Yes, you heard it right. School kills creativity – at least, that is what Sir Ken Robinson believes.
Who exactly is Sir Kenneth Robinson? He is an English author, speaker and international advisor. He wrote the book “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.”
It’s funny that he would say that because we are all under the impression that going to school will enhance your creativity. Apparently, it will not.
Here is the video.
Sir Ken Robinson believed that children are naturally creative in the sense that they are not afraid to make mistakes. But when they get to school, they are taught what is right and wrong. They end up fearing mistakes. That is main reason why their creativity is crippled – if not stifled.
Here is a transcript of how he explained it.
“What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go. Am I right? They’re not frightened of being wrong. Now, I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original — if you’re not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this, by the way. We stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.”
(Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/transcript#t-355247)
What about you? Do you think Sir Ken had it spot on?
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