Critical Response #3: Sir Ken Robinson Believes - Education Kills Creativity.

The above speech is probably as good a speech as any you will find anywhere.  Sir Ken Robinson makes his points clearly and cleverly, with added humor to boot.  On the TED website, you can activate Korean subtitles, and even read the entire transcript in just about any language.  Have fun watching this, as it's a very entertaining speech by a gifted orator.

For added fun here's an RSA Animate, similar to the Story of Stuff, where what he says is illustrated. 

What I'd like from you is a Critical Response where you agree or disagree with the Knighted Sir. As Korean students, do you feel your creativity has been suitably enhanced and encouraged since when you were young? Does KMLA meet your creative needs? Is creativity overrated? Underrated? Suitably treated in Korea's progressing education system? Is it progressing?

Robinson mentions a woman who wasn't suited for regular school, but excelled in a dance school. Specialized education where a circle can be a circle without trying to fit into a square - does that sound good to you? When I went to school, I was good at art and writing, and was terrible at math and science. I knew I'd never grow up to solve equations or design a car, so math felt like a complete waste of time for me. Do you think students should have more choices? Do they know what's best for them? If education can be perceived as a factory, meeting a supply and demand of a certain product, wouldn't it be beneficial to take stock of what society needs, and produce the appropriate number of individuals to meet that need (not more, not less) with a realistic education system.  Let's pretend we are manufactured robots. Robots who build cars, write books, clean floors, and even robots who teach other robots to do those same tasks.  Does every robot need a university degree?  Should we constantly glorify this quest that doesn't necessarily or reliably equal success?  

Ironically, in the video below, we see a talented young North Korean girl (very young) playing guitar as if she's studied the art for decades. This, we might be tempted to say, is not creativity - and specialized education in the extreme. I wonder what Robinson would say about this. Olympic athletes etc. are in a similar boat. So, with all this, I think we have opportunity for some good motions and a well informed debate later this semester.

NOTE: Weekly Critical Responses are not quite weekly, but do have to be completed on a timely basis with a bit of flexibility. I'd like you to have these done before your debate class that falls closest to the end of a 7 day period from when the assignment is posted. If most students in your class have completed their work and you haven't, it might be a good idea to be a bit alarmed and get to it. A decent response take's less than an hour, and in the long run this will improve your writing in a more relaxed way than in other classes. If you miss these or treat them too lightly, an A in this class will not be possible .