Monday, November 9, 2009

You've got to see this.

These are from Sir Ken Robinson's, PhD, talk on creativity. It's a must see. (And I don't say that lightly.) If you have children, you need to see this.

"All kids have talents. And we squander them. Pretty ruthlessly."

"Creativity is as important in education as literacy; and we should treat it with the same status."

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you're not going to come up with anything original."

"We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. In fact, we're educated out of it."

"The problem is we educate children progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads, and slightly to one side."

Please, go take the few minutes it takes to watch this. He makes you laugh, keeps it interesting, and points up one of the most serious problems facing the children of today. The fact that our educational system critically handicaps them for the unknowable world into which we're all hurtling. I remember my best friend, in fifth grade, repeating: "They're trying to take my imagination away from me." I couldn't understand it . . . but then again, I didn't have the kind of rich, full imagination she did. I had already succumbed.