Watch & Learn: News & Current Affairs:

Advanced Level (C1) and above

Education: Issues in Education ◊ Read the script and note new vocabulary
Education Killing Creativity? (5:42 min) ◊ Write three sentences using new vocabulary
Video Script & Vocabulary (page 1 of 2) ◊ Prepare for the discussion questions

Starting In this video, Sir Ken Robinson makes a strong argument

Off that creativity and the arts should be given a higher priority Discussion Questions:
in school systems throughout the world.
 Do you agree with Sir Robinson that
creativity should be given a higher priority
1 Read the Video Script below. The words in bold are defined in the Vocabulary
in global education systems? Why or why
section. Look up any new words in a dictionary. not? How might a refocusing of the
2 Go to the Your Turn section at the end of this document. Practice using new current hierarchy of subjects be achieved?
words and expressions from the video script to prepare for your next class.
 Do you agree that the very future of
3 Look at the Discussion Questions and prepare your responses for the next class. humanity will depend on our ability to be
innovative, adaptable and find creative
solutions to problems? Why or why not?
Video Script:
Sir Ken Robinson: I have a big  Do you recognize a natural instinct toward
interest in education, and I creativity in children? How do you feel
think we all do. We have a huge when you’re involved in a creative pursuit
vested interest in it, partly at home or at work?
because it’s education that’s
meant to take us into this
future that we can’t grasp. If Vocabulary:
you think of it, children starting
 huge - very large
school this year will be retiring
 vested interest - a personal or private
in 2065. Nobody has a clue,
reason for wanting something to be done
despite all the expertise that’s
or to happen
been on parade for four days, what the world will look like in five years’ time.
 meant - intended
And yet we’re meant to be educating them for it. So the unpredictability, I
 grasp - to understand
think, is extraordinary. And the third part of this is that we’ve all agreed
 clue - an understanding of something
nonetheless on the really extraordinary capacities that children have. They’re
 on parade - to put (something) where
capacities for innovation. And my contention is all kids have tremendous
people can see it; to show something off
talents, and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly. So I want to talk about
education, and I want to talk about creativity. My contention is that creativity  unpredictability - inability to predict
now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the  nonetheless - nevertheless
same status. [Applause] Thank you. That was it, by the way. Thank you very  contention - something (such as a belief,
much. So…fifteen minutes left. Well, I was born… No. The…I heard a great opinion, or idea) that is argued or stated
story recently, I love telling it, of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. She  tremendous - very large or great
was six, and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl  squander - to use something in a wasteful
hardly ever paid attention, and in this drawing lesson, she did. And the way
teacher was fascinated. She went over to her, and she said “What are you
drawing?” And the girl said “I’m drawing a picture of God.” And the teacher
said “But nobody knows what God looks like.” And the girl said “They will in a Vocabulary continued on next page...
minute.” What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance.
And if they don’t know, they’ll have a go. Am I right? They’re not frightened
of being wrong. Now, I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing
as being creative. But what we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be
wrong, you will 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, by the way; we stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now
running national education systems, where mistakes are the worst thing you
can make. And the result that is we are educating people out of their creative
capacities. Picasso once said this.

Video Script continued on next page...

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 Watch & Learn: News & Current Affairs:
Advanced Level (C1) and above
Education: Issues ◊ Read the script and note new vocabulary
Education Killing Creativity (5:42 min) ◊ Write three sentences using new vocabulary
Video Script & Vocabulary (page 2 of 2) ◊ Prepare for the discussion questions

Video Script continued… Vocabulary continued...

He said that “All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as  ruthlessly - with no pity
we grow up.” I believe this passionately that we don’t grow into creativity, we  literacy - the ability to read or write
grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it. So why it this…? In the next  drawing - a picture, an image
thirty years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating  hardly ever - almost never
through education than since the beginning of history. More people. And it’s the  take a chance - to do something that
combination of all the things that we’ve talked about: technology and its could either have good or bad results
transformational effect on work and demography and the huge explosion in  have a go - take a chance
population. Suddenly, degrees aren’t worth anything. Isn’t that true? When I was  come up with - to think of, to imagine
a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didn’t have a job, it was  run - to manage or direct
because you didn’t want one. And I didn’t want one, frankly. So...But now kids  grow into - to become
with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games. Because
 grow out of - to stop doing or having
you need an MA, where the previous job required a BA, and you need a PhD for
(something) because you are older and
the other. It’s a process of academic inflation. And it indicates the whole
more mature
structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to radically
 rather - to some degree or extent
rethink our view of intelligence. We know three things about intelligence: One,
it’s diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. We
think visually. We think in sound. We think kinesthetically. We think in abstract terms. We think in movement. Secondly,
intelligence is dynamic. If you look at the interactions of a human brain, as we heard yesterday from a number of presentations,
intelligence is wonderfully interactive. The brain isn’t divided into compartments. In fact, creativity – which I define as the
process of having original ideas that have value – more often than not, comes about through the interaction of different
disciplinary ways of seeing things. And the third thing about intelligence is it’s distinct. I believe our only hope for the future is to
adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human
capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth, for a particular commodity. And
for the future, it won’t serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children. There was
a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk who said “If you were to…, if all insects were to disappear from the earth, within fifty years all
life on earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within fifty years, all forms of life would flourish.” And
he’s right. What Ted celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely, and
that we avert some of the scenarios that we’ve talked about. And the only way we’ll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for
the riches they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being so they can
face this future. By the way, we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it. Thank
you very much.

Your Turn! Using new vocabulary is the best way to learn and remember it.
1 Choose three words or expressions from the video that are new to you and write a sentence using each one in the box below.

2 Try to use them in a context that is familiar to you to help you retain them.

3 Please ask for feedback on your sentences in the next lesson.

1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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2 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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3 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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