If they don't know, they'll have a go...
Earlier this year, Sir Ken Robinson – a British author and speaker – died due to cancer. I first was introduced to him through TED Talks – which first became available online in 2006 – and his was the first TED Talk I’d ever seen. His talk “Do schools kill creativity?” is still the most viewed TED talk in history (you can see it here: https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity). It was nostalgic and entertaining to re-watch it with the particular lens of COVID-19 upon us.
Robinson argued here and in countless other forums, that schools and the systems in place around it were “educating people out of their creative capabilities” and that creativity should be widely thought to be as important as literacy or maths. It is not a necessarily unique or novel idea – as any painter, performer, musician or poet could tell you. But what was delightful about Robinson was the way that he delivered this devastating news – with humor, with grace, and with kindness. He often raised the point that we almost absently steer children away from being interested in things like drama or dance, just because it’s hard to become a professional actor or dancer. He believed though, that this creativity is necessary in order to succeed in our uncertain future. That it is impossible to prepare children for a future when we don’t know what it looks like, without the seed of creativity being carefully cultivated. And in no time, at least in my life, is that more true and more salient than now.
As we have found ourselves slowly returning to the classroom – both here in the US and in Zambia – I find myself rethinking a question so fundamental to our work “What is the purpose of public education?”
I found comfort in this part of Robinson’s talk:
What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original -- if you're not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.
Robinson inspired teachers from around the world to embrace this creativity at a young age, and some of his efforts have reminded me of what I’ve seen in Zambia. In my time in the village, I’ve seen kids make kites out of plastic bags and sticks, and spend hours getting it up in the air, catching a good breeze, and letting the string go. I've seen a homemade car, made out of pieces of wire and a couple of loose wheels (see picture below). One of my favorite memories of my first trip to Zambia was seeing a group of little boys together, and metal scrap that they had fashioned into a life-sized car. The "driver" sat in front and steered with an imaginary steering wheel, while the others pushed the car wherever they steered. They even reversed.
Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk and the legacy he leaves behind reminded me that while we talk about what has been lost during this pandemic, it’s also critical to remember what may have been gained, and what can change as we restart our education systems collectively across the globe.
-Reshma