OUR FUTURE: EDUCATION & CREATIVITY

The world is changing rapidly but is our education system keeping pace? How do we educate ourselves in order to meet the challenges of the future? And what is the point of education anyway? Our government, through cuts in funding to the humanities and arts are casting a resounding vote for traditional STEM subjects such as science or maths, promoting them as the way forward for our culture, politics and economy. Other voices are saying that for a successful future we need to embrace collaboration and encourage creativity, or that we must look beyond established education institutions.

2012 #3

Why Schools Kill Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson

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Good morning. How are you? Its been great, hasnt it? Ive been blown away by the whole thing. In fact, Im leaving. (Laughter) There have been three themes, havent there, running through the conference, which are relevant to what I want to talk about. One is the extraordinary evidence of human creativity in all of the presentations that weve had and in all of the people here. Just the variety of it and the range of it. The second is that its put us in a place where we have no idea whats going to happen, in terms of the future. No idea how this may play out. I have an interest in education actually, what I nd is everybody has an interest in education. Dont you? I nd this very interesting. If youre at a dinner party, and you say you work in education actually, youre not often at dinner parties, frankly, if you work in education. (Laughter) Youre not asked. And youre never asked back, curiously. Thats strange to me. But if you are, and you say to somebody, you know, they say, What do you do? and you say you work in education, you can see the blood run from their face. Theyre like, Oh my God, you know, Why me? My one night out all week. (Laughter) But if you ask about their education, they pin you to the wall. Because its one of those things that goes deep with people, am I right? Like religion, and money and other things. I have a big interest in education, and I think we all do. We have a huge vested interest in it, partly because its education thats meant to take us into this future that we cant grasp. If you think of it, children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue despite all the expertise thats been on parade for the past four days what the world will look like in ve years time. And yet were meant to be educating them for it. So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary. And the third part of this is that weve all agreed, nonetheless, on the really extraordinary capacities that children have their capacities for innovation. I mean, Sirena last night was a marvel, wasnt she? Just seeing what she could do. And shes exceptional, but I think shes not, so to speak, exceptional in the

whole of childhood. What you have there is a person of extraordinary dedication who found a talent. And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents. And we squander them, pretty ruthlessly. So I want to talk about education and I want to talk about creativity. My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status. (Applause) Thank you. That was it, by the way. Thank you very much. (Laughter) So, 15 minutes left. Well, I was born ... no. (Laughter) I heard a great story recently I love telling it of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. She was six and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly ever paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said, What are you drawing? And the girl said, Im drawing a picture of God. And the teacher said, But nobody knows what God looks like. And the girl said, They will in a minute. (Laughter) When my son was four in England actually he was four everywhere, to be honest. (Laughter) If were being strict about it, wherever he went, he was four that year. He was in the Nativity play. Do you remember the story? No, it was big. It was a big story. Mel Gibson did the sequel. You may have seen it: Nativity II. But James got the part of Joseph, which we were thrilled about. We considered this to be one of the lead parts. We had the place crammed full of agents in T-shirts: James Robinson IS Joseph! (Laughter) He didnt have to speak, but you know the bit where the three kings come in. They come in bearing gifts, and they bring gold, frankincense and myrhh. This really happened. We were sitting there and I think they just went out of sequence, because we talked to the little boy afterward and we said, You OK with that? And he said, Yeah, why? Was that wrong? They just switched, that was it. Anyway, the three boys came in four-year-olds with tea towels on their heads and they put these boxes down, and the rst boy said, I bring you gold. And the second boy said, I bring you myrhh. And the third boy said, Frank sent this. (Laughter) What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they dont know, theyll have a go. Am I right? Theyre not frightened of being wrong. Now, I dont mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if youre not prepared to be wrong, youll never come up with anything original if youre not prepared to be wrong. And 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 like this, by the way. We stigmatize mistakes. And were now 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 dont grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it. So why is this? I lived in Stratford-on-Avon until about ve years ago. In fact, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles. So you can imagine what a seamless transition that was. (Laughter) Actually, we lived in a place called Snittereld, just outside Stratford, which is where Shakespeares father was born. Are you struck by a new thought? I was. You dont think of Shakespeare having a father, do you? Do you? Because you dont think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? Shakespeare being seven? I never thought of it. I mean, he was seven at some point. He was in somebodys English class, wasnt he? How annoying would that be? (Laughter) Must try harder. Being sent to bed by his dad, you know, to Shakespeare, Go to bed, now, to William Shakespeare, and put the pencil down. And stop speaking like that. Its confusing everybody. (Laughter) Anyway, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles, and I just want to say a word about the transition, actually. My son didnt want to come. Ive got two kids. Hes 21 now; my daughters 16. He didnt want to come to Los Angeles. He loved it, but he had a girlfriend in England. This was the love of his life, Sarah. Hed known her for a month. Mind you, theyd had their fourth anniversary, because its a long time when youre 16. Anyway, he was really upset on the plane, and he said, Ill never nd another girl like Sarah. And we were rather pleased about that, frankly, because she was the main reason we were leaving the country. (Laughter) But something strikes you when you move to America and when you travel around the world: Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesnt matter where you go. Youd think it would be otherwise, but it isnt. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on Earth. And in pretty much every system too, theres a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in

