Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk

Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk was extremely enlightening; he put what many have been thinking about education into words. He expresses education's influence on creativity in a relatable way. From this I realized the true value of creativity in school and life and the importance of mistakes. Robinson says that we grow out of creativity, instead of growing into it; schools oppress children's ability to create because it is not the way that will be "essential" to later life. Their creativity is destroyed through the course of schooling, contradicting people's belief that people become creative from schooling. Robinson also emphasizes the importance of mistakes, children make mistakes because "they don't know, so they have a go." Once in society, people are antagonized for their mistakes. Children are programmed not to make mistakes, destroying their ability to come up with imaginative outcomes and in turn, their creativity. The final key point that Robinson stressed was college degrees decreasing importance. In society, anyone can get their bachelor 's degree, seeing that they can afford it. If anyone can get a degree, the competition for jobs increases, but openings decrease. This is because jobs will start requiring higher and higher qualifications; this generation is directly effected by this rise in competition and requires them to exceed expectations by a vast quantity.

As Sir Ken spoke, he effortlessly flowed through his topics, cracking jokes to strengthen his points and keep the crowd awake. Over all, Robinson connected all of his points to stories; some were real, others more hypothetical, but he still managed to convey his message through detailing the possibilities and importance of creativity in school. In a way, Robinson rambled, but his ramblings were laced with humorous stories that kept the viewer intrigued. He seemed very together in his speaking, but at the same time he had a relaxed feel in the way he spoke. He was easy and fun to listen to, but he also displayed an important message. His presentation style linked real life stories in with his message of how school destroys creativity.  He shared a few short stories and then linked them to what they mean in today's society.

According to Robinson, school destroys children's ability to be creative by any means; from a young age, they are taught how to compute numbers, color within the lines and spit out words, but never how to paint from within or scribble just because. I believe that children deserve better from schools; not everyone wants to be another robot to graduate from college with a business degree. This video opened my eyes to how I have let my schooling dictate my thinking; I don't know what I want from school. I have all these pieces of learning and knowledge that I love, but I don't know how I can follow through on them when a degree isn't enough any more. I finally realized that school has taught me to be afraid of making mistakes; instead of taking a blind stab in the darkness, reaching for a light, I learned to sit and wait for someone else to come light the way for me. I was not taught to be confident, but rather to be afraid that others would judge me for my "incompetence." Not only did this occur in classes such as math or science, but art itself. Every year in elementary school, we had an art class for an hour once or twice a week. This wasn't time to free draw or express our feelings, but a time to complete an assignment that would later be judged and graded by the teacher. Again, we were taught how to spit out a copy of whatever the teacher wanted to see, and if the standards weren't met, we were marked down. Our mistakes were penalized instead of rewarded, our uniqueness was destroyed by a grade. Robinson preached the important of mistakes and creativity around 5 years ago, yet we continue to degrade original ideas and destroy unusual abilities. I believe in education and I do not regret mine by any means, but I do regret feeling lowered by the marking of a grade. I regret feeling like I am lowered as a person because of what a teacher thought of my individual interpretation of their instructions. These truths that Robinson speaks do not just apply to me or the United States, but anyone going through schooling. In more oppressive societies, students will become even better robots than the ones produced in the United States. If Pink's predictions from A Whole New Mind are true, then really degrees won't be enough; the U.S. will keep shipping jobs over seas and people here will suffer. 

Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk preaches the importance of creativity; but just like all warnings,  the people of the world choose to ignore it until it directly effects them.