Sir Ken Robinson’s talk was unusually entertaining for a lecture. Most seem rehearsed and artificial, with speakers who seem more concerned with appearing to say something new and profound than actually doing it. As I watched Robinson’s talk I was fascinated by his composure. His tone was oddly casual, and he didn’t seem to be talking down to the audience like many speakers. I asked myself if he was nervous speaking to such a large crowd, because his attitude was that of someone speaking to a group of two or three. Robinson also told clever jokes at appropriate times, another rarity among speakers, which helped to keep my attention. Not only was Robinson’s speech captivating, it was enlightening. Some speakers can go into twenty-minute tangents without making a clear point, but I could relate to every topic Robinson discussed. The one that most affected me was the revelation that “we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it.”
“Picasso once said this: he said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.”
When I was younger, the one word I most used to describe myself was “creative.” I loved drawing, music, and writing, and planned on majoring in art for most of my life. I realized some time ago that I no longer have a creative bone in my body. Instead, I’m now completely logical and analytical. I have little artistic ability, no musical talent, I hate writing more than anything, and I’m majoring in computer science. It has confused me how radically I’ve changed, and sometimes I miss the right-brained me. It had never occurred to me before Robinson’s speech how much of an impact education had on my creativity. One thing that has always been true of me is that I am a perfectionist. As I tried my hardest to meet the standards of (the current system’s idea of) learning, it’s possible that I just lost my imagination. Sir Ken Robinson’s talk made me think about this situation in a whole new way, and this assignment made me think about what other problems have resulted from the neglect of ingenuity. I then wondered, did the deterioration of creativity contribute to the pirate’s dilemma?
If you think about it, Matt Mason’s The Pirate’s Dilemma and Sir Ken Robinson’s Do Schools Kill Creativity? argue for a similar cause. Both say that modern culture is counteracting the potential of youth culture, and like Robinson, Mason believes young people should be encouraged to have a “D.I.Y." ethic. In chapter one, he describes a phenomenon he calls “punk capitalism.” The driving force behind the punk subculture, says Mason, was creativity. According to Mason, the development of punk involved kids learning one chord, then learning “maybe just two more,” then forming a band. He said this process had a tremendous impact on young fans, instilling in them the idea that creativity is more important than experience.
“Economist Joseph Schumpeter once said economic development requires 'gales of creative destruction.' Punk was a category five hurricane.”
Mason goes on to criticize punk for becoming commercialized, even though it started as an anti-establishment movement. “Punk was trying to give people a sense of purpose and freedom from capitalism,” he says. “So capitalism responded by selling us punk, and mass-produced Ramones T-shirts for the whole family are now sold in shopping malls across the world.”
What could have caused this shift? I think it was the same thing that Ken Robinson complained about in his talk. Just like school systems are killing creativity by forcing children to conform to their idea of education, punk was killed by its absorption into mainstream culture, thereby losing the creativity that made it unique. Of course, punk culture played a role in its own demise, while students have no say in public education standards. That is the fortunate thing about this situation, though. We have the opportunity to keep history from repeating itself. The stakes are much higher this time, so we need to rethink education before it’s too late. This dilemma is no longer that of just pirates; it is the dilemma of all creators.
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