schools than drama and dance. There isnt an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think math is very important, but so is dance. Children dance all the time if theyre allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, dont we? Did I miss a meeting? (Laughter) Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side. If you were to visit education, as an alien, and say Whats it for, public education? I think youd have to conclude if you look at the output, who really succeeds by this, who does everything that they should, who gets all the brownie points, who are the winners I think youd have to conclude the whole purpose of public education throughout the world is to produce university professors. Isnt it? Theyre the people who come out the top. And I used to be one, so there. (Laughter) And I like university professors, but you know, we shouldnt hold them up as the high-water mark of all human achievement. Theyre just a form of life, another form of life. But theyre rather curious, and I say this out of affection for them. Theres something curious about professors in my experience not all of them, but typically they live in their heads. They live up there, and slightly to one side. Theyre disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads, dont they? (Laughter) Its a way of getting their head to meetings. If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, get yourself along to a residential conference of senior academics, and pop into the discotheque on the nal night. (Laughter) And there you will see it grown men and women writhing uncontrollably, off the beat, waiting until it ends so they can go home and write a paper about it. Now our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. And theres a reason. The whole system was invented around the world, there were no public systems of education, really, before the 19th century. They all came into being to meet the needs of industrialism. So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas. Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are at the top. So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked, on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that. Is that right? Dont do music, youre not going to be a musician; dont do art, you

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RED TAPE #3 OUR FUTURE: EDUCATION & CREATIVITY

wont be an artist. Benign advice now, profoundly mistaken. The whole world is engulfed in a revolution. And the second is academic ability, which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, because the universities designed the system in their image. 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 theyre not, because the thing they were good at at school wasnt valued, or was actually stigmatized. And I think we cant afford to go on that way. In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating through education than since the beginning of history. More people, and its the combination of all the things weve talked about technology and its transformation effect on work, and demography and the huge explosion in population. Suddenly, degrees arent worth anything. Isnt that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didnt have a job its because you didnt want one. And I didnt want one, frankly. (Laughter) But now kids with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games, because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA, and now you need a PhD for the other. Its a process of academic ination. And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence. We know three things about intelligence. One, its diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically. We think in abstract terms, we think in movement. Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. If you look at the interactions of a human brain, as we heard yesterday from a number of presentations, intelligence is wonderfully interactive. The brain isnt divided into compartments. In fact, creativity which I dene as the process of having original ideas that have value more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things. The brain is intentionally by the way, theres a shaft of nerves that joins the two halves of the brain called the corpus callosum. Its thicker in women. Following off from Helen yesterday, I think this is probably why women are better at multi-tasking. Because you are, arent you? Theres a raft of research, but I know it from my personal life. If my wife is cooking a meal at home which is not

often, thankfully. (Laughter) But you know, shes doing no, shes good at some things but if shes cooking, you know, shes dealing with people on the phone, shes talking to the kids, shes painting the ceiling, shes doing open-heart surgery over here. If Im cooking, the door is shut, the kids are out, the phones on the hook, if she comes in I get annoyed. I say, Terry, please, Im trying to fry an egg in here. Give me a break. (Laughter) Actually, you know that old philosophical thing, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, did it happen? Remember that old chestnut? I saw a great t-shirt really recently which said, If a man speaks his mind in a forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong? (Laughter) And the third thing about intelligence is, its distinct. Im doing a new book at the moment called Epiphany, which is based on a series of interviews with people about how they discovered their talent. Im fascinated by how people got to be there. Its really prompted by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman who maybe most people have never heard of; shes called Gillian Lynne have you heard of her? Some have. Shes a choreographer and everybody knows her work. She did Cats and Phantom of the Opera. Shes wonderful. I used to be on the board of the Royal Ballet in England, as you can see. Anyway, Gillian and I had lunch one day and I said, Gillian, howd you get to be a dancer? And she said it was interesting; when she was at school, she was really hopeless. And the school, in the 30s, wrote to her parents and said, We think Gillian has a learning disorder. She couldnt concentrate; she was dgeting. I think now theyd say she had ADHD. Wouldnt you? But this was the 1930s, and ADHD hadnt been invented at this point. It wasnt an available condition. (Laughter) People werent aware they could have that. Anyway, she went to see this specialist. So, this oak-paneled room, and she was there with her mother, and she was led and sat on this chair at the end, and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes while this man talked to her mother about all the problems Gillian was having at school. And at the end of it because she was disturbing people; her homework was always late; and so on, little kid of eight in the end, the doctor went and sat next to Gillian and said, Gillian, Ive listened to all these things that your mothers told me, and I need to speak to her privately. He said, Wait here. Well be back; we wont be very long, and they went and left her. But as they went out the room, he turned on the radio that was sitting

