There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? ...
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Nov 08, 2009
Nick
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The argument in "Out of Our Minds: Learning to be creative" is by now a familiar one. There are multiple intelligences, schools tend to favor the rather narrow fact- and logic-based kinds, that damages our creativity and especially our children who have other kinds of intelligence (kinesthetic, spatial, artistic, emotional) and grow up thinking they're no good or at least not very smart. Astonishing numbers of these kids, according to Robinson, go on to become successes in interestin
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Nov 05, 2009
Michael
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I picked up this book after listening to one of Ken Robison's TED talks on creativity and education. Ken covers a lot of territory, but it's a very readable introduction to some of the issues in education today and the necessity to stimulate creativity on personal and corporate levels.
I think more time could have been spent on solving the education problem. He suggests that education must be rebalanced so that there's balance across the curriculum, balance within the teaching of More...
I think more time could have been spent on solving the education problem. He suggests that education must be rebalanced so that there's balance across the curriculum, balance within the teaching of More...
Oct 04, 2008
Liz
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Covers a LOT of territory -- too much, too briefly. His use of headings drove me crazy: all the same level, so all the same importance? There was clearly some hierarchy of ideas here, but it wasn't displayed; rather, it was a series of sound bites. Found myself skimming a lot, as much of the summary I've read elsewhere.
Exposing people to creative mediums, though, came through as a message. We know 'em when we see 'em, but getting them in front of us still seems the trick.
Exposing people to creative mediums, though, came through as a message. We know 'em when we see 'em, but getting them in front of us still seems the trick.
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Jan 24, 2011
DwyerTeacher
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Utterly brilliant. I know it is about ten years old now, but it still applies. For Education and teachers, he paints a great portrait of what the end product of education should look like. Though he doesn't go into specific details about how to fix education, he gives enough evidence that creativity is a vital part of human ecology to keep a creative teacher going. The idea of cross subject (trans-disciplinary learning, or integration of subjects) has been catching on in the education world f
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Apr 15, 2011
Rachelterry
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I love watching Ken Robinson's TED talks. He's a wonderful speaker, so I was excited to get my hands on this book. I had to get it through Interlibrary loan from University of Wyoming. I'm sad to say that I was pretty disappointed. It wasn't focused or deep enough for me to come away with many new insights. There were so many statistics in the first couple of chapters that they lost their punch. I agree with him on many points, especially about how school systems need to change to prepare studen
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Jul 29, 2011
irfan
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A good read for those who wants to uncover the thing that limits one creative potential. The link between imagination, creativity and innovation is also discussed here. It is interesting to note how creativity is not just a trait of a few individuals, but seen as something that is inherent in everyone. Ken also touched on the idea of Creative Leadership, the strategies of how leaders who wants to give their organizations that added edge, would need to adopt an attitude that catalyses creativity.
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Feb 16, 2010
Kristian
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Interesting book about how we need to adjust the education system to embrace the idea that intelligence is not just how well one can read and do math. It is also found in the creative arts. Is not Picasso as intelligent as the scholar who writes about Picasso? Just in a different way?
Our current education system functions much the same way it did 100 years ago. The problem is the system was designed to produce workers for the industrial age. Robinson asks why, in the 21st century, is More...
Our current education system functions much the same way it did 100 years ago. The problem is the system was designed to produce workers for the industrial age. Robinson asks why, in the 21st century, is More...
Mar 12, 2011
Kristen
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I was sadly disappointed by this book. I am a huge fan of Sir Ken Robinson's TED talks on creativity - they're one of my go-tos when I feel like throwing in the homeschooling towel - and I loved "The Element". This one had some good information and few things stuck out, but overall, I slogged through it and found it hard to stay focused and read.
What I am looking for is more "teeth" to his references to different types of intelligences and how to actually foster More...
What I am looking for is more "teeth" to his references to different types of intelligences and how to actually foster More...
Aug 10, 2010
brian
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Like many others, I really enjoyed Sir Robinson's TED Talk. In book form , however, I never really felt he proved his point. He describes 1) how creativity is being crushed by modern schools, 2) schools decide what is and isn't important - the three 'r's are important, but dance is not, 3) how creativity is needed in all aspects of study, and 4) arts are therefore important.
The first point, I readily grant - I live and teach in South Korea, the home of crushed creativity.
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The first point, I readily grant - I live and teach in South Korea, the home of crushed creativity.
