Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson | TED 

Modern education: Creating people who are smart enough to accurately repeat what they're told and follow orders, and dumb enough to think this makes them smarter than everyone else.

It's incredibly upsetting how old is this and how everything is still the same.

Anybody in 2024?

R.I.P Ken Robinson (1950 - 2020). Thank you for your work.

Do schools kill creativity? Making an entire class write something they have no interest in and forcing them to have X amount of words. Yes. I would say it does. It kills the want to learn.

I hate it when you do something a certain way that works efficiently and correctly but the teacher gets mad because it's not the way you're supposed to do it.

11:27 - 11:50 - his words were spot on. In a world of youtubers, digital creators and meme makers, you actually don't need a degree in, you need creativity.

"The whole purpose of public education, throughout the world, is to produce university professors...The universities designed the system in their own image [and the system itself] is a protracted process of university entrance. " *Finally,* someone *said* what so many uni students have been *thinking* and *realizing.*

Clap clap. 12 years have gone by, we're still in the same boat.

Loved this quote: "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original" - Sir Ken Robinson

"If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original"

16 years later, still my favorite TED talk. RIP sir Ken

Almost 10 years since this video was posted and unfortunately nothing has changed.

It’s so sad now that he’s gone, he will be dearly missed, Rest in peace Sir Ken

I remember watching this years ago as a teenager. It's amazing how forward-thinking he is! Can you imagine that the issues that he mentioned happening 15 years ago are still relevant till this day.

My whole dissertation stemmed from this ted talk, I am an actor and have just started temporarily working in Education in between jobs, heartbroken to find the education still in the exact same state as he talks about, academic subjects with such a hierarchy and creativity still being shrinked if not killed. I hope I live to see this change

The audience is laughing but actually what he says is very painful. Schools kill not only creativity, but also innocence.

As Mark Twain said: "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education".

I'm from those kids who had started there education journey in 2006 I'm not willing to retired in 2065!, instead I'll retire before middle 30's. I quit from studying Dentistry because it wasn't my passion and I'm that crazy dude in the entire family who believes in what he capable of, and I'll Push myself in sake for helping others and stand against greedyness❤

I shall cherish this day that I'm here watching this as a perspective teacher... Shall try and bring change 🙏

“I never let school get in the way of my education” -Mark Twain

My kindergarten teacher crushed my dreams when she told me that I can't be a Jedi because they don't exist. Many tears were had that night.

This video is 15 years old and already true about education inflation. People are educating and competition is so high that creativity is becoming extinct and noble pursuits of life unfollowed.

"Imagination is a weapon. Those who lack it are first to die."

Now im staring at my Homework thinking if I should do it or not,

School kills everything. Creativity, The Soul, Self Esteem, Individuality, Innocence, Critical Thought, etc.

The best TED talk ever.

"Academic inflation" is a good way to describe it. One of the main problems is that individual students don't get the required help they actually need, and many children that have one or more talents never discover what their talents really are. I also strongly agree that intelligence is interactive. That's how you learn. Later, when you have accumulated enough knowledge and experience, you can use this in combination with your intelligence, but before that you need to learn through an active feedback system.

I really do think school kills creativity.

He's the funniest comedian I've ever seen and he's not even a comedian

"Classes will dull your mind Destroy the potential for any creativity"

I come back to this every couple of years as it is simply the perfect speech.

Is this guy an educator or comedian? Apparently he's both and he seems quite effective at them as well.

Who's here after hearing of his passing? This is one of the best TedTalks I've watched. It definitely helped me shape my principles as a teacher. You will be missed.

I'm an educator and on the way to reach higher levels. Everything start from THIS video.

Intelligence, irony, comedy and depth united in this conference. Extraordinary. Thank you👋👋👋

14 years later after this video I'm still sitting sitting in a room 7 hours a day not learning anything. Nothing changed what a waste.

Education system cause many highly-brilliant people think they're not. -Sir Ken Robinson Best quote ever!

The Gillian Lynne story brought chill thru me. How many of our wonderful children are wasted because we the adults mistakenly think we know best.

This is the best Ted Talk out there. Period . Equally engaging, enlightening and hilarious; delivered in a way that people are not bored nor swaying away from the topic at hand ! All Hail Sir Ken Robinson 🙌

I learned more maths, physics, biology, philosophy, law, history, critical thinking and skepticism from my public library than I ever did in school. School should be a place where you find your happiness in what you want to do for the rest of your life, not kill your passions.

