Practice 10: Do schools kill creativity?

Questions:

1. What is the topic of the TED talk? What's the main idea? When does the speaker introduce his idea? How?

• The importance of creativity in education such as other subjects.

• creativity.

• He introduces his idea using as an example the other TED talks, saying that they are full of creativity. 

2. What are the means of support used by the speaker to convince us that his opinion is right? Provide examples.

• Personal experiences:

• He talks about their children and that they moved to Los Angeles.

• He mentions his wife as an example of how women can multitask. 

• Facts:

• “In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO more people worldwide will graduate through education than since the beginning of history”. 

• Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy subject. 

• Jokes:

• He uses jokes during all his talk. One example could be the following one: 

When he talks about the history of the tree kings he uses a word name. When he says “Frank sent this” you can hear “Frankincense”. He uses this for explaining that kids are not afraid of being wrong. 

• Anecdotes:

• He tells the spectators that when he was younger if you had a degree, you have a job but now it does not happen. 

• Quotes:

• “All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up”- Pablo Picasso. 

• Examples:

• He uses as an example a daily situation when a mother or a father says to their kid “Don´t do music, you are not going to be a musician”. 

• He uses Gillian Lynne as an example and he tells us that it was believed that Gellian as a child had a learning disorder. She went to a specialist and he turned on the radio and left her alone. He discovered that she was a dancer and she does not have a learning disorder. That is how she started in a dance school and discovered that more people as her “have to move to think”. 

3. What's the speaker's conclusion? How does he “conclude”?

• The consequences that will take place in a future if creativity does not have the importance it has to be. 

Brainstorming of the first paragraph. 

• Does education kill creativity?

Yes, it does. We are living in a world where the only thing that has importance in education is our brains. 

• Is creativity underrated?

Yes, it is. As Ken Robinson says there are hierarchy subjects, and the ones which are related to creative are not at the top. 

• Being creative means having less opportunities to find a job?

Ken Robinson says that a lot of kids can not study what they want because of the oppression of the society and how it is said that the kind of jobs which are related to creativity does not bring you the opportunity to find a job. 

• How important is creativity?

Creativity is a way of showing your feelings. Dancing, acting, drawing, etc has a lot in common with feelings. It is important to know how to make that. For that reason, I think it is important creativity has a big part in education. 

• Should it be more subjects about the development of creativity?

Yes, it should. Being able to use imagination and creativity is a good way to develop your brain as well as learning maths. 

• Am i agree with Ken Robirson TED talk?

Yes, I am. Creativity has to be taught in schools. 

Brainstorming of the second paragraph

• Why did I decide to study the modality of Humanities? 

Since I was in the third year of ESO, I decided that I wanted to do something related to English. 

• What are the prejudices that people have about  the modality of Humanities?

People used to think that this modality does not give you opportunities to work because you can then study all the degrees that you want. 

• What do you learn in the modality of Humanities?

We have to study all the past to understand our present and can make a better future. Studying the origin of the culture is something unique. 

• Does it give you opportunities to find a job?

Yes, it does. I can understand why people say that this modality does not give you a job because the society does not choose this kind of study so it has to have fewer professors because the demand is less. But, at the same time, I think that people who study Humanities are passionate about it and they are pretty good at it. 

• What did my family think when I decided that I wanted to study  the modality of Humanities?

At first, my dad and my mom said that they were ok if that is what I wanted. But, my brother told me that this modality closes you some doors. He prefered I had studied another modality, but at the moment he has understood that I am good at Humanities. I understand what he told me, he was just taking care of me. 

• Why do people think that  the modality of Humanities has less opportunities than other modalities?

The demand of people who want to study Humanities are decreasing so at the same time, the people who teach them have to be lewer. This is like a chain, so in the future if society still has that opinion about this modality, it will disappear.  

Creativity is going to disappear if schools do not give it the importance it has, as Ken Robirson said in his TED talk, today´s education  system is only interested in brains. We must have an education system interested in new ideas, using creativity as a way of discovering a new way of life. Using this amazing tool we may create more jobs interested in imagination and creativity. Some jobs that have been created at the moment which need creativity and imagination would be being a “influencer”. This job does not exist some time ago, but right now, being an “influencer”, “youtuber”, etc., means to have a lot of creativity. In  the future, we will create more jobs which develop creativity. Last but not least, I would like to mention what Robirson says about Gillian Lynne as an example of what education can make with those people who are not interested in the typical subjects. Her mother took her to a specialist and then discovered that she was born to be a dancer, but if she had not had a supportive family she would not be able to be a dancer. For that reason, creativity has to be developed in education. 

Not only creativity is underrated, the modality of Humanistic is always had a bad connotation. In my experience, when I decided to study Humanistic I received a lot of comments from my family saying that what I was doing was risky. Humanistics must be a part of education, we have to analice our past to understand our present and have a better future. I can understand why people recommend you not to study this modality, but at the same time, it is like a chain. If you tell a kid not to make what they want to do because of the opportunities of having a job, you are going to make those professors, good qualified, do not have the opportunity to work. Studying humanistics is risky, but people who study this modality are passionate, and having this feeling in your life is the best thing you can have. To sum up, you do not have to listen to those people who do not understand what you like about this modality, and just have a little bit of risk in your life, if you think that this is the best choice you can make.