Balancing Creativity and Practicality in Education

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School’s Aren’t Killing Creativity; Practicality Is
In the TED talk “How School’s Killing Creativity” Ken Robinson makes some very good points, he says that as we grow we are taught to be more practical than we are creative. He starts out with a very humorous approach to his topic; by starting out with several jokes the mood becomes lighter and he grasps the audience’s attention. As a college professor he knows a lot about education and what is being taught in schools today. As he begins to speak his main point is that all children are born creative, but through years of schooling we are taught from ‘the waist up’ and only taught how to use our brains at school. That in most schools the most important subjects around the world are math and …show more content…

We are more focused on making money to pay off the bills and have the things society says we should have to be successful that we forget to spend time doing things we love. As a senior in highschool I worked two jobs and babysat on the side all while trying to keep my grades up and prepare for college. Was this fun? No. And did I love working that hard? Not particularly. But I did what I had to do to have the money to pay for college. I started working the minute I was old enough and I worry that my whole life will be this game of always trying to gain more and more money to pay for the things I want. I would love to just sit at home and paint or read with a cup of coffee. I would love to just let my imagination run wild but it’s not practical. So in the beginning when we are young and school is to prepare us to be successful; as we get older school helps us face reality and forces us to choose between doing something that we don’t particularly like and something that we love but the one we dislike makes more money. We should be putting just as much emphasis on doing things we enjoy and teaching children that if you want to draw in class or you like to dance we should offer that in schools. Robinson’s whole point of his TED talk was that school is no longer teaching us the things that are relevant. School should be about exploring ourselves and figuring out what we want to do that will make us a better member of society. We shouldn’t have to take math and science if you hate it and know you’re going to do terrible. It should be up to you to be able to do things that you enjoy, and things that are going to sculpt you into the creative person you want to

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