A Creative Education

I chose Ken Robinson’s TED talk titled, “How Schools Kill Creativity.”  TED talks are speeches given by experts in a variety of fields. TED’s slogan is that its talks are ideas worth spreading. This creates an environment conducive to creativity and freedom of expression. Speakers discuss a wide range of issues and their personal stances on such issues. Robinson gave this TED talk during February 2006. Robinson is a noted authority on the subject of education, specifically creativity and human innovation. He has worked internationally to increase creativity and innovation. This background is important when considering Robinson’s argument. If he were not an expert in this field, his ideas, experiences, and conclusions would be thoroughly cast aside. However, he is an expert, he is knowledgable and he is suitable to be speaking on such a subject.

In this speech, Robinson argues that creativity is a critical part of education. Robinson feels that it is our responsibility to change the way we educate the future generations. One crucial subtopic of Robinson’s argument is that education of our children should be important enough to us to act when we see a problem. Without this Robinson’s argument would be completely invalid. He could discuss how creativity is being crushed in education, but it would have no effect on his audience without this piece Robinson is effective in his argument. The audience comes away with a changed view of creativity in education. Throughout Robinson’s speech, the audience evaluates their support of creativity and daily interactions with creative young minds. TED audiences tend to be a hand-pick diverse group of thinkers. While anyone who views these videos and reads the transcripts is a secondary audience, Robinson speaks primarily to the physical audience. He uses this fact to his advantage. Robinson utilizes rhetoric to reach his audience. One of his strongest appeals is to humor. He tells humorous anecdotes. He makes fun of his profession. He connects to the audience. Those who act upon his advice the most are parents, teachers, and education leaders. Robinson does not address any one country’s curriculum, rather he attacks education as a whole. He points out that this is not a new problem, but we can fix it today. Robinson’s argument is most effect when applied to the individual. His numerous anecdotes are crucial here. He tells stories of individuals who either used their creativity for good or exemplified the lack of creativity allowed in education. Robinson connects with each audience member to call them to action. He is completely effective in his argument. Now, years later, we can see the effect this speech and his subsequent work has made on education approaches internationally.