Ken Robinson is a wonderful polemicist, and a fantastic speaker, but his points on creativity are highly debatable; if schools were killing creativity why is the so much creativity being generated by people who have gone through the school system? In both the artistic and problem-solving domains of creativity we have incredible examples of modern-day creativity.
He says we don't know what kinds of jobs there will be in 50 years time, and we may not, but chances are there still will be doctors, lawyers, accountants and street sweepers.
I disagree with his notion that creativity is as important as literacy, it really isn't.
Also I believe his view that we are educating to produce University Professors isn't true, it fails to recognize the wonderful work that so many highly creative teachers do, and it fails to understand that school is more than the classroom, there are sporting activities, and school plays, and all kinds of other non-classroom activities that help educate children (co-curricular activities), and in the case of third-level students, they are often learning to cook, clean and live by themselves.
In terms of the hierarchy in education, if we are ever going to find a cure for serious medical conditions, it's likely going to be achieved by people who studied a science, so there is a reason for this kind of hierarchy.
Finally my own reflection is that if there is anything that is killing creativity, it is rampant consumerism.
2 comments:
Robinson's a bullshitter really. His ideas are a mish-mash of the 21st century skills fetish, unrealistic notions about personalised learning and populist ideas about everyone being special in their own special way. That said, the number of hits he gets is huge, suggesting that there are many people out there who have not had a good experience of formal education.
Agreed, I think school has issues, but it's not a total disaster, and the classroom experience is just a small part of what you are doing at school. Ken Robinson is a fine speaker, engaging, but I think his ideas are woolly.
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