From Skilled Hands

On Creativity

By fromskilledhands ( October 1, 2008 at 10:04 pm) · Filed under Art, creativity, TED talks

Creativity and education are subjects that are close to my heart. Folks often tell me that they are not creative, that they wish they were so. And yet, these are people who are parents—what better manifestation of creativity that our children? And our children that are kind, compassionate world citizens are testaments to our paths.

These are people who write, or who work with people or who live their daily lives with their humanness intact. Manifestations of creativity abound. We just need to know how to see them.

Sir Ken Robinson is an interesting man. Listen to what he has to say, and let me know what you think.

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8 comments »

Lisa Kenney said,

October 2, 2008 @ 12:38 am

This was well worth watching. I thought he was fabulous and I especially loved his observation that many of us act as if the body is just the means for us to get our heads to meetings. I think he’s also got a very good point that we need to cultivate the talents of children and not try to make them fit the mold…cuz then you just get…moldy kids
Eryl Shields said,

October 2, 2008 @ 4:45 pm

Thanks for posting this Debra, I thought he was brilliant and am going to send the link to my sister who has two young children. I’ve heard similar arguments to this before, but none quite so clear. His story about the dancer is just perfect, I’m going to tell it to my students who having made it from school to university are now all desperate to keep their heads down, get their degrees, and go out and get jobs. Because they want to make money and don’t know how else to go about it.
Larramie said,

October 3, 2008 @ 1:04 pm

Creativity = ongoing education in all fields of interest.
Laura/centerdownhome said,

October 4, 2008 @ 11:21 pm

Hey Debra — I’ve seen this Ted Talk before, a while back, but I can’t remember where. Zenmomma’s? It was good to see it again, ’cause with my memory, I had completely forgotten it.

Anyway, it reminds me of the book, “Ender’s Game”. Have you read it? It’s a science fiction book about, hmm, how children are educated in the future (and lots of other stuff, but the part I found interesting was the way kids learned). They are encouraged to make mistakes, lots of mistakes, as they “work out” how to do something. They are NOT “taught”, not told how to do something, just given the tools and the freedom to learn, to keep trying, to create new ways to do things.

Learning is about “creating” new pathways in our brains, NOT mimicking the old pathways of others through their direction and instruction and ENDLESS testing.

It’s a cool unschooling book.

Christa, at Sandyfeet, has an interesting post on Carl Rogers and some of his views on education.

http://sodonti.blogspot.com/2008/09/other-mr-rogers.html

“When I try to teach, as I do sometimes, I am appalled by the results, which seem a little more than inconsequential, because sometimes the teaching appears to succeed. When this happens I find that the results are damaging. It seems to cause the individual to distrust his own experience, and to stifle significant learning. Hence I have come to feel that the outcomes of teaching are either unimportant or hurtful…..This is frankly troubling.”

Sorry to be so l-o-n-g. You know that how children learn is a subject near and dear to my heart.
OldOldLady Of The Hills said,

October 5, 2008 @ 7:52 pm

I am familiar with him and TED, and think he is BRILLIANT! I so agree with him and all that he believes….!
And you are so right about “creativity” it is in all of us…It just needs that key to let us be in touch with that part of ourselves!
fromskilledhands said,

October 5, 2008 @ 9:34 pm

I love how Sir Ken uses humor to get his points across. How many of us gave up on an interest that could have become a passion because we didn’t, as Lisa says, fit the mold.
How many voices were silenced because they weren’t “supposed” to sing, or paintings were never painted or dances danced because someone else’s agenda defined the path.
How our spirits can soar when we are given the freedom to be who we are.
MamaMo said,

October 7, 2008 @ 1:50 pm

Thank you SO much for sharing this – I’m serving on a middle schools task force looking at how we need to shift our priorities in order to create 21st century learners, and I am forwarding this video on to the other committee members. EXCELLENT!! Thank you again!
gerry rosser said,

October 12, 2008 @ 12:58 pm

Wow! What an impressive guy and talk.

Sometimes I feel as though my mind has been strip-mined, although I never phrased the notion quite so well as he did.