Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity in Education

I had the pleasure Tuesday afternoon of hearing Sir Ken Robinson talk on the topic of “How Creativity Can Be Fostered in Higher Education” at a luncheon on the University of Florida’s campus. Robinson was brought to our campus as part of an initiative called “The Creative Campus” being promoted by UF’s Center for the Arts and Public Policy and our College of Fine Arts. His talk had such implications for arts education at all levels, I thought I’d share some of his comments here.

I’ve previously mentioned Robinson on this blog. He is author of “Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative,” which presents a convincing argument for elevating the role of the arts in public education. If you’ve already seen Robinson’s 2006 Ted Talk presentation from last year, then you know what an entertaining and engaging presenter he is. He certainly didn’t disappoint the audience that gathered to hear him talk today.

Robinson devoted the first part of his talk to making the case that we can’t predict what the world will look like in seventy years, when the children entering kindergarten today will begin retiring. One of the more vivid metaphors he used to illustrate this point was “we’re flying into a fog bank” and have no idea what to expect. Yet, we continue to model our educational system on economic and industrial precepts grounded in the past century.

Several of Robinson’s points had a familiar ring like “Schools confuse academic ability with intelligence” and “Education is the key to maintaining America’s position in the world.” He also cited Marc Prensky’s “Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants” catchphrase to distinguish between the ways adults and kids approach technology today. According to Robinson, schools are now being run by digital immigrants who believe that kids have the same relationship with computers and digital technology that they had growing up with television. “Not true,” said Robinson. “T.V. is a passive medium where kids today are using computers as creative tools,” to paraphrase his comment.

Robinson used few visuals in his presentation; but when he did they were quite effective, like his chart on “The Decline of Genius” used to illustrate the point that schools don’t promote creativity, rather they educate it out of children. This chart was based on a 1968 study by George Land and Beth Jarman (Breaking Point and Beyond) in which they gave 1,600 3-5 year olds a creativity test used by NASA to measure divergent thinking in engineers and scientists. They then re-tested the same children at 10 years of age and then again at 15 years of age. Their findings were rather alarming.

While 98% of children 3-5 years of age scored at the genius level on the creativity test, only 32% of the same children did so at ages 8-10, and then only 10% did do at 13-15 years of age. Moreover, the researchers gave the same test to a large group of adults over the age of 25 and only 2% of those participants scored at the genius level.

Continuing with his talk, Robinson took aim at the standardized testing movement in this country. He boldly stated “the American system has been colonized by the assessment industry” and that there was no “quality control measures” in place to assess the assessors. He further argued that the standardized movement has removed teachers’ ability to be “great teachers.”

The standardization movement is partially responsible for what Robinson referred to as a “crisis in human resources,” which is being exasperated by very strategies meant to improve the situation. It has brought about an intellectual culture that prioritizes certain types of literacy and thought (language, math and science) at the expense of other types of thought, most notably in the arts. This, in turn, has led to a large group of kids being marginalized in schools, many of whom end up being medicated based on the misdiagnosis that they suffer from ADHD when instead they’re simply bored with school.

Rather than using anesthetics to numb children’s sensibilities, Robinson believes that we should be using the arts and aesthetics to heighten their sensibilities. He further argued that creativity, which he defined as “the process of generating original ideas that have value,” should be seen as a core element of our educational strategies in schools.

Robinson closed out his presentation talking about imagination and creativity. While imagination refers to our ability to visualize things that are beyond our senses, creativity is the process of putting our imagination to work. He cited several examples to illustrate the power and value of imagination and creativity (such as Hamlet, Mozart, the Sistine Chapel). He further claimed that while everyone is capable of exhibiting creativity, many don’t know how. The key to developing these innate capabilities, according to Robinson, is an educational environment based on 21st century modes of thought.

As I drove back to my office from Robinson’s talk, I wondered if art educators would be willing to once again take up the banner of creativity—something that once was seen as our primary goal in schools but since the 80s has fallen out of favor. Perhaps it’s time to return to our roots?