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Jan 25, 2009
Ron
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For anyone who want to explore the way in which we SHOULD look at creativity, this book is a must. I know and met the author on several occasions and he is, shall we say, a genius who addresses why we insist on sustaining an education system that is narrow, partial, entirely inappropriate for the 21st century and deeply destructive of human potential when human beings have so much latent creative ability to offer. I borrowed some of my comments from the review by Wally Olins, Founder, Wolff-Olin
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Feb 19, 2009
Saw the author on TED:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_r...
and decided to read his book
I'm about half way through and he's spent a lot of time laying out the history of our view of intelligence and education. He goes much farther back than most folks, who start with the industrial revolution. It can feel a bit dry and I want him to get to the point that resonates with me, which is that the way we go about education is all wrong and fails to value our true tal More...
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_r...
and decided to read his book
I'm about half way through and he's spent a lot of time laying out the history of our view of intelligence and education. He goes much farther back than most folks, who start with the industrial revolution. It can feel a bit dry and I want him to get to the point that resonates with me, which is that the way we go about education is all wrong and fails to value our true tal More...
Jan 09, 2012
Rachel
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Any book that tries to revolutionize education will get my attention. I think he is simply trying to open up a dialogue about bringing creativity into our education system. I really agreed with his statement that "In every discipline [subject], creativity also draws on skill, knowledge and control." He argues against the belief that creativity is a free for all environment. Anyone who has ever created anything knows that creative work is hard work and you must have the "skills
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Aug 19, 2011
Joseph
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The author drowns a poor argument with lengthy proliferation of superficially-related examples. The final payoff of some implementable solutions seems hardly worth the suffering required to get to them.
The true value in the reading was the potential for cross-functional enhancement of my own creativity as I went “behind enemy lines” to see what is going on in the field of creativity. I’ve peaked into the mind of a jealous, brooding, disenfranchised and yet wannabe academic...I didn't l More...
The true value in the reading was the potential for cross-functional enhancement of my own creativity as I went “behind enemy lines” to see what is going on in the field of creativity. I’ve peaked into the mind of a jealous, brooding, disenfranchised and yet wannabe academic...I didn't l More...
Sep 15, 2011
Hans
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Ken Robinson has some powerful ideas and I really like his first TED appearance in particular. This revised edition of his first book was a bit too sloppy fot my taste though (or maybe I am already too familiar with this type of thinking through my profession).
For people who haven't spend a lot of time thinking about education this might be a good introduction to the reasons why we need to change education (an increasingly complex world) and how the current educational world is create More...
For people who haven't spend a lot of time thinking about education this might be a good introduction to the reasons why we need to change education (an increasingly complex world) and how the current educational world is create More...
Nov 12, 2011
Jeff
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Ken Robinson is the creativity guru that has a couple of really fabulous TED talks. In Out Of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative he expands on the ideas in the talks to explore how many schools kill creativity, but how we can expand the curriculum, improve teaching and learning, and generally fix education to ameliorate this problem.
His argument is a welcome addition to the call for expanded outcomes for education, and joins the ideas put forward in The New Division of Labor, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times More...
His argument is a welcome addition to the call for expanded outcomes for education, and joins the ideas put forward in The New Division of Labor, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times More...
Jun 13, 2007
Adrianne
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The education system, particularly in the UK and resonantly in the United States, focuses almost entirely on the sciences, including math, to the proportional ignorance of the humanities. We've seen this for a long time: arts programs being cut from curriculum for lack of funding or whatever other reason. Sir Ken challenges this notion, identifying creativity lying in all forms of applied knowledge -- suggesting that advances in sciences would never be possibile without a significant level of
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Jun 28, 2009
Kevin
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Received this book from the IMC2 Insight series. I'm sad that the program is over or at least I'm not part of it anymore because I haven't received a book for a while... Sir Ken Robinson describes the often overlooked challenge that creativity is seriously undervalued in today's education systems and shares his enlightening perspective on how to fix it. For an intro check out Robinson's TED talk which is awesome.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_r... More...
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_r... More...
Nov 09, 2011
Tyler
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I did like the overall message of this book (the need for creativity in schools and life in general). What I didn't like was how the writing was wordy and seemed to stretch out the arguments wherever possible. It made it difficult for me to stick with the book on transit. There were also a couple of arguments that I didn't agree with, such as his spiel about research, though that may have been because I may have interpreted his points differently than what he desired.
