Sir Ken Robinson: Out of Our Minds Learning to be Creative

I’ve just had an extraordinary situation occur this morning. I am sitting at a university thinking about my rural education program to educate children in peace, values, happiness and sustainability. I am thinking how do I access rural networks? I need to find a database. Anyway, this little child is walking around, he is around 2 years old. I am catching his eye as I am a clown and wanting to make him smile. So I have a chat with his mother and she tells me he is very outgoing. I say it is good to be outgoing, you learn more in life. She said she was outgoing as well. Anyway, the grandfather comes up and says hello. We start talking and he is asking if I am a lecturer or student. I said no, you will laugh, I was an Economist but now I am a clown and I teach peace education as a clown. He smiled and I showed him my video presentation of travelling around the world as a clown. He then proceeds to tell me he is an educator and he is interested in the creative arts. I smile to myself. I said we need a revolution in education. He says do you know about Sir Ken Robinson? I said no. He said he is a Professor talking about creativity in Education. I am thinking about Edward de Bono as well. Anyway, I said would you know of anyone that could help me access rural schools. He tells me his a Christian. I said I have a calling in this work, I am going to offer my program by donation, so I can keep going. He said he will do some research and get back to me.

I’ve just been listening to Sir Ken Robinson. He is very funny, a clown me thinks. Anyway, he is talking about Professors who are in their heads. Reminds me of an experience where I am not able to get through to academics, they see the world in black and white – right and wrong, rather than exploring the possibilities of situations with an intention to resolve. He goes on to say that creativity is critical in education but other subjects tend to get priority, he thinks this is a mistake. I certainly know in my own work that creativity is going to be the place where we create solutions to the challenges we are facing. I want children to learn to be clowns and explore their creativity through expressing in positive ways and developing self esteem. It also builds community as the orientation of a clown is to bring love and spontenaity to a situation. It is not premeditative with power in mind. It is literally going out of your mind, as I have no thoughts when I clown. I am very much in the present moment, and this indeed is where peace is. In our education system we focus on mathematics, English and increasingly commercial subjects to train children to fit into a system in order to work. My feeling is what about potential, talent, aspirations, happiness, reaching beyond limits, exploring all concepts even if they sound a bit strange, why not go there. Is this not what life is about?

Anyway, in the video Ken talks about Gillian Lynne the choreographer of Cats, I prick up my ears as I worked for her. He said she was seen as fidgety in school, he said she would be diagnosed as ADHD today. Many creatives are seen as failures at school. Her mother took her to a doctor and after a long discussion, the doctor then took the mother out of the room but turned the radio on. When they left the room Gillian then got to her feet and started dancing. The doctor said to her mother that Gillian wasn’t sick she is a dancer. She went to a dance school full of people like her, people who had to move to think. She auditioned for the Royal Ballet, founded her own dance company, she met Andrew Lloyd Weber and apparently gave pleasure to millions and she is a multi-millionaire. Someone else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down. I worked with Gillian’s secretary and I asked Gillian about creativity and she said it is like a muscle you have to keep exercising it. I find with my poetry that is exactly what I keep doing. It has expanded my mind in ways that you can’t imagine and without anyone telling me how to think. I am returning to my true nature through creativity.

So the video below will be extremely illuminating for you. Expand your own creativity, learn to step out of judgement and explore challenges. For every person is unique and worthy of encouraging to reach their best in accordance with their inner desires.

Sir Ken Robinson is author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, and a leading expert on innovation and human resources. In this talk, he makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2009/2598512.htm
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Sir Ken Robinson

British creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson believes we’re all born with creative capacities but we lose them the more time we spend in the world.

He says the school system often discourages creativity by favouring
academic measurement.

Sir Ken is an internationally recognised leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources.

He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland.

The resulting blueprint for change, ‘Unlocking Creativity’, was adopted by politicians of all parties and by business, education and cultural leaders across the Province.

He was one of four international advisors to the Singapore Government for its strategy to become the creative hub of South East Asia.

http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/out-of-our-minds

There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? Organizations across the globe are competing in a world that is changing faster than ever. They say they need people who can think creatively, who are flexible and quick to adapt. Too often they say they can’t find them. Why not? In this provocative and inspiring book, Ken Robinson addresses three vital questions:

Why is it essential to promote creativity? Business leaders, politicians and educators emphasize the vital importance of promoting creativity and innovation. Why does this matter so much?

What’s the problem? Why do so many people think they’re not creative? Young children are buzzing with ideas. What happens as we grow up and go through school to make us think we are not creative?

What can be done about it? What is creativity? What can companies, schools and organizations do to develop creativity and innovation in a deliberate and systematic way?

In this extensively revised and updated version of his best-selling classic, Out of Our Minds, Ken Robinson offers a groundbreaking approach to understanding creativity in education and in business. He argues that people and organizations everywhere are dealing with problems that originate in schools and universities and that many people leave education with no idea at all of their real creative abilities. Out of Our Minds is a passionate and powerful call for radically different approaches to leadership, teaching and professional development to help us all to meet the extraordinary challenges of living and working in the 21st century.