Sir Ken Robinson, an experienced educationalist, stands assuredly in front of an auditorium full of people and answers a rather simple question: do schools kill creativity? Robinson does not shy away from hilarious one-liners, personal anecdotes, success stories, and powerfully delivered quotes to support his stance. This interesting mix, relying on pathos and ethos, produces an intellectual talk that is essentially effective at answering his questions. To Sir Ken Robinson, almost everyone has a fixation on education and how it affects young children. Whether that person is a teacher, a parent, or someone who has gone through any form of education, most have formulated opinions on education. Robinson notes early on in his TED talk that all …show more content…
In Robinson’s personal opinion, the interest and over-fixation of success in education, practically ruins young children's chances at true creativity. Robinson delves into the education system’s treatment of children, a topic which is not supported by logical and statistical evidence. He opens with the fact that mistakes are treated as disappointment, which would be considered common knowledge. Mistakes are very frequently treated with discontent, especially when a child makes a mistake. Robinson contrasts this way of thinking by relaying that making mistakes is part of childhood innocence. He uses two brief stories of two children that say and do whatever they please without realizing that what they’re saying and doing might be a mistake. Both stories are spoken with hilarious comedic timing and smoothly transition into a powerful statement: “...we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make.” (Robinson 05:10) This prerogative, and Robinson’s contention, is that this strict environment kills creativity and, eventually, creates dull university …show more content…
Firstly, Robinson states that intelligence is diverse, and that is because we all see the world differently. “We think visually.in sound.kinesthetically.in abstract terms.in movement,” says Robinson (12:45). Diversity permeates every human being and creativity, being within every human being, beautifully nurtures diversity. Intelligence is dynamic, which Robinson relates to in several comedic tales. Robinson’s third, and final point, is that intelligence is distinct. Robinson follows a loose section of his speech with this stricter speaking structure, which is a successful tactic to keep the audience interested. These three points wholly encompass the spectrum of creativity and intelligence, while simultaneously educating the audience of creativity’s importance. To conclude his empowering speech, Robinson tells the story of a woman, a remarkable choreographer, who faced an education system that tried to kill her creativity. Gillian Lynne’s early 1900s education was filled with exasperation and ridicule by teachers. Until a doctor told her mother that Gillian wasn’t ill, she just wanted to
The average human would think that going to school and getting an education are the two key items needed to make it in life. Another common belief is, the higher someone goes with their education, the more successful they ought to be. Some may even question if school really makes anyone smarter or not. In order to analyze it, there needs to be recognition of ethos, which is the writer 's appeal to their own credibility, followed by pathos that appeals to the writer’s mind and emotions, and lastly, logos that is a writer’s appeal to logical reasoning. While using the three appeals, I will be analyzing “Against School” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto that gives a glimpse of what modern day schooling is like, and if it actually help kids
Along with a strong appeal to logos, the speaker uses a sentimental tone to support the points that we stopped kids from doing creative things. From his personal experience, Robinson maintains, “When you were kids, things you liked, on the grounds that you would never get a job.” The essence of the speaker’s argument is that we only encourage our kids for doing something worthy. When we say that things they like to do have no scope, this emotionally affects kids. Ultimately, guardian just put the weight of their ambitions on the delicate shoulders of their kids. This builds the pressure on students to meets with the expectations of their guardian. Therefore, one should understand that every child has his own specialty, potential, and liking.
All students, and children especially, have tremendous talents, which are forgotten when their minds walk through the school door. Their forever developing talents and favorite interests are left for an uncreative school environment. I, for one, have always been taught and believed in an education, or following the guidelines of another, was essential in achieving wealth and success later in life. However, after listening to Robinson’s argumentative speech, I realize creativity and a valued education coincide with each other. To justify myself, creativity and thinking outside the box has led to many of the world’s advancements. Therefore, when teaching future leaders, and future generations of employees and employers, teaching creativity in a forever rapidly changing and unpredictable world would have benefits. At last, I believe that the educational system puts too much emphasis on a substantial, everyday American future over one’s happiness in a later life. Every human being is already born a unique artist, never made into one; constantly growing into a more talented
It’s no surprise that there are faults within our schools in today’s society. As both authors’ point out if our educational system is
In his essay “Against School,” John Taylor Gatto illustrates his view point that the American population would be better off by managing their own education. He compares the school system to the concept of boredom; that students as well as teachers are victims of the long ago adopted Prussian educational system: “We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simply and glorious. Let them manage themselves.” In other words, Gatto believes that the main reason for the existence of schooling consists in that it trains our children to be obedient citizens who can’t think on their own. His point is that as a society we cut off the intelligence and creativity
Have you ever wondered if our education system has flaws? Well in the article “Against School” written by John Taylor Gatto, Gatto once a teacher explains how public education weakens the youth. He starts off the paper by saying how he taught for 30 years, went through a termination, and personally witnessed almost all of the schooling flaws. In Gatto’s article he lists very noticeable names, such as George W. Bush, George Washington, James Bryant Conant, and H.L Mencken to name a few. Having taught children for so long Gatto believes he has the expert rule in this subject. He proposes that to bring out the best qualities in a child you have to let them make decision and let them take their own risks. Gatto’s mission in this article is to make you consider, if school is actually important.
