“Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” That’s one of the many quotes that has made Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 lecture on rethinking the nation’s schools become one of the most popular TED talks — with more than 50 million views.
Over the past two decades, Robinson, an author, consultant and former education professor, has argued, among other things, that dance might be more important than math (though, he admits, both are important). And that our system of education is more like a fast food chain — robotic, formalized and industrial.
In his new book, You, Your Child, and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education, Robinson takes his ideas about what a school should be and translates them into specific things parents can look for. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
It can be hard to connect these big ideas — like how schools should be more creative — to when you, as a parent, go on a school visit. What are a couple of the things parents should keep an eye out for when they are in a new school?
There’s so much pressure for them to believe that a good school is defined by high test scores and high rates of entrance to college and university, but there’s a lot more to education than that.
One of the things to look at is the balance of the curriculum — which in shorthand is what it is we want kids to learn, and learn from. You want to make sure that there is a real balance and dynamism in the school curriculum. Testing tends to focus schools, for understandable reasons, on the areas on which they themselves are going to be judged politically. So there’s been a narrowing of the curriculum in many areas. We’ve seen a reduction in things like arts programs, in recess, in practical vocational programs, because they’re not subject to these tests. The emphasis on STEM — science technology engineering and math — they’re very important. But the arts, the humanities, physical education, are just as important. So that’s the first thing. I always encourage parents to take a look at the curriculum. To read more from ELISSA NADWORNY, click here.