This is Ken Robinson. Sir Ken Robinson. He studies creativity. This is his take on schools, which I agree with. It’s a bit long but it’s worth it. When you think about why people act the way they do, it’s not only media that’s influencing us. It’s any big cultural force that has access to shaping us all, and schools also fit that. Who doesn’t go to school? Here’s a couple excerpts from the speech.
“My contention is that all kids have tremendous talents. And we squander them, pretty ruthlessly.”
“Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
“Kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go. They’re not frightened of being wrong. Now, I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. By the time they get to be adults most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies this way. We stigmatize mistakes. And now we’re running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said this: he said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately; that we don’t grow intro creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it.”
“If you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think that they’re not because the thing that they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized.”
“Our education system has mined our minds in the way in the way we strip mine the earth: for a particular commodity. And for the future, it won’t serve us.”
There’s a great ol’ American tradition of ours, most actively performed by people who most identify as “patriots”, of putting the winner on a pedestal and blaming the loser for not being more like the winner. This type of opinion frequently comes up in discussions about the American Dream. You know the opinion…The rich got that way because they had the drive and the diligence that you don’t, bum. Maybe if you worked harder, you’d be one of them. You also see this idea promoted by health and beauty magazines about weight loss. Just replace “rich” with “skinny”, and “bum” with “fatty”. You also see this when in sports training. The best athletes train hardest. You snooze, you lose. And maybe you’ve heard the childhood variation of the philosophy. You can do anything you set your mind to. When you grow up, well…it gets meaner and starts to blame you for not getting what you want.
When stuff like this gets said over and over, people start to believe it. They also start to hate themselves for not being like how everyone wants them to be. It makes you feel bad and then gives you a way out. Like you’re some twisted wretch of a person unfit to live, but even you can work your way out of this hole you dug yourself in. It gives you a problem and then sells you a solution. (more…)
The words that everyone would use to describe my situation would be the expression “I can’t sleep”. And it’s true, I can’t sleep. But I never viewed sleep as an act of will. Look at that phrase. “I can’t sleep.” Like sleep is a just another verb. “I can’t jump.” “I can’t run”. Sleeping’s not an act of mental might. You can crawl into bed, but you can’t force yourself into sleep. That’s ridiculous. Sleep comes to you. Sleep is anything but in our control. Of course, I’m not talking about sleeping drugs or chemicals or warm milk. Whatever. I’m talking about using your mind alone.
What if sleep were a normal force of nature, and when you couldn’t sleep you were out of line with nature? What if sleep showed itself only to people who had the right mindset, and all the people who couldn’t sleep are either using sleep for some unhealthy application or have the wrong mindset? Here I am, twisting and reshaping myself in bed trying to get the most optimal body shape that would best result in bringing sleep to me. The most optimal sleep set up that would most enhance the likelihood of getting to sleep. Flipped the pillow over to get to the cold side? Check. Window open? Check. Sleeping on my right side with my right hand behind the head pillow? Check. I was trying to bring sleep to me and I was trying too hard. And here’s my thoughts as I’m twisting, turning and forcing my way into sleep. (more…)
America isn't a healthy place. The lives that are socially acceptable for us to be living just aren't good for our bodies, our souls, or our planet. We eat food that we don't know what it's made out of, and then think we can fix it by eating more of it when it's got health claims. We send gift cards to each other, like we're incapable of telling someone how we feel about them. We hope death will go away if we just put on enough make-up. We even sell sexually revealing clothing to little girls. And at the end of the day, the simple thing is that a life built on these rules won't be satisfying or meaningful. This society provides never-ending insecurities, toys, and distractions, but not enough lessons on how to live your life proudly, and if you ever develop into a critical thinking, confident, and creative person you run against the current of thousands of advertisers and salesmen who want you to be an insecure and dependent consumer.