Dan Butcher Cohort G EDUC4016 Rebecca Zak Reflection 2 The Ken Robinson TEDTalk on thinking about creativity and

especially innovation as a garden that has to be cultivated is very telling about the way that he views the educational system in general. If you are interested in innovation, then you have to cultivate your imagination. I believe you have to have talent as an artist, but the creative process is in large part very cerebral; what new interpretation can you bring to the analysis when creating your artwork? In other words the message, brought about by conceptual progression, is at the very least as important as the final creation. This is defined as the imaginative process and when it is viewed in the light of the educational system, it is no wonder that the imaginative spark among children is lost when given the importance of other streams of study. I thought it was a very intuitive idea as well to consider that the cultivation of imagination within schools is not a guarantee of success. It is an important distinction to make as this new approach to learning requires the motivation of the student to succeed. It is of great relevance to tie the two ideas together, and that is why the garden analogy works so well. The gardener is both the teacher and the student in the sense that it is a process by which nothing can be produced without the active involvement of both parties and the constant vigil against influences which would rob us of the ability to encourage our creative abilities. I see willingness of all members of the educational system as needed to grow this grain of an idea and even then there is no stamp that says all will be right, that innovation will flourish without fail. It is a process like any other that will have its highlights but I also wonder if it is a way of

approaching learning that will work better with some individuals than others. Certainly the point is that with zero encouragement, we can expect much of the same type of progression towards a truly innovative (and wholly imaginative) society-very little or none at all.

References Learning and Teaching.info. The Problem of Assessment. Jan 22, 2012. http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/assess_problem.htm TEDTalks. Feb 2006. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. Jan 23, 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html