phil sinatra avatar

Book Review Podcast

Out of Our Minds, The Power of Being Creative
by Sir Ken Robinson

Out of Our Minds front cover

Transcript

Hi there, my name is Phil Sinatra and I’m reviewing Out of Our Minds, The Power of Being Creative by Sir Ken Robinson. He's an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation, and human resources. Originally born in 1950 in Liverpool, England, Sir Ken completed a PhD at the University of London in 1981 and worked as a professor of education at the University of Warwick in the UK for twelve years. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his work in education and cultural development, and is the most watched speaker in TED talk’s history. Along with this book, he has authored two New York Times bestsellers, and has been called one of “the world’s elite thinkers on creativity and innovation”. Sir Ken past away in this past August (2020) after a short battle with cancer.

The book sets out to answer three questions:1

  1. Why is it essential to promote creativity?
  2. What is the problem?
  3. What is involved?

To answer the question of why is it essential to promote creativity, Sir Ken calls on career experience where he repeatedly heard from business owners that education systems are not producing the types of employees they need. Educators blame politicians who impose a culture of standardization and testing designed to work in the interests of the economy. “There is hardly a school system in the world that teaches dance every day as a compulsory discipline in the same way mathematics is taught”.2 He feels is it essential to promote, rather than stifle creativity in the education system, and to not force everyone into the same educational hierarchy.

This leads into the next question, which is defining the problem. “The assumption of a direct line between what is taught in school and the work that young people do afterwards puts priority on subjects that seem most relevant to the economy. If the economy needs more scientists and technologists, science and technology are given higher priority and other programs, in the arts and humanities, for example, are cut to make way for them. This policy is not in the better interests of young people or of society in general and it is not even the best way to produce good scientists and technologists.”.3

Sir Ken spends some time defining the relationship between thinking and feeling, and how that concept is at the heart of creativity. “Many scientists have a deep interest in the arts, and a growing number of artists take inspiration from scientific ideas”.4 He gives a few examples where mixing scientific concepts with artistic expressions have fostered incredible results, including an example of a collaboration between fashion design and biological sciences. I immediately thought of an article a read recently about a band. In the article, the members of the band detailed how they developed the melody and lyrics of a song based on the Fibonacci sequence.

(music excerpt: “Lateralus” by TOOL)

A few months ago I read a different book titled “Prepared, What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life” by Diane Tavenner. Diane is an educator and co-founder of the Summit Public School system, which is a charter school that aims to prepare students not only for college, but also for life beyond formal education. The core philosophies in the school include self-directed learning, project-based learning and a mentoring system, where students are given freedom to pursue projects and ideas that they find interest in. Students are encouraged to collaborate and problem solve real life problems from the earliest stages of their education. The system treats education as an adventure, rather than a twelve year todo list of things that must be completed to satisfy a standardized set of requirements.

The philosophy outlined by the Summit school system aligns with the concepts Sir Ken presents in Out of Our Minds. “In the interests of industrial economics, we have subjected generations of people to narrow forms of education that have marginalized some of their most important talents and qualities. In pursuit of higher levels of productivity, we have overlooked the essential human factors on which creativity and innovation naturally depend.” 5

This book is a great read that for once not only defines a problem, but actually offers a solution. I highly recommend it, you won’t be disappointed. Thank you for listening.

Footnotes

  • [1] Robinson, Ken, “Out of Our Minds, The Power of Being Creative” November 2017, 2↩︎

  • [2] Robinson, Ken, “Out of Our Minds, The Power of Being Creative” November 2017, 183↩︎

  • [3] Robinson, Ken, “Out of Our Minds, The Power of Being Creative” November 2017, 48↩︎

  • [4] Robinson, Ken, “Out of Our Minds, The Power of Being Creative” November 2017, 183↩︎

  • [5] Robinson, Ken, “Out of Our Minds, The Power of Being Creative” November 2017, 239↩︎

Additional Resources