I was just saying that kids tend to know what they want to be when they grow up. High school kids don't have a clue. That is evidence that there is something wrong with our system.

This video is mind blowing..... We need more Ken Robinsons in this world today.....

He was a symbol of wisdom for me. :( Rest in Peace! 💚

It blows my mind that this talk was on Buzzfeed's list of worst TED Talks of all time. It very well may be the best.

14 years and this is still relevant. When will schools realize that grades aren’t a fair way to test effort and just imposes the notion that failure is wrong? I could only hope some brilliant people would think of a way to design school and the whole system such that kids learn and teachers teach, where everyone does their job in an environment that fuels each kids interests and potential.

I started kindergarten the year he gave this talk, so the kids that he mentioned as “entering school this year” just graduated high school. Time flies

I had the pleasure and honor to spend time with Sir Kenneth Robinson in October of 2017. I sat next to him at a dinner I hosted at my family's restaurant. He told a story of meeting Sir Paul McCartney, and how they mutually agreed to stop calling each other with a "Sir" prefix since both were "Sirs." I couldn't stop laughing. He asked me my favorite Beatle song ("not fair, there are so many. All of them?" I replied) I finally decided on A Day in the Life as my current favorite. He told me that use to be his favorite, but now it's Please Please Me because it was one of the few helped launch them into eternity. RIP Sir Kenneth Robinson (my dinner friend).

I wish I had seen this video when I was at school

Watching this 13 years later. It Makes more sense. His son is still four.

Brilliant .. having ADHD and being an artist and one of lifes creatives, I can totally relate to this 🙏🏿

To this day I get anxiety when summer ends only because the little boy in me is terrified of having to go back to school. Schools did everything to make pupils the same and discourage any form of creativity

came for learning, stayed for comedy. and learning.

I hope that people don't misunderstand this video. It's not that school isn't important. It obviously is. However, creativity is not something you learn through typical education. Art is more about experience than it is about knowledge. That being said, knowledge is still very important.

It is very true that people give sometimes very little to creativity.

I consider this a valuable lecture. RIP Sir Ken Robinson. I didn't know he had passed away. A man with a great mind. I hope my creativity hasn't dissapeared yet 😭

I remember vividly my mother defending my right to be left handed in 1954. "Common sense" was the argument for swatting my hand if I used the "wrong" one. Love ya mom.....

School can also kill self esteem.

This is a great video. Every parent and teacher should watch this. As a parent, I let my child be creative and use her imagination. They won't be little forever, let them enjoy the wonders of life before the real world ruins everything for them. Just look up the history of education and that will explain everything. It was created because of Rockefeller's thought process of "I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers."

I will continue to watch this over and over and over again and recommend it to others for the rest of my life. It will always be relevant and enjoyable. You live on sir Ken

Reminds me of how much I HATED school and school hated me.... except for a handful of wonderful teachers who made a difference. Thank you to Tommy Jones (simply for conversations) R Gerallt Jones (who gave a label to what I was interested in... and gave me a book "The Prison Letters of George Jackson"), Dr I D Williams (hands on Nuffield Physics) and Mrs Bowen (English Language and Literature). There were some who should have been put in jail and I spit on their graves; but not these.

I totally agree. As said in the video. “All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” -Pablo Picasso. When we grow up, we become frightened for being wrong and in the school system, mistakes are the worst thing you can make. But isn't school supposed to prepare us for the future? The knowledge we gain from school matters but creativity is still necessary. Students spend 18+ years in their lives taking tests, memorizing informations and spent hours finishing homeworks. However, true learning is born out of lasting understanding, not grades and tests. The informations we memorize fades by the time, but our creativity won’t. In school, even if you’re allowed to be creative, they put a lot of restrictions in it. Students are expected to follow methods instead of creating their own. For example, in Literature. Students are often given strict guidelines for writing things like poems. School makes us create poems that have precise rules for each individual line, making poetry seem very constricted and uncreative. School drains out creativity of oneself.That’s why school must focus on empowering students’ creativity.

Something that school definitely kills for me is the desire to read. At the end of last summer I decided to finally finish the Mistborn books. I read through books 2-6 in about 2.5 weeks. The fastest I'd ever read a series. Then this past school year came along and as usual we had to read some "classics" in English and do some personal reading. I read roughly the same amount of book in those 2.5 weeks as I did over a 9 month school year. Only now when I have nothing to occupy my time in summer am I now dipping my toes back into reading on my own. Luckily, I don't need to take an English class next year.

