Sir Ken Robinson, November 17, 2009

Today I had a rare opportunity to be a part of a day with Sir Ken Robinson. What a delightful man!

Here are a few notes from my morning with Sir Ken:

Creativity is not a synonym for the Arts! You can be creative in Science, Social Studies, or whatever content area that is out there.

In relation to creativity, we need to ask ourselves, and our schools:
1) What is creativity?
2) Why is creativity essential in education?
3) How do you do it? (especially with curriculum, standards, and standardized tests!)

With NCLB, millions of children have been left behind. There has been huge drop out rates in the United States. We can NOT blame the kids. We make excuses, but really, it is not that kids can't be educated! It is a systematic issue!

The current education system as we know it was built in a different age. We are living in a REAL revolution, with no historical precedence, or nothing to compare it to! We must start thinking differently about the revolution and what we can do to help kids see what they are good at!

People have jobs that they don't love, but they stay because they have to pay the bills. Others have jobs they love and don't ever want to quit--but those are a minority. Why? Because education as it is drives kids away from their gifts and talents. They do not get to CREATE their own learning!

Sir Ken spoke about how his college degree was merely a passport to something else. Our life is not single-tracked. Think of a resume. A resume looks like life was all planned out, but it was not! We have all responded to opportunities we have had! In our communities, lives, the economy, we depend on our commonalities AND our differences! We are all smart, but test scores often make us feel dumb.

So how do we change this? We need to reinvent education--NOT REFORM IT, but REINVENT it!

America has dominated the world over the past 100 years, just as Europe did in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Life is unpredictable. It's actually quite organic!

Kids spent 26 hours a week with television. And t.v. was what transformed American culture! We must begin to think differently! Educators feel the pain. We know there are things that are currently wrong, but we must reinvent education to make the changes necessary!

Sir Ken then spoke about imagination. His thought went to Las Vegas. He said this city is there for a reason. But there really was no reason for it in the beginning! Really...a city created in the middle of a dessert? Las Vegas was created by what we need to do today--bring to mind things that are not currently present. Imagination came from creating Las Vegas.

No one is locked into their biography. We all have alternatives! Our future is yet to be! We must use the power of imagination!

Sir Ken quoted Presendent Abraham Lincoln's 1862 Address: Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here--Congress and Executive--can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united, and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means, so certainly, or so speedily, assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

What Sir Ken believed Abraham Lincoln meant was that we have obstacles in innovation--one of which is common sense!

It is difficult to know what we take for granted because we take it for granted! Sir Ken gave the example of a wrist watch. Many adults wear a wrist watch because it is what they have done forever. They take it for granted. When they forget to put it on, they realize that they have taken it for granted, and wonder how they might make it through their day without having it on. Children, such as his daughter, never wear a watch. There really is no point to wearing a watch! Children have clocks available anywhere and everywhere they go? iPods, iTouch, cellular phones, computers, etc. They have access to a clock far more than most adults even realize, or utilize themselves!

This is because of children being digital natives. They have been raised in a technology driven world. As adults, we are still learning 21st Century skills, but are not, and may never be where our students/children are! Technology is not technology if it happened before you were born!

To be your own, you have a natural capacity. You must find 1) Something you are good at, and 2) Something you love!

When you realize things that you are passionate about, and very good at, LIFE CHANGES! Obstacles often come from friends, family--even teachers in our lives who say we can't do something! So we need to find our Element (Sir Ken's book The Element), which is about talent and passion.

Asian cultures look at the whole picture, where we are very filtered in the West. Sir Ken showed us a picture of a tiger, standing in the middle of luscious green trees and plants. He asked what we saw, and several people said "a tiger". He said that tiger is the typical response to Westerners. But in Asia, or Easterners, most respond with a tiger in a jungle, or a jungle. Why is it that the Easterners give more information? Sir Ken went on to share that Easterners give a different perspective because of the collaboration that is so much a part of who they are! They think far more collaboratively that us Westerners do, seeing the WHOLE picture, not just a piece. Easterners tend to be more solo focused. We do things on our own, rather than seeing the need and use of collaboration.

Education is still living in the Industrial Age, because educators now were not raised in the digital age. We still teach the same way we were taught.

Some people believe they are creative. If we reinvent education, we must put creativity at the forefront. It is imperative--socially, educationally, and economically!