The human mind is perhaps the greatest object on the earth, animate or inanimate, but without the proper training, the mind is a relatively useless tool. Through the development of formal education systems, humans as a whole have tried to ensure the training of all minds so as to continue prosperity for the world. Most of the time, though, education systems do not realize the harm they are doing to developing minds and the subsequent negative consequences. Among the largest of these inadequate education systems is the American primary schooling system. The American education system is in fact failing; it continues to deplete children of their natural creativity and thirst for knowledge while preaching conformity, which in turn creates an ill-prepared and incompetent public.
In this notable Ted Talk video "Do schools kill creativity?", Sir Ken Robinson discusses how public education systems demolish creativity because they believe it is essential to the academic growth and success of students. Robinson created a broad arrange of arguments to persuade the viewers to take action on this highly ignored issue, and he primarily focuses on how important creativity is. There are classes within schools that help utilize creativity, but they are not taken seriously by adults in society. Therefore, the value of creative knowledge decreases. Robinson uses an unusual combination of pathos and ethos to make an enjoyable dispute for implementing an education system that nurtures rather than eats away at creativity.
The article written by Vicki Hall is about how employees of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) have either suffered or were a witness to personal and sexual harassment under their former president, Marcel Aubut. During Aubut’s leadership, the staff of the Canadian Olympic Committee felt that the upper management was knew about the acts of harassment happening in the workplace but did not do what they could to address them. This lead to apologies to the employees and anybody affected by the COC’s current president, Tricia Smith, and Aubut, and a pledge by Smith to adopt new workplace recommendations such as an anonymous complaint system and the hiring of a senior human resources leader (2015). There are several reasons as to why this article
With the scheduling of their parents, they have no opportunity to let their minds wander without guidelines. Moreover, the structure put in place has taken away the opportunity for children to develop their own interests outside of what others tell them. Furthermore, they are given countless opportunities to develop their knowledge without room for creativity, and hence become a shallow adult. She argues that creativity leads to the great artists, authors, and composers. Consequently, Quindlen’s argument is that scheduling has stunted children’s creative
He opened my eyes to really think about how the education system is taking away children’s creativity. School systems are so focused on being college and career ready, they decapitating the creative capacities students have. I have observed personally how teachers will stigmatize mistakes. When observing a classroom and student does an art project, but the teacher takes points away because it was not what they imagined what the picture should be of. At schools today, math and language are offered at least an hour every day, but students are lucky to get an art or music class for thirty minutes each week. I think that all the tests put on teachers to prepare students has caused the breaking away from creativity even more. Teachers are so worried about getting the mandatory information to the class that they forget about the creative side of teaching. Ken Roberson explains it in a way that gets people engaged and listening about this situation without them realizing at what extent. Just like Sir Ken Roberson, I believe it is our job to educate all parts of a person to help impact the future. It is my duty to find ways to motivate my students in the classroom to be creative and create a future of people that is gaining more than head
The American system of education is considered to be one of the most progressive in the world. One of the surveys on attitudes toward teaching around the world found that the United States is unique in its strong emphasis on "good teaching." My experience at State College has helped me to understand better how this system works, and what methods and techniques American teachers use to motivate their students for creative and active learning. However, I can also see that this system doesn’t work perfectly in every classroom. Reading Ernest Boyer’s article “Creativity in the Classroom” helped me with my understanding of the main problem that nowadays exists with the American college education system. According to the author, the problem is that teachers and students don’t see each other as one team doing the same business; therefore, in most classrooms the process of learning becomes a boring procedure instead of being mind-blowing. Moreover, reading this article, I could analyze the reasons of this problem that the author identifies through my own experiences at State College.
In “School is Bad for Children”, John Holt discusses the faults and failures of the education system. According to Holt traditional schooling stifles children’s curiosity and learning, causing them to be ill-equipped as adults. He believes children are smarter before they enter school, having already mastered what he says is the most important thing, language. Holt goes on to describe how children no longer learn for themselves in school. Their learning has become a passive process. Children then come to realize teachers are not there to satisfy their curiosity, and in turn, grow ashamed and accept what they think teachers wants them to believe. School also becomes a place where uncertainty and incorrect answers are forbidden. The students learn how to cheat and pretend to work when the teacher is looking. As a result, they only use a small portion of their brain, and soon they grow bored. Holt suggests this boredom shuts off their brain and is the reason why many students turn to drugs. Drugs he says is the only way many young people can find awareness in the world they once had when they were little. Children John Holt says, are very fascinated
In the book, “The Element” by Ken Robinson, he discusses how different education systems all over the world are but focuses on the education system in the United States. The reason being is that he believes that there are faults that need to be fixed because it doesn’t focus on the students individually and discovering their “element” but, on academics, business and state testing. Robinson claims that education itself is supposed to be a process in which it develops all resources. Robinsons says that, “In fact, the real challenges for education will only be met by empowering passionate and creative teachers and by firing up the imaginations and motivations of the students.” (247).
TED Talks (Producer). (2006, February). Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html