Creativity TED Talks

The argument of if schools foster or kill creativity is one for the ages. View these TedTalks from
both sides of the spectrum and answer the questions below. Expand thoughtfully in all of your
answers!

Before Watching

1. How do you define creativity?

Creativity is the ability to create or fabricate something from your own thoughts, experience,
and ability. Weather it is creating something new or perfecting an old idea, as long as the idea is
your own

2. Do you consider yourself a creative person? What has your experience been in school
with creativity?
I am a fairly creative person as i am the lead design engineer for the robotics team and have
helped create the robot for this years competition. I do art and digital design while still finding
physical outlets for my creativity.

3. Do you think schools kill creativity or do they foster creativity? Explain.

Schools are usually seen as killing creativity because they force kids to take classes and different
courses that have nothing with what the kid wants to go into. But if the person was able to
focus on what they wanted (at least academically focused) they would be able to express their
creative self and explore new paths for their learning abilities.

While Watching

Take lots of notes for each video and identify the claim, purpose, and evidence of each!

Do Schools Kill Creativity? Why Real Creativity is Based on Knowledge

Sir Ken Robinson Tim Leunig

Claim:creativity is as important as literacy, Claim:creativity stems from the knowledge of

but is not taught at school because schools different theories and past ideas and knowing
are only focused on creating scholars of the how to make them your own
primary categories. Our goal is to help them
make something of their future.

Purpose:the future generations of humanity Purpose:creative thinking is based on

is based on the creativity of the kids being knowledge the same way that new inventions
raised today, if we don’t foster it then we are often just combinations of prior
 can't explore new avenues or discoveries inventions or theories.

Evidence: kids aren't afraid to take chances,
and to be creative you have to take a chance.
Picasso quote, the growing out of creativity.
The statute of education hierarchy with math
being the primary subject followed with
languages and humanities. But public
education creates professor’s as the best
“form of life”. Intelligence is dynamic, the
college system that creates the standards for
society, has tests off of their own ideologies
to create specifically smart not creatively
smart. Harness a kids smarts instead of
changing them into a person who contains
themselves to the school system
Evidence: the umbilical cord infection solving
story where she only had the knowledge of
the antiseptic because she worked in the
business and went into school for those kinds
of things. And talks about how dance is a less
impactful creative outlets than the full med
MD who made the antiseptic. Self taught
smarts are different than those that are
taught like doctors and mechanics. Literacy is
foundation of knowledge.

After Watching

1. Does how we define “creativity” matter? Do Robinson and Leunig have the same
definition? Explain.
The way we define creativity matters as seen in these videos as robinson defined what natural
creativity is and leunig described innovation as a part of creativity. As Robinson explained he
brought up children and their ability to create and do things that were outside their normal
range of capabilities, while leunig described how adults are able to combine objects to find a
greater purpose. But as these two things are not the same, their meanings definitely separate.

2. Do schools kill or foster creativity? With which speaker do you agree/disagree? Explain.
I think schools kill creativity specifically by not fostering the kids' abilities in these regions. For
instance I am a very physical person when it comes to expressing my creativity. Whether it is
playing sports, racing, or just building new things, I have always tried to just make something on
my own. Combining two objects is joining two people’s creativity and calling it an innovation, or
reuse of the technology, so I mostly agree with Robinson’s point of view.

3. Can creativity be taught? If so, how? What responsibility do schools have in the
endeavor?
Creativity cannot be taught, just like how energy cannot be created or destroyed, it has to come
from somewhere and what schools do is close the blinds on creativity and focus the view on a
narrower landscape of the materials and subjects they choose. Creativity can be regulated,
diminished, and scrutinized… but we will never be able to find or program a life form/AI to be
as creative as a human as it is programmed with prior knowledge, where creativity is the ability
to blindly go into a situation and follow your instinct.