We then did a creative and intelligence rating. With creativity, we were to rate ourselves on a scale of 1-10 on How creative are you? Many people raised their hands and the average was around 7. Sir Ken then asked, How intelligent are you? Many raised their hands again, but we discovered that we did not see ourselves as high on the intelligence test as we did with the creative test.

People give themselves different rating, due to misconceptions:
1) Creativity is about special people, but that is not true! Everyone has creativity!
2) Creativity comes in the Arts, but that is not true! Creativity comes from anywhere: Science, Arts, Music, Math, Language, etc.
3) Creativity is either there, or it is not, but that is so untrue! Creativity can be taught!

Sir Ken's definition of creativity: "The process of having ORIGINAL ideas that have value."

It is challenging what we take for granted! Having original ideas is the hardest thing you have to do!

When asked about their divergent thinking, 1,500 kids were asked how smart they are. The findings are scary! They tested the kids at age 3-5, then again 5 years later at ages 8-10, then 5 years later, when they were 13-15 years of age, and this is what was found:

3-5 year olds 98% 'smart'
8-10 year olds 32% 'smart'
13-15 year olds 10% 'smart'
25+ 23% 'smart"

Sir Ken's discussion on this was that the way kids are educated has profound impact on motivation, and finding out what they are good at and passionate about. There is clearly a reason that the 3-5 year olds started out believing they were brilliant (at a 98%), but then a few years later, believed far less of themselves in terms of intellect.

Sir Ken believes we must move from an Industrial Model of education to an Organic Model. Developing a 'culture' of change is an organic shift.

Sir Ken's analogy for this is that things are so standardized. For example, when you enter a McDonald's, anywhere in the world, you experience the same food, same taste, same service. The company prides itself on standardization. This is because standardization always give you bare minimum, but it is uncustomized. Each patron gets the same, no matter what. And that is kind of like education. You can't get the whole country to shift-it's what happens tomorrow morning on our job that will begin to make differences. We must make learning personalized to children we teach! We can not afford to be standardized in our efforts as educators.

However, Sir Ken cautions that creativity needs a plan! We do not drop off calculators at the door of a school and hope that kids figure out how to use them. We have to have a plan when we leave those calculators! Same thing with creativity! What do we want kids to do with creativity, just like what do we want kids to do with the calculators?

Sir Ken then talked about an upcoming meeting with Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, where he plans to address creativity, and the need for reinvention of education.

In order to reinvent, Sir Ken divided us into teams at our table to discuss the following:

1. If you were to reinvent education, what 15 people would be part of your dream team?
2. What are the most urgent needs for your group--that will be taken seriously with creativity?

Interesting conversations were had, and the ideas were shared out with the entire group. (If you would like to see these, please contact me at julie@jeverett.org, and I will forward the collection to you.)

After this discussion, Sir Ken went into how we reinvent education:

1. Personal--make it personal for EVERY child. Engage them individually. Teacher-student, just like actor-audience.
2. Group--engage the community, creating a culture of habit and habitats.
3. Cultural--culture creates community AND individual possibilities, almost as if you are reclaiming humanity in education.

Educators must become personally aware of their element, or passion, in order to make it personal to their students. When this happens, the entire group benefits, and that leads to the cultural change as well.

Instead of Sir Ken's earlier questions: How creative are you?, or How intelligent are you?, he said the better questions are:

What are you creative at?
How are you intelligent?

These above two questions allow for more personal reflection. It is also easier to take risks in sharing what are you creative at, and how you are intelligent, than ranking yourself in these areas, like we did earlier in the day. When Sir Ken posed the questions earlier, there was much hesitation. Some people did not put their hand in the air at all! It was uncomfortable, with all of the peers/colleagues in the room! The same may be true with students. However, if we ask our students what they are creative at, or how they are intelligent, they may be able to look within and share those things with the rest of their peers and teachers.

It is funny how rephrasing those questions can change the entire outcome! I know I was way more comfortable in thinking about how I was creative and intelligent than I was in ranking myself in creativity and intelligence!

What an incredible day, with an incredible man. And I found out that Sir Ken was on his way to meet with one of my other favorite people, Peter H. Reynolds! Oh, how I would have loved to have been a mouse on the wall when the two of those inspirational, creative, out of the box thinkers met! The two of them DEFINITELY want to make some changes in the world of education as I know it!

As educators, we must create our own cultures of innovation. Schools need to make their walls their very own place to educate. But we must remember to tread softly--kids spread their dreams below our feet, so we must tread oh so very softly in the places we create!

Sir Ken's books:

Out of Our Minds, Learning to Be Creative
The Element