Yoto Talks TED: Sir Ken Robinson on how the ‘system’ of education teaches our kids to be less creative

At Yoto, we’re big fans of learning and research. In fact we are slightly obsessed with sharing interesting content — particularly from the likes of TED. In this series of blog posts, I will be sharing some of our favourite TED talks with you, and discussing why they might be relevant to you as parents and fans of Yoto.

Oh, now this is good. Besides making me love the illustrator, this talk by Sir Ken shows how the way in which our kids are taught in school is based on yesterday’s principles and is not based on what tomorrow will bring. He covers loads of stuff — from jesuits, to ADHD, to collaboration, to divergent thinking — and what all of this together does to our kids. Which is this: the capacity to think creatively is diminished over time in formal education. Which is bonkers! Our kids will be living in a world which we cannot conceive — but we do know that we don’t know what the answers to life’s challenges will be. So giving our children the ability to think of multiple answers and to think divergently about issues is surely going to be key.

Allowing kids to explore their creativity is key to us here at Yoto. We are going to create music, story-telling and learning tools which boosts kids interest in learning and expanding their horizons. And it’s going to be fun doing it!

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms