www.dalailamacenter.org Sir Ken Robinson speaks during the Dalai Lama Center's Educating the Heart Series. He discusses the importance of an education that educates not just the mind, but also the heart.
Ken Robinson is one of the most inspiring speakers I have ever heard. I love finding a talk that I haven't heard before. As a lecturer who is trying to turn our education system on its head, he is a real role model for me.
I think some people are confused, seeming to think Sir Ken is suggesting everyone go out and get a degree in art. This only proves his point. Don't you understand creativity at all? Creativity results in innovation. Innovative people should prized in any field. Creativity isn't just for artists and musicians. It's for engineers, mathematicians, scientists. Creativity is needed desperately in every field.
I entirely agree with you. Creativity is possible in every field. It is by no means the prerogative or restricted to art alone. i see beauty and creativity every where. in fact after God , if any one is most creative......it is the engineers!
Rajshekhar Mehta But herein lies an identified problem. Indian / Pakistani / Chinese engineering students are very adept at recollection of theorems or laws or processes...etc. BUT their counterparts in the west, though less capable in 'memorized' knowledge are more 'creative' with application of it THUS... we are told (as directors) western engineers are more creative as compared to the Eastern students. (..but, recognizably it is changing...)
aa furqan I think this is a tad misleading. You cannot generalize the whole of asia in just 3 groups of people just as you cannot generalize every country in the west as westerners. I think you are a bit confuse. It is true that there are industries in asia that will only care about your technical capabilities rather than creative talents due the fact that those are also mostly the industries that follows other trends or even copy them. Specially in the regions that you have mentioned. But there are a lot of universities in asia that do try to develop creativity in students, even in the regions that you have mentioned, Japan, for example, have proved to be always leading in terms of innovation. I will not argue which group of engineers are more creative compared to other groups but I'd do like to point out something. The fault usually do not lie on the universities (which teaches engineering and the professions that people do take as careers because university is expected to be more specialized) but the fault is in the primary and secondary education. Most primary and secondary educations aim to standardizing their students to get better quantitative results targeted towards college courses in the fields of science and mathematics ( which like Sir Robinson has pointed, are considered to be the only important subjects nowadays).
Rajshekhar Mehta Respectfully, Mr. Mehta, here we go again with the competitive contrasts! It is not that you can consider engineers to be as creative as Allah Almighty, for God is the one who created the engineer as much as He created the djembe player to glorify, praise and give thanks to God through the gift of creativity He has granted to each soul into whom He breathed the breath of life!
saying that engineers are the most creative out of every other profession is extremely counter-intuitive. every single human utilizes their creativity differently with different professions that fit them best and it is not something you can compare.
One of the greatest talks I've ever heard. Why aren't people like him in positions of power? Or is that honor only reserved for powerhungry sociopaths? It seems that way at least.
thank you.... I ve just started my career as a school teacher and have been deeply shocked to realize how little is done to stimulate children's intelligence and creativity, I am working on it to allow opportunities for them to grow through creativity and love (awakening joy and beauty through learning). I feel very very lonely however
I think most teachers would agree with the idea of and desire to see implemented more things like personalization, creativity, and SEL, but most of the problems brought up in the video are things that need to be addressed at the systematic level more than by individuals. One teacher teaching 25-30 students and expected to meet certain standards of learning while being provided with limited resources can only do so much to break the mould. That's why a lot end up getting burned out and quitting or giving up on an idealized view of education and just slip into maintaining the status quo. Teachers need more support and resources, as well as smaller classes, so that they will be able to implement better educational practices. However, again, most of these issues need to be dealt with on a systematic, rather than individual, basis.
"Our education systems are remorselessly turned outwards -- to the outer world. When what kids -- and the rest of us desperately need too -- is time to look inward, and to dwell in that inner space. Where, in the end, we find the only things that truthfull make sense for us. And education is increasingly poor at giving people techniques to turn inward, and to understand the relationship between the two...." Very well said and a timely message.
I absolutely adore this man, he clarifies so many things that are bothering me and that approach- we are beings of emotions who think - is very close to my own view of humanity :) "The role of the arts, I think, is self-conciously to manage this relationship etween the inner and outer worldit's to... the aim of the artist is not so much to explain his experience, ut to describe it" - one of the best quotes on art and the role of an artist EVER.
If you actually think about it a lot of our pleasures in life stem from the arts and when we're young imagination plays a big part in what lights up our lives. I love his talks they constantly remind me of what is important in life. It was indeed a sad day when we lost this man to another world.