Jan 02, 2012
Jeff
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Like others I was first exposed to Ken Robinson via his now famous TED talks. In those presentations he offers sharp insights about education and the systemic biases in our current system. While I'm sympathetic to his viewpoint I picked up this book expecting more of a focus on creativity and less on education. Still, "Out of Our Minds" is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in understanding why we learn the way we do and what we can do to change.
Apr 30, 2011
Soopajane
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An absolutely imperative read for everyone. It will open your mind to the shortcomings of our current education system and all of the myriad possibilities in how we could teach and instill a desire for learning in our young people. Robinson is a witty and talented author, and his account of the processes by which people are creative and how the education system stunts those processes is simultaneously informative, humorous, and inspiring.
Aug 15, 2009
Ted
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In my opinion, this book is overrated. What it says is true and necessary for education and business, but the writing style is pedestrian at best, and not at all creative, though it is a book about creativity. I had trouble staying awake through most of it. However, what it says is definitely important, and it may have been written more with businessmen in mind, and if that's the case, it's probably more effective for them.
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Aug 27, 2009
John
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I think this will prove to be a seminal book in educational philosophy; a book that is held in high esteem as people look back on this book in coming decades. Whether it's seen as the wake up call we needed and heeded or the warning we ignored remains to be seen.
Once Robinson lays out his basic premise, he then uses the remainder of the book to flesh out the foundation of his thesis and explore its implications - which he does thoroughly. Hi cross-disciplinary approach pulls in cur More...
Once Robinson lays out his basic premise, he then uses the remainder of the book to flesh out the foundation of his thesis and explore its implications - which he does thoroughly. Hi cross-disciplinary approach pulls in cur More...
Jan 09, 2012
Reedblackburn
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I read another book called learning to be creative. It talks about the importance of creativity in education and how current education lacks creativity. He explains that creativity is a learned skill, it's not something you're born with or without. Interesting, but hard to get through. Seemed like it explored a lot of problems in education, but didn't necessarily give answers to them.
Jan 09, 2012
Clare
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A fascinating look at the world of education. Although I work at a school, I'd never given much thought to the reasons that guide their evolution. We value academic subjects over humanities and the arts. They are often taught in isolation. Our schools teach conformity and asses with tests that don't always look at the whole person. I can't do it justice here, and can only recommend HIGHLY that anyone who has been to school, has children in school, who lives and breathes, read this book. I f
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Sep 15, 2011
Maura
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Lots of anecdotes and explanation of benefits of creativity. Fewer practical ideas for how we can be more creative day-to-day. This is not a how-to manual. I think this book would be useful for the manager or educator who needs a psychological push to launch a new program that could help foster creativity. It might be less useful for coming up with the idea for the program in the first place.
Also, many anecdotes are repeated from another one of his books, "The Element".
Also, many anecdotes are repeated from another one of his books, "The Element".
Jan 24, 2012
Annabelle
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I found this book very interesting. Amazed at the information on how creativity is integrated in all the new schools. I was completely unaware of all the progress that has been made on this front. It has been a pleasant revelation.The story on the book buddies program ( grace living centre) and the blue man groups "the Blue school" pleased me alot.It gave me lots of material to use on my behalf. For those looking to better results on education this is one great book to read.
Oct 12, 2011
Sara
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-To be honest I'm not a big fan of this book so far, a lot of examples that make me feel board, I doubt I'll continue reading it.
-Ok now I've just done with the first 3 chapters, the book started to be more enjoyable and I've just started to like it, so let's see :)
-Ok now I've just done with the first 3 chapters, the book started to be more enjoyable and I've just started to like it, so let's see :)
Oct 04, 2010
Felipe
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Too theoretical for my taste. Focus was also on how formal education isn't leading us to be creative. It looked like it was leading to what other sorts of education / training help us be creative but I abandoned it after the first 100 pages.
Oct 02, 2011
John
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Great book on developing creativity and education reform.
The weakest sections are when he tries to talk about creativity in the workplace, the studies he cites are generally pretty shoddy consulting industry white papers...
The weakest sections are when he tries to talk about creativity in the workplace, the studies he cites are generally pretty shoddy consulting industry white papers...
Dec 11, 2011
Milka
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This book was very interesting but I don’t think it went far enough to explain what really needs to be changed about our educational system to help kids get ready for the 21th century economy. Still a good read for anyone wanting some background information on our current educational systems and how to ignite creativity.
