“If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” – Sir Ken Robinson
I’ve watched the TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson at least a half a dozen times. Everytime I watch it, I come away with a sense of epiphany and at the same time, it kindles numerous questions as to what education means to me and those around me.
The title of his speech is “How schools kill creativity”. I’ve thought about this a lot before and I always knew for a fact that children were inherently creative and innovative. As Picasso said “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” The more we know the less creative we become.
I think Sir Ken Robinson is spot on about getting our priorities right. Teachers and students alike have much more potential than what they are able to do in classrooms everyday. If we could just place less emphasis on testing and assessing and more effort into teaching children to think for themselves, to problem solve and allow them the time to formulate their thoughts, we will be able to develop creative excellence in each child. Teachers simply need to start asking children “Why” rather than showing them “How”.