Creative Sparks Talk

Creative Sparks Talk Analysis

Monica Carter

PHL/458

December 18, 2014

Amy Gingrich

Creative Sparks Talk Analysis Sir Kenneth Robinson is an educator and a well-respected author that is leading a movement against current educational systems. He strongly believes that the school’s systems should encourage creativity instead of undermining it. He spoke at a 2006 TED conference and the title of his speech was “How Schools Kill Creativity”. The focus of his speech was to exploit how schools in the era do everything they can to dissuade children from being creative. He is advocating for a monumental change in current educational systems that nurture and promote creativity.

How does Robinson’s talk illuminate some of the changes in creativity? Robinson begins his talk referencing how we have become a society that has severely vested in education. He continues by saying today’s children have incredible talent, but we waste it through our current educational systems. He discusses how we have become a society that is educating for 50 years in the future when we really have no idea what the future will look like in five years. In looking at the four stages of creativity, it is easy to see how the current educational systems stifle creativity. Stage one according to Ryan Ruggiero is searching for challenges or “meeting challenges in an imaginative, original, and effective way” (Ruggiero, 2012). In stage two, expressing the problem or issue, Ryan Ruggiero says, “Different expressions open different avenues of thought, it is best to consider as many expressions as possible” (Ruggiero, 2012). Robinson discusses how our educational systems have become more about mathematics and science and less about the arts. Young children are willing to take a chance. If they do not know an answer to a question, they are not afraid to go for it or of being wrong according to Robinson. Robinson makes an excellent point that “if you aren’t prepared to be wrong then you will never come up with anything creative” (Robinson, 2006). Stage three, is probably the most vital stage because it concerns the investigating of the problem. It is important to make sure you obtain the necessary information to effectively deal with the problem. Stage four is the last stage, this involves producing ideas. It is important to make sure you generate enough ideas to decide which action you should take. Robinson notes that one of the biggest obstacles with children and creativity is that they “don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it” (Robinson, 2012).

How does Robinson’s talk relate to the concepts of imagination and curiosity? Almost the entire talk Robinson gave revolved around creativity and imagination. Robinson discusses how today’s society has become dependent on rising through the ranks by achieving different degree levels. He explains that in order to rise through the different levels, there is too much focus on answering questions accurately, and too much focus on when mistakes occur. He mentions that our current educational systems are ran to say that the worst thing you can do is have a wrong answer.

How do some of the points made in the talk apply to some of your personal experiences and how might they benefit society as a whole? I think that as a parent it is vital that we remember to encourage our children to be creative. Although the schools systems are mainly focusing on math and science, we as parents have to take the initiative outside school time to allow our children to be creative. For example, my daughter loves music and wanted to learn to be a pianist, she is receiving private lessons after school every Tuesday. My nephew who is 9 years old loves to draw and sing. I occasionally buy him new art supplies and post up new drawings on my fridge or at my desk at work to praise his creativity. For the singing, I always ask him to sing to me and he is currently receiving singing lessons outside of school time. I believe that these examples benefit society as a whole because parents cannot blame a school system alone for not embracing their child’s creative side. Ultimately, we as parents have control and we can always enroll our children in a school that specializes in performing arts or creativity. The Ted Robinson talk was quite eye opening for me and has made me take a more analytical approach to how I embrace my own children’s creative side my own children.

REFERENCES
Robinson, K. (2006, June). How schools kill creativity [Video file]. Retrieved from Creative Spark website: http://www.ted.com/playlists/11/the_creative_spark
Ruggiero, V.R. (2012). The art of thinking: a guide to critical and creative thought
(10th ed.) Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

References: Robinson, K. (2006, June). How schools kill creativity [Video file]. Retrieved from Creative Spark website: http://www.ted.com/playlists/11/the_creative_spark Ruggiero, V.R. (2012). The art of thinking: a guide to critical and creative thought  (10th ed.) Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.