowed to change and develops creativity alongside academics.
In Sir Robinson's speech, he speaks of children having an extraordinary passion for creativity. He illuminates some of the stages of