Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

In class we watched Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk titled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?". Most of the class had apparently watched this video before but this was my first time. First of all, I thought his sense of humour was great, which always resonates with me. I've always been impressed with teachers and professors who can incorporate humour into their message (when applicable). He makes it relatable and doesn't pretend the field of education doesn't have faults. 

Our education system doesn't leave a lot of room for creativity. What particularly struck me was his story about the four-year-olds performing the nativity play. Instead of saying, "I bring you frankincense", the child said "Frank sent this". Ken Robinson went on to explain that when children are not sure of something, they will come up with some sort of response and try anyway, without a fear of being wrong. Schools tend to destroy this innate creativity by insisting that there is always a "correct" answer and giving children poor grades and reprimand when they are "incorrect". By doing this, children develop a fear of being wrong, and therefore never receive the opportunity to make the mistakes necessary to come up with something truly unique.

This video makes sense in a class about mathematics because math is one of those "hard" subjects that is given high priority in the schooling system. It is held at the opposite end of the spectrum from an artistic subject like math. In order to give these artistic subjects more precedence in the education system, it seems like a logical option to incorporate these subjects in some way. There was very, very little room for creativity in the way that I was taught mathematics. Learning as much as possible about creative thinking is a way to learn to incorporate creativity into the mathematics classroom.

Something that occurred to me during my second viewing of this video is how effective Ken's messages are. Most of the video consists of comedic anecdotes, and the important points are delivered in a few simple, albeit very profound lines.