Video - Sir Ken Robinson

After viewing the video of Sir Ken Robinson giving a speech at the TED Conference in 2006, a few issues stuck with me.

Sir Ken Robinson was trying to get across the concept that we are educating children out of creativity. This is something that I tend to agree with. With the structure of the education system, the theory of curriculum, does not allow for creativity. How is it possible to have a curriculum that is so highly structured, pre-specified and numerous, and yet allow for creativity. The very aspect of creativity and originality does not lend itself to being pre-specified before the teaching. That is to say, that not all the curriculum outcomes need to be predetermined, they can be developed based on the student, the setting of the class environment and then created by the teacher. As stated by the Elliott Eisner, teaching a child should be a work of art and that a students' product should be "a surprise to the teacher and the student".

Secondly, education is often viewed as a preparation of adulthood, and again I feel that this is another factor that leads to the mis-education of children (the education out of creativeness). Education is a preparation for adulthood just as much as it is a process of current living! Sir Ken Robinson makes note that without the willingness to be wrong, or the preparation of possibly being wrong, one will be less willing to take risks and chances and thus cannot hope to be creative. This means that part of education, a process of life, is to allow children to take risks, to be wrong, to learn for their mistakes and eventually be intelligent and creative - to be able to view problems in several ways and solve them in several/differing ways!