on his desk. And when they got out the room, he said to her mother, Just stand and watch her. And the minute they left the room, she said, she was on her feet, moving to the music. And they watched for a few minutes and he turned to her mother and said, Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isnt sick; shes a dancer. Take her to a dance school. I said, What happened? She said, She did. I cant tell you how wonderful it was. We walked in this room and it was full of people like me. People who couldnt sit still. People who had to move to think. Who had to move to think. They did ballet; they did tap; they did jazz; they did modern; they did contemporary. She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School; she became a soloist; she had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet. She eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School and founded her own company the Gillian Lynne Dance Company met Andrew Lloyd Weber. Shes been responsible for some of the most successful musical theater productions in history; shes given pleasure to millions; and shes a multi-millionaire. Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down. Now, I think ... (Applause) What I think it comes to is this: Al Gore spoke the other night about ecology and the revolution that was triggered by Rachel Carson. I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine

the earth: for a particular commodity. And for the future, it wont serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which were educating our children. There was a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk, who said, If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would ourish. And hes right. What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely and that we avert some of the scenarios that weve talked about. And the only way well do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. By the way we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it. Thank you very much. This is a transcript from Sir Ken Robinsons talk at TED in 2006. http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_ says_schools_kill_creativity.html

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Sir Ken Robinson speaking on Why Schools Kill Creativity at TED in 2006

RED TAPE #3 OUR FUTURE: EDUCATION & CREATIVITY

Department 21

Department 21 is a project where designers, artists and architects can meet, collaborate and share working space beyond the institutional boundaries of their own disciplines. Department 21 was set up in 2009 when a group of students at the Royal College of Art, London initiated an experimental cross-departmental studio space, thereby engendering new discussions and ways of working than had been seen in recent years at the college. Emerging from an institutional context in which individual authorship and outcomedriven projects are the dominant frames for creative production, the project is the result of a need for new, collaborative forms of exchange between students from different disciplines: it is a means to get in touch with other peoples

Description

practices (and in this way question ones own practice), as well as being a platform to support collaboration beyond specialties. The philosophy driving Department 21 is an emancipated vision of postgraduate studentship, where all those entering a space of education have the responsibility to take a position regarding their learning process. Contrary to the commonly found format of short interdisciplinary collaboration with a secure outcome, Department 21 feels it necessary to create premises for individuals to encounter the others spontaneous collaborative working methods based on common interests, curiosity and critical dialogue. The ongoing research work of the project is therefore to identify, test and rene methodologies that enable this type of encounter to emerge and thrive. Particular to Department 21 is the emphasis on a physical space within which ideas can grow and serendipitous encounters occur. With a belief that the physical and social design of
Space

a learning space has an impact on the learning that happens within it, Department 21 has sought to work with a variety of spaces, both within and outside the Royal College of Art, to encourage different forms of social interaction and dialogue and participation. For each location the project inhabits (alternatively shared common space, occupancy of the colleges galleries during exhibitions, outdoor events etc.), the question of design comes rst. Recognising the impact that structures have on how we interact and learn, and using the inter-disciplinary knowledge of the group, Department 21 has created a purpose-built moveable working space, to enable the activities of learning, teaching and collaborating to ex to t a wide variety of spatial environments. One of the key values of the project is the incidental. Department 21 is not interested in existing as a closed or heavily-curated project, rather the heterogeneous programming of events enable participants and the public to dip into discussions and actions, therefore privileging the notion of surprise and coincidence. A balance between clear organisation and chance is therefore sought, creating fertile ground for new collaborative working relationships to emerge. This emphasis on collaborative process and open exploration is an approach that counters the institutional agenda of single authorship and producing industry-ready students. This underlying working method is described in the D21 book, self-published in June 2010 to coincide with the Royal College of Arts Show 2010: Once a physical space is occupied, almost all the participants are involved in activating it. This means inhabiting the space on a daily basis, keeping possibilities open by re-establishing order after each activity so that it could welcome the next, taking care of the communication, documenting what is going on and supporting those who want to organise an activity. Crucially, it meant being sensitive and reactive to the dynamics of the group whilst trying not to become a closed society. [D21 publication, page 23] Whilst the physical format and spatial manifestation of Department 21 changes frequently in response to changing external and internal contexts, its priorities remain unchanged. It is an independent research platform, valuing the
Methodology

