Review of a talk

For this blog, we were told to watch and listen to a talk given by Ken Robinson about creativity and how schools kill it. I liked very much what Ken Robinson said, and I really enjoyed the talk.

I think it is important what Ken says about being wrong. He sais that being wrong is not a synonym to being creative, but if you’re always afraid of being wrong, you will never get to be creative. I think this is really true. If somebody wants to be creative, there’s a chance of being wrong, and that’s what makes children be more creative than adults, they’re not afraid of being wrong.

I think it is also relevant what he says about the hierarchy in schools. It is true that everywhere on earth mathematics and languages are given more importance than humanities (and science), and that arts and music are at the bottom. Actually, in the school were I went you were given the possibility to choose if you wanted to have arts or music, but not both (there was no space in your schedule, because you had to have all of the other subjects, although I was more interested in arts and music than in history).

I think it is really funny when Ken refers to the body as a way to transport the head. The worse thing is that what he says is true. Adults don’t teach children how to use their bodies, they teach them how to use their minds. It is important to have a balance between body and mind, and that is what we should be teaching to future generations.

When he closes the talk, he says that humanity has mined our minds for a particular commodity that will not serve us in the future. Maybe it won’t, but I think it will, because, although creativity is important, knowing about things that the educational system teaches us is also important.