I love how he cracks the audience up each time he delivers his speech!! 😂 very powerful speaker. ✨

I forgot 75% of what I learned in high school. The other 25% that I remember is useless.

I'm an English teacher who is still at the bottom of the totem pole but when I get onto campus, my students gather around me while each one of them is trying to chat with me. I don't go to the office for a while. I just stay there between them while the other experienced teacher usually sneer at my from behind the window. I'm not sure whether this is completely correct, but I've never been too strict with my students. When I'm with them I don't worry to wear my heart on my sleeve. We love and understand each other. Sometimes we don't do homework. Sometimes we watch movies instead of doing grammar exercises. I believe they learn much better this way and I've seen it they do. I just hope in the long run, I'll be remembered as the English teacher who made them smile at class.

What a funny and intelligent guy. Weird hearing him talk about how people like him won’t see the future but our children will since he’s gone now. Rest In Peace.

I concur. Brilliant. I have worked in education and said to many colleagues that we are killing the creativity out of a diverse set of learners with a rigid curriculum that is meant to fit one size all.

Yes, it does. I love writing, I'm trying to write a book, but I never have time to do so. I have no time to do anything I love - I have to write essays, tests, worksheets about things I don't care about. Now to open MS Word brings a tsunami of anxiety down upon me when I want to work on my passion project. My mind is mush by the end of the day, and I can't do it anymore... it's disheartening.

This video was 10 years ago. Nothing's changed.

Each of us can be a creative person, the main thing is to understand what we like to do the most, what brings pleasure, and also delights other people. It is very important to learn to listen to yourself and realize your talents, to be creative. I really liked Ken Robinson's monologue

One of the worst things about school is the wonky distribution of subjects. For some reason you just get way more time for some subjects than you do for others. I am failing one of the classes I care about the most and put some of the most effort into simply because I haven't had the time to work on some of the tasks. Meanwhile, I'm doing just fine on my least favourite subject, English, because we've got two periods of it every day except Wednesday (and the weekend). It pisses me off how I have to spend more time on the subjects I hate than the ones I actually want to be doing.

It's incredibly upsetting how old is this and how everything is still the same. School killed my will to live

I can definitely tell you that school killed my creativity. I used to come up with so many different charecters and stories and all that when I was younger, but I seperated myself from my younger self. I had more important things to do like get good grades and write 3 page essays about a debate as stupid as apples to oranges. And when he came back to me in 9th grade and asked me if I wanted to write a story, I felt nothing but disgust at the thought of having to open microsoft word again having already done so for so many hours. And now I'm in 10th grade and I regret pushing him away and letting him go, and I keep trying to trace his footsteps but he's running faster than I can track and his voice becomes more and more faint. I try and I try so hard but I can't bring back the person I once was after so many years of being told to let him go.

RIP Sir Ken And thanks for the validation you gave to our collective creative side.

Gave me goosebumps , and that is the reason i dropped this year , and working on my business . Rest in Peace sir

1. I agree that schools have become a kid storage facility for children while the adults are at work, teaching them one-size-fits-all random things just for the sake of teaching, and have them remember the information long enough to pass a test. Most Parents of course think this is good, but is it effective? 2. School also serve a more valuable purpose; socializing. This can go both ways if stopping bullying is not a primary initiative, but school is a place where kids learn how to socialize and interact with other kids, which is probably the most important knowledge they'll take away from attending school in the first place. 3. Other than maths, a bit of history and languages, I find that most of what I was taught over the decades I have attend school has been forgotten, because 95% of it has been either uninteresting or inapplicable to daily life. All the skills I utilize in my career have been taught through on-the-job experience. Do we really need 2 decades of school to apply for a job? 4. Why do schools not prepare children for life? Why are there literally no to minimal focus on entrepreneurship/doing your taxes/home economics/cooking/agriculture/world politics/problems?

I rarely put my hand up to answer a question or ask a question in fear of getting it wrong and being yelled at. Some of my teachers get angry when we ask a "stupid" question or don't know easy things and this is putting me off learning.

Rest in peace Sir Ken Robinson...I rewatched this at times for some inspiration. Just learned about it today.

Still rewatching, and re-laughing at all of his jokes right now And for sure will watch and laugh in the future. Truly an inspiration!

Short answer: YES Long answer: Yes, it does

Mistakes were punished so harshly in my family that I learned how to expertly avoid responsibility. Can't fail if you never try, right? What a wonderful lesson that was imparted onto me, thank you education system and parents!