importance of individual initiative and preserving the possibility of failure. Crucially, it acts as a source of peer support, to encourage critical dialogue and open up the possibilities for new directions in working practice. Key underlying questions at the heart of Department21 since its inception have been: How do critical spaces emerge within institutions and how do they sustain themselves? How can an institution support such innovative learning environments? How do we and should we dene practice and disciplines? These questions continue to be at the heart of our live research investigation toward the discovery of potential structures [physical, temporal, social, organisational] to facilitate collaborative work. As a peer-led pedagogical experiment, Department 21 only exists if participants are willing to activate it. For each event, space, location or activity, the diversity of the make-up of the group is a key ingredient in enabling serendipity, chance and exchange; the experience is always richer if the range of those involved, whether students, staff, participants, guest or public is as wide as possible. By reaching outside to new contexts, forming new relationships outside the institution, and continuing lines of enquiry, Department 21 hopes to sustain a richness of critical encounter; that way, Department 21 can play its role of catalyst, in whatever context it nds itself. Department 21 has previously collaborated with a number of individuals and organisations including Critical Practice Chelsea, Will Holder, Richard Wentworth, Antony Hudek, Alfredo Cramerotti, Ursula Biemann, Sophie Thomas, Michael Rakowitz, Barbara Steveni (APG), Finn Williams, Roberto Bottazzi, Mauricio Guillen, Manystuff and Carey Young. Some of its events are made possible with the generous support of Eurostar. Text written by Department 21 & Pippa Koszerek www.department21.net
Collaborators Activation

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RED TAPE #3 OUR FUTURE: EDUCATION & CREATIVITY

Students participating in Department 21 at the Royal College of Art

The Aims of Higher Education

Browne Report

A strong higher education program is an important element in the economy and culture of a leading nation. Higher education matters. It helps to creat knowledge, skills and values that underpin a civilised society. Higher education instituions (HEIs) generate and diffuse ideas, safeguard knowledge, catalyse innovation, inspire creativity, enliven culture, stimulate regional economies and strengthen civil society. They bridge the past and future; the local and the global. Higher education matters because it transforms the lives of individuals. On graduating, graduates are more likely to be employed, more likely to enjoy higher wages and better job satisfaction, and more likely to nd it easier to move from one job to the next. Participating in higher education enables individuals from low income backgrounds and then their families to enter higher status jobs and increase their earnings. Graduates enjoy substantial health benets a reduced likelihood of smoking , and lower incidence of obesity and depression. They are less likely to be involved in crime, more likely to be activly engaged with their childrens education and more likely to be active in their communities. Higher education matters because it drives

innovation and economic transformation. Higher education helps to produce economic growth, which in turn contributes to national prosperity. OECD countries which expanded their higher education sectors more rapidly from the 1960s onwards experienced faster growth. Analysis submitted to the review suggests that, in the UK between 2000 and 2007, the increase in employed university graduates accounted for 6% of growth in the private sector (measured by the extra wages they earned as a result of being graduates) or 4.2bn of extra output. Employing graduates creates innovation, enabling rms to identify and make more effective use of knowledge, ideas and technologies. Internationally successful business employ high levels of graduates, and innovative active enterprises have roughly twice the share of employees educated at degree level then those that are not active in innovation. These benets are captured in the premium employers pay to employ graduates. A degree provides graduates with an entry to employment as well as a habit of learning. Over the course of a working life the average graduate earns comfortably over 100,000 more, in todays valuation and net of tax, than someone with A-Levels who does not go to university. Extract from the Browne Report, October 20120: Securing A Sustainable Future For Higher Education: An Independant Review of Higher Education and Student Finance. References Removed

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CHAIR PERSON & SPEAKERS

Teal Triggs, Chair Person
Teal Triggs is Professor of Graphic Design, Course Director of MA Design Writing Criticism, and co-Director, Information Environments, at the London College of Communication.

Dr Paul Thompson, Speaker

Paul Thompson is the Rector of the Royal College of Art. Prior to 2009, Paul was Director of the Smithsonians Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York (from 20019), and Director of the Design Museum in London (from 19932001). He is a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum and is on the Ashmolean Museum Board of Visitors. He is also a member of the Programme Advisory Committee of the Wellcome Collection, Wellcome Trust.

Brave New Alps / Bianca Elzenbaumer, Speaker

Collaborating since 2005 under the collective name Brave New Alps, Bianca Elzenbaumer and Fabio Franz investigate into the cultural value of design and its capacity to question our surrounding realities and to actively suggest alternatives. In 2009, whilst studying at the RCA Bianca and Fabio started an interdisciplinary student-led working space called Department 21.

Richard Gerver, Speaker

Richard Gerver is one of the worlds foremost thinkers on education. In 2005, he was judged the best head teacher in the UK, after turning a failing school into an innovation success story. Since then, he has helped governments around the world to shape education policy and major organisations to make the most of their talent.