WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation

Creatively Speaking, Part One: Sir Ken Robinson on the Power of the Imaginative Mind

The internationally renowned innovation consultant calls for transformation, not just reformation, of public education. More to this story.

The internationally renowned innovation consultant calls for transformation, not just reformation, of public education. More to this story.
Credits | Release Date: 05/28/08

Video Credits

Produced and Directed by

  • Ken Ellis

Coordinating Producer/Editor:

  • Amy Erin Borovoy

Production Intern:

  • Neil Tan

Camera Crew:

  • Brian Cardello
  • Michael Sullivan
  • Tony Jensen
  • Neil Tan
  • © 2008
  • The George Lucas Educational Foundation
  • All rights reserved.

Close window

Sir Ken Robinson's remarks were recorded on April 10, 2008, at the Apple Education Leadership Summit, a gathering in San Francisco of more than one hundred school superintendents from around the world. Robinson is the author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative.

This video is the first part of a two-part presentation. To learn more, view the second part.

Comments (35)

Comment RSS

Nice to see Ken Sir's new

Was this helpful?
0

Nice to see Ken Sir's new video. I have seen couple of others before.He has give 'voice' to a number of people who believe in the power of imagination.

Edutopia Video Programming Producer

Sir Ken Transcript

Was this helpful?
0
Quote:

I am wondering if there's a transcript available of this video?

Helen, unfortunately we don't have a full transcript publicly available for this video, but I can look in my files to find my notes on the lecture. I will contact you via email with my findings.

Thanks for your interest!
Amy

Was this helpful?
0

Thank you very much for posting this video. I'm a big fan of Sir Ken Robinson. I am wondering if there's a transcript available of this video?
Regards,
HS

teacher of English at a high school Morocco

appreciation

Was this helpful?
0

dear sir Robinson
I'd like to express my appreciation to the arguments forwarded in your talk.The whole world /world governments/policy makers need to heed to your calls to an upheaval in the domain of education in which large sums of money are invested .we need change,we need transformation,we need new tunes to listen to a different thythm

Teacher

facilitators

Was this helpful?
+1

Would not we be better instead of being teachers, designator ourselves as "facilitators"? That is what I referred to myself as, while teaching in public schools. I am facilitating their learning. The teaching is done by the students. Do you see my point? Abstract reasoning and critical thinking skills seem to have been replaced by "concrete" facts. At present, it is not quite Classical Conditioning, but close to rote memorization [is like being assimilated by the Borg on Star Trek, Next Gen.?

Waldorf schools

Was this helpful?
0

Waldorf Education has understood and anticipated this crisis in creativity and has created a curriculum and pedagogy designed to do exactly what Sir Ken Robinson speaks about. it is the education for the future that he speaks about, and it is here now. Waldorf schools are uniquely placed to meet this challenge because they are preschool to 12th grade and because they are international. Public schools in the U.S. have been working with Waldorf educators to adapt the Waldorf method to the public sector in many part of the country.. You do not have to wait for public education to "get it" though, just check out the Waldorf school near you. Check out http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/. I am a public school teacher who sent one child to public school, and had the chance to send my next child to Waldorf schools. I myself have become a Waldorf elementary school teacher. It is the best thing I have ever done, both personally and professionally.

waldorf education

Was this helpful?
0

CHECK OUT YOUR LOCAL WALDORF SCHOOL!!!

Jacinta Keenan

This is an inspiring talk by

Was this helpful?
0

This is an inspiring talk by Sir Ken Robinson. Creativity should form an essential element of our school system particularly as the future of our economy is unpredictable. Extracting pupils creative side and guiding them to be creative and to use their imagination allows them to develop and use their higher order thinking skills which from an early age steers them to become analytical and creative people. From my experience pupils need a lot of direct modelling, guidance and support to apply their creative capabilities to tasks. In the world of work this is a prereqisite for our future generation.

The Power of Imagination

Was this helpful?
0

What Sir Ken says is exactly right, and he's not alone. There's a growing chorus of voices joining this movmement to get the arts and creativity back into schools AND connect them with science, engineering and math (STEM).

I've just finished making a movie (imagine it!) about the power of imagination, which features Sir Ken Robinson...and dozens of creative people from the arts, science, technology and education including:

-The Blue Man Group founders
-Ray Kurzweil, futurist
-Sir Ken Robinson
-Ed Catmull, president of Pixar/Disney Animation
-Peter Diamandis, ceo, X PRIZE
-Dr. Charles Vest, former pres. of MIT
-John Hennessy, pres. of Stanford
-Sally Ride, first American woman in space
among others.

Sir Ken and the others in the film make the case that we must connect art and creativity with science and engineering in order to inspire the next generation to imagine the world a better place then engage in making that happen.

The power of imagination is the power to change the world.

Thank you Sir Ken for leading this movement, we're proud to have you in the film!

Richard Tavener
producer, imagine it! The Power of Imagination
Preview film here http://www.imagineitproject.com/video/index.htm

"Creativity is a primary measure of our humanity." --Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Lisa Gregory

Creativity in Public School Art

Was this helpful?
0

My experiences include teaching art at all levels of public school classes. Over time I have come to realize that the greatest dampers on creativity in my classes are limited time, limited space, limited supplies, limited resources, and large numbers of students in a single class. Sadly we as art teachers have these limitations with little or no say about what these critical variables at a particular school will be. The best art teachers work with a delicate balance between creative open ended assignments and assignments that can be done with the space,supplies,resources,time, and numbers of students in a particular school or class. Time becomes even more of an issue, because the program has to be tailored by the art teacher to fit each school or class situation.