I’m a mathematician by educational training (masters degree) and I think it’s an inusual subject to categorise. It’s not really a memory test - it’s more of a set of skills and tools that allow us to *creatively* problem-solve. I see this video is 14 years old. I wonder whether over that time education has changed in the direction Sir Ken was recommending? When I was a young man 40 years ago, I read Edward de Bono. He developed courses on how to think. And he emphasised the importance of making happiness your goal in life (“The Happiness Purpose”). I had great hopes for a revolution in education resulting from his work. But I don't think much has changed in 40 years. On the subject of being WRONG - we are not taught the value of discovering our mistakes and learning from them. Some of the most important lessons we learn in life cone from the mistakes we have made.

Arguably the mosty important TED talk ever. Its relevance increases every year. I laugh and I cry every time I watch it.

My creativity died long ago, still finishing thesis for master degree. Now I'm afraid to get wrong, I punish myself when doing it wrong. I hate myself because why now I realized that all the time I insulted my creativity. I hope when I'm graduate, I can get my creativity back.

10 years later and still relevant, that's the problem

I have listened this at least 100 times. Every time I find something new.. Hats off

I come back to this talk every now and then to remind me how to present. Its just incredible.

video quality: 240p speech quality: 4K

That's why I prioritize my personal work rather than school

I absolutely LOVE this presentation!!! I pray we all awaken in time to wholistically educate our children!

The best Ted Talk of all time. Just as relevant, if not more, than it was years ago. Eye-opening and enlightening.

So sad to hear of Sir Ken Robinson’s passing yesterday (Aug 21, 2020). This talk from more than a decade ago was one of my favorites growing up, and I hoped to meet him in person someday. An inspiration to so many. RIP Sir Ken Robinson (1950-2020).

Let’s have a moment of silence for the memory of Sir Ken Robinson, rest in peace

its the fact that this was posted 16 years ago, yet the system barely changed.

We also have to look what happened/happens in the early childhood. We all traumatized more or less, this is where it started because our parents already programmed/manipulated/traumatized. We must be brave enough to look at ourselves before the change happens in the outside

Failure is a necessary stepping stone to sucess, so if you punish failure, you're limiting sucess.

I'm 16, I've been telling stories for as long as I can remember, and I started putting them to paper three years ago. I've always been a "gifted" child--I excelled in math and science, and everyone told me how important and special I was because of my academic achievements, so I thought that my passion for writing was unimportant. I hid it. Even my parents and many of my closest friends had no idea I would pour hours and hours into my stories weekly, or even daily. This year, though, I took a high school writing class, which accompanied my English class. My teacher not only writes but is also very well-respected in the theater community, and has written several original pieces. It was only recently that I had the opportunity to write something creative for his class--a script for an original scene--and by the time I got around to it, I was exhausted from all of my academic work. I wrote the script in under two hours. It was far from my best work, but I simply didn't have the extra time to put into it. After I turned it in, my writing teacher approached me and told me it was outstanding, that he wished he'd had the opportunity to read my creative writing earlier, and that he wanted me to polish it and enter it in a short play contest next year. I'd hidden my love of writing for three years, and almost nobody had ever read, let alone praised, my work, so I was blown away--and I still am. I never dreamed that my "hobby" could be worth acknowledging, but now I was finally being told it was--not by the school system, but by a man who worked in a creative field. In the past few weeks I've opened up more and let more and more people read my work, again, outside of the school curriculum, and I've been told time and time again that I have a promising future in creative writing, if I choose to take it. I've been offered advice, I've been called a prodigy, people have offered to mentor me--it's astounding. And nothing I've shown people has been my best work! But I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that my creative achievements are more important than my academic ones...because only academic achievement is praised by the school system. I still have to sacrifice most of my time to math and science, because in the eyes of the school system, my writing is not worth a grade. In the eyes of the school system, my passion, my devotion to a creative outlet, means nothing. I'm not the only person I know in this situation--my experience might be somewhat of an extreme case, but I know gifted artists and musicians who are also seeing their talent and creativity squandered by the school system. I've seen it at every school I've ever been to, with dozens and dozens of passionate people. I've witnessed the exact moment when people gave up on their dreams because they were told math and science were more important than what they loved. The school system kills creativity.

For me, it remains to be the most inspiring TED video even today.

Shocking to hear of his passing. I just discovered this TED talk. May he rest in peace The sad reality is this TED talk’s almost as old as me but nothing has changed. It’s still exactly how he described it. The school system is just like the one guy in class who never does their homework, never studies, never passes and winds up having to repeat the same year multiple times. No pun intended lol We need changes like ASAP