when my father had a bipolar breakdown, i was 13.. i already had various social problems (which would now be considered HFA.. but, at that age, it wasn't really a "thing".. you had a severe mental handicap or you were just shy, quiet, lazy, ect..) i blacked out much of my life for the better part of a decade, and in the process forgot a good amount of my childhood. enough of my life to, honestly, not even be really sure what i myself liked. i'm a pretty well rounded person.. but, a year ago.. i couldn't give an opinion to anything. and i was like that, roughly from age 16, when my overall anger/depression subsided a little, to age 31... not only a massive amount of time, but specifically a very important time in ones life. by today's standards, if you did not graduate highschool, go to a high end college, and have years of impressive work experience.. not only are jobs difficult, but a lot of people themselves will shrug you off in life. my resume of life is pitiful. however, over the past 3yrs of working with my aunts boyfriend.. we had gone from a $1500 investment to making 150K/yr....... what was it you ask? selling antiques. yeah, i'm an antique dealer lol. it's fun, i enjoy it.. in my specific case, it ended negatively for me but it was enough to prove to me that i'm not useless, as i had previously believed not only from a general society standpoint, but by my own father's upbringing; who i currently live with. my point is.. just listening to talks such as these, also remind me i'm not useless. i used to be immensely creative. and, with HFA, i honestly was one of those kids that enjoyed learning.. and i still do. i unknowingly learned how to become a guidance counsler to other kids in school very quickly.. before highschool. ontop of learning i've also always enjoyed being helpful. so through my own personal research outside of school (keep my age in mind at the time) i would teach myself psychology and anything related to the subject that i could find. fast forward to today.. and you have a 32yr old psychologist with nothing more than a GED and some irrelevant online college experience with a severe lack of resources both financially and socially. and don't worry, i'll clear that up. long story short, i left my "uncles" business that i had spent 3yrs of my life building up because not only did he not feel he should pay me, but i had been putting 400/mo into the business the last 6 months before i left and i came to find out he had been paying for much of his son's business, which still currently are where my fathers tools are.. so i don't honestly know what that money went to because his refinishing shop (made sense with antiques right?) was equipped for free so i'm still working on getting the money for a new car because i had to sell the old one while working. sorry, that last part still has me a bit worked up. time passes slowly for a life so stagnant
I agree with absolutely everything Ken says. I have been looking for such thoughts since my high school, when I already disagreed with the traditional system. I always wanted to do something about it and create a new way of stimulation and education of the children. I am sure I will collaborate with this new education. Looking forward to readings Ken's books as well as other articles and researches on this field.
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid" Albert Einstein
Please bring the arts back to school systems! Without art I feel lost, and now that I am swamped with homework, I have no time to do what I love which is express myself through art...
Love Sir Ken Robinson and the ideas he's spreading! And I hate working at a regular school, because me and my students feel like prisoners in the exsisting system
I adore Sir Ken Robinson, he is spot on. I left school with a year left back in 05' because teachers were horrible and more concerned with dress codes and uniforms than teaching. Anyone who was unique or an individual was beat into conformity and now my 11 yr old is going through it and hopefully I can find a better solution before the start of the next year.
He really brings it home at the end. Personalized education, opening up the heart and mind, finding the person inside. Watching more of this guy for sure.
Hey PK, you're right. Once there was a guy named Vernon, who said to his son: "I've never seen a guitar player or singer who made a dime". His son was later known as Elvis Presley.
I find it extremely interesting when a great mind is able to engage my mind ... to get me thinking and to maintain my intense interest in this topic (even though I have my share of ADHD). It is truly fascinating to me how this man can convey his perspective on these matters with such clarity and passion. Clearly, Sir Ken Robinson has been practicing precisely what he is talking about because he can understands the relationship between the external world as well as his own inner being.
Sir Ken is speaking so many truths that I know intimately from having been a faculty of what's now called the Expedition Education Institute. I love the idea that the current conventional education system should be called the alternative and that all of our alternative models should be mainstreamed. The power of engaging and empowering students, facilitating creativity, empathy, mindfullness, etc. are dearly needed in education. Thank you for speaking out so clearly and well on these subjects
This feels like Truth to me. The act of expression which comes from the arts has a purpose which is deeply personal: it serves oneself by enabling the human within us to express what it feels and what naturally 'comes up'. Stuff like the feelings of loss and of love and of anger which come from affecting experiences and relationships. To be able to express this in a class with others- and importantly- for them to listen to you, is the greatest education I can personally imagine.
I didn't really hear what you say. But they way you view things and sharing your view are very inspiring. It made me feel that I can think of anything, and sharing my thoughts in a very human way. Thank you very much.
Great thoughts, I particularly resonate with the points you make at 43:00 - "alternative education and its assumptions should become mainstream education." Hear, hear.
Coming from east Europe...we always had music/art/gym classes. And we had many of them through out the week! I moved to Canada and my children just study math, language, etc. So little art/gym.... very different than back in Europe....I worry about them loosing their creativity....so I try to encourage it at home as much as I can! (but then they have home works from school!!!!)
Damos má valor a que los aprendientes construyan conocimientos, pocos recuerdan el crecimiento del corazón. Una educación de la razón del corazón es indispensable para todo ser humano.
Excellent talk. The modern state education system was set in motion in Victorian times to create people to work for the national interest. It was never intended to be about the individual and in many ways it still isn't. Why do we teach history? And what counts as history? As for the arts, these are taught scientifically, especially English literature. With artificial intelligence and data systems now the norm, the kinds of knowledge needed at school are about as relevant as calligraphy after the arrival of the printing press.
The low number of hits on this video, shows that the leaders of public education are uninformed, some maybe even powerless. The question is how to be sure our leaders & our nation begin now, to say, “This is what education is about, stop now, all that we thought was the best, and wasted so much & so many, start over. We were wrong. We need new thinkers, new direction, and the un-willing need not apply.” Thank you much, Sir Ken Robinson.
