Creative Spark Talk Analysis
PHL/458
Frank Grezaffi
12/18/2014

Today’s paper is in regards to the YouTube channel of “TED” centered around the idea of creativity. We had a choice to pick one of the videos on the playlist and for my paper I chose “Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity”. I chose this particular video because it might be controversial because this paper is to be written for my University. Before I get started I would like to compliment the University of Phoenix on it’s creative style of education geared towards working adults. This is one of the main reasons I chose this University and will go into further detail later in the paper of how the “UOP” is a prime example of applying creativity to the classroom.
Sir Ken Robinson brings up many valid points pertaining to how society deals with and entertains creativity. There are two sides to this coin. W have been fed the standard model for centuries almost. You go to school, get a degree, and then a job. If you don’t have a job then it must be because of your choice. It is not until recently that people have even thought of the idea that school is not necessarily the right answer for everyone. The reason why this is common knowledge in today’s world is that it hits home to almost everyone. During the most recent few years our American economy has been hit hard. It is much harder to find “good jobs” and even jobs in general depending on what field you work or have a degree in. Right now there is over one trillion dollars worth of student debt and a very large unemployment percentage of recent college grads. What is the problem and how to we as a society tackle it is the question that should be asked?
Mr. Robinson brought up an interesting point to the girl who in the 1920’s had a problem staying still. In our time we would call this ADHD. The doctor asked her parents to step outside. The doctor then began to play music. When the parents came in his response to them was “Your daughter is a dancer”. She went on to become a multi millionaire and a successful entrepreneur opening up many entertainment studios. In today’s society our doctors may have prescribed that little girl education.
Mr. Robinson brings up the point how we shun creativity and try and make everyone part of the system set in place. If we look at the team exercise this week we can understand that all of the famous icons of history have broken the norm and made it popular to be different. This is important if we ever want to progress as a society for the greater good of humanity. You can do things by the book and listen to what everyone tells you to do, and do it. How in fact will this set you apart or make you different? It won’t, it will just make you part of the existing machine. This wouldn’t be so bad if there were no problems in the world and everything was perfect, but that just simply is not the case. It takes creative thinking just to figure out if there is a problem in