Robinson Argument Maps by Mahoro Audibert

Subject and Claim

mna104 — 2024-10-08 18:04:24 UTC

Ken Robinson, a creativity expert, opens his TED talk with the miraculous ideas of human enguiniety, talent, and creativity. He follows these anecdotes with the question, do schools kill creativity? He claims that schools do in fact kill creativity by design. He further develops his point through the ideas of a subject hierarchy, the instillment of a fear of being wrong or making mistakes, and the stifling of arts in children.

Subject hierarchy

mna104 — 2024-10-08 18:09:33 UTC

Robinson discusses how school systems around the world put emphasis on the more physical STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects with less emphasis on humanities, and very little on arts. Robinson also mentions that even the arts have a hierarchy as art and music have much more funding and availability of classes compared to drama or dance. This lack of care for the arts is seen through the disproportionate funding and the lack of actual classes for the subjects such as dance and drama.

Phobia of Mistakes

mna104 — 2024-10-08 18:12:39 UTC

Children are inherently never afraid of making mistakes, they fall and get back up quicker than anybody else, yet in schools they are made to feel guilty for mistakes. Robinson claims that schools tend to punish children for mistakes and make them suffer academically for mistakes. This leads children to be much more afraid of exploring different subjects or ideas. By extension this kills creativity and ruins the inherent human craving for adventure.

Arts has No Future

mna104 — 2024-10-08 18:18:40 UTC

Robinson cites the classic story of teachers or other educational role models telling children that artistic fields have no employment methods. "You won't be an artist, you won't be a dancer" is a common thing children hear due to the idea that arts have no jobs or do not lead to a monetary future. The adults in the education system are ending a child's dreams before they are even explored because they are told it will lead nowhere.

Nurture not Neuter

mna104 — 2024-10-08 18:22:47 UTC

Robinson concludes his TED talk with the proposal and the need to radically rethink the way we educate children. They are our future and we must nurture the childlike wonder of the world rather than neuter their wonder in the early stages of life. "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 richness 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." They are the future of humanity so we must be able to create a world for them to explore, improve, and innovate upon.

Robinson Hates This Idea

mna104 — 2024-10-18 02:21:13 UTC

Robinson believes that the idea of art not being a future is "Benign advice — now, profoundly mistaken" where the whole world is in an art revolution where you can make a profitable career on the arts. He cites his friend Gillian Lynne who is a immensely successful playwright who had her career start when she was transferred into a dance school. The arts is a passionate and very lucrative field if you can make it, it should be promoted rather than be treated as an unreasonable future.

Children no longer take Mistakes

mna104 — 2024-10-18 02:31:23 UTC

Robinson reasons through an anecdote of his sons getting cast in a nativity play, his son goes off script for a funny moment where his son makes the crowd laugh. He criticizes schools for cracking down on mistakes rather than reinforcing learning from them. "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."

Backwards Hierarchy

mna104 — 2024-10-18 02:44:01 UTC

The hierarchy of subjects in schools is a system that kills creativity in children. Robinson reasons that this is due to "children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads" which leads to less activity for their bodies. He reinforces this point by saying that children naturally dance, they are constantly flowing with creativity that is suppressed in schools due to being taught "to produce university professors."