Categories: NewsEvents

Global innovation leader visits NZ to cultivate creativity

<h2>Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talks on creativity and education have been viewed by 400 million people in over 160 countries&period; Now he&&num;8217&semi;s talking to New Zealand&&num;8230&semi; <&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-8584 alignleft" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;03&sol;Robinson&lowbar;Ken&lowbar;PROMOPIC-190x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"190" height&equals;"300" &sol;>On March 19 and 20&comma; he’ll be on the ground in New Zealand delivering two conferences&colon; <em>&OpenCurlyQuote;Creative schools&semi; revolutionising education’ <&sol;em>and <em>&OpenCurlyQuote;Cultivating a culture of creativity and innovation&period;’<&sol;em> The visit coincides with the publication of his latest book&comma; <em>You&comma; Your Child and School&colon; Navigate Your Way to the Best Education<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He recently spoke about his views to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;idealog&period;co&period;nz&sol;venture&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;how-we-should-shape-future-education-q-sir-ken-robinson" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Elly Strang of Idealog<&sol;a>&comma; Newstalk ZB’s <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;newstalkzb&period;co&period;nz&sol;on-air&sol;mike-hosking-breakfast&sol;audio&sol;sir-ken-robinson-the-future-of-education&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Mike Hosking<&sol;a>&comma; and RNZ’s Wallace Chapman – the latter will air <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;radionz&period;co&period;nz&sol;national&sol;programmes&sol;sunday" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Sunday March 4<&sol;a> at 11&period;04am&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Robinson believes that stripping children of creative capability through an outdated&comma; one-size-fits-all education system sees them grow up with a divergent thinking deficit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Everyone has profound creative powers” says Robinson&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But we have to develop them&period; If you want people to innovate&comma; you have to give them the skills to do that&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>He described the educational imbalance that he wants to see revolutionised to Ms Strang&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There’s ideas of utility and of two types of subjects in schools&colon; useful ones and&comma; as it were&comma; useless subjects&period; You see that very practically in the way it’s organised – high stakes &lbrack;are&rsqb; languages&comma; math and science&comma; low stakes are physical health&comma; art and music&period; Why is that apartheid built into the education system&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s because some subjects are thought to have more direct bearing on economic success&period; You need maths and science to get a good job&comma; you don’t need art or music unless you’re being a musician&period; There’s an assumption of utility&comma; which I think is mistaken&period; There’s an idea that science and maths are hard disciplines&comma; while physical education and the arts are softer disciplines – softer skills&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Sir Ken describes building a culture of innovation as requiring three things&colon; imagination&comma; creativity &lpar;applied imagination&rpar; and innovation &lpar;putting good ideas into practice&period;&rpar; He often likens the development of such a culture to nature&semi; a farmer provides the conditions under which seeds grow&comma; but nurtured with incompatible conditions&comma; the seeds will simply lay dormant in the soil&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Today’s education system <em>is<&sol;em> that incompatible set of conditions and at the heart of them is the fear of being wrong&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What we do know is&comma; if you’re not prepared to be wrong&comma; you’ll never come up with anything original&period; By the time they get to be adults&comma; most kids have lost that capacity&period; They have become frightened of being wrong&period; And we run our companies like this&comma; by the way&period; We stigmatize mistakes&period; And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make” says Robinson&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The LA-based professor has a breadth of scholarly and pioneering experience to draw on&period; He led this debate as Director of the Arts in Schools Project in England and Wales&period; Working with more than 2&comma;000 teachers&comma; artists and administrators in the mid to late 1980’s&comma; the project influenced the formulation of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;National&lowbar;Curriculum&lowbar;for&lowbar;England" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">National Curriculum in England<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>His international career followed quickly&semi; today he is included in Thinkers50 list of the world’s leading business thinkers and has been named one of TIME&sol;Fortune&sol;CNN’s Principal Voices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sir Ken’s achievements also include a number of bestselling books&period; In 2009 he published <em>The Element&colon; How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything <&sol;em>– it became a New York Times best seller and is now translated into 23 languages&period; The third edition of his classic book <em>Out of Our Minds&colon; The Power of Being Creative&comma;<&sol;em> was published in Autumn 2017&period; <em>Finding Your Element&colon; How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life <&sol;em>joined the NYT best sellers stable in 2013 and <em>Creative Schools&colon; The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education<&sol;em> hit the shelves in 2015&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The career-path he trod to deliver this wisdom might seem illustrious&comma; but Robinson’s lofty position as one of the world’s most popular thought leaders is built on some very gritty foundations&period; From a Liverpudlian working class family of 9&comma; Sir Ken contracted polio at 4-year’s old and in his early years&comma; was schooled accordingly&period; Around the same time his father was rendered quadriplegic in an industrial accident&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And yet this adversity produced one of the world’s most decorated speakers&period; As well as holding the title of Emeritus Professor at Warwick University&comma; his credentials are populated with a string of honorary degrees and awards that complement his original doctorate from the University of London&period; In 2003&comma; he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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