Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talks on Education
In response to Sir Ken Robinson's discussion on education crushing creativity, here are some wonderful examples of students daring to be wrong:
100% Wrong But Totally Genius, Nonetheless
These students may have given the wrong answer, but in doing so have inadvertently produced a quite creative new perspective, in many cases revealing the students’ strengths and values.
This student probably didn’t do too well in chemistry, but he or she made a connection none of his or her fellow students or professor ever noticed. This student found something in common between the arbitrary letters of a chemical compound and a song from the beloved Lion King, two vastly different sections of the brain, presumably, that had to synchronize to think of this. If that’s not genius, I don’t know what is.
Instruction: Name the quadrilateral:
This student may not be a pro geometrist, but I bet she’d be a damn good story teller. Had the test asked her instead how each rectangle kept busy on the weekends, she would have probably come up with something quite creative, maybe even leading her to some geometry-related revelations she would never otherwise have understood using numbers and angles. Maybe Sam and Cate lean because they’re lazy, and maybe they fall over a lot. It’s clear that she sees something in these shapes her teacher isn’t looking for.
I really hope this student got the point. Although ‘hit’ was grammatically correct, it was ethically wrong, so he or she changed it, and even thought to leave a note explaining why. I hope he or she goes on to be an animal right’s activist.
This student should also get the point. They’re so good they’re correcting the test.
This student obviously has a natural understanding of Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Nothing says hell no like a big red X. Love, the strongest force on earth? Oh, honey, I don’t think so. That’s definitely not something we want our children growing up believing.
What could be a truer statement? Thank you for your honesty.
This is my personal favorite because this student’s mind is so beautiful and open he or she attributes cells human emotions.
Another clever punster who I think deserves some credit for their creativity.
This may strike you as hilarious, but to me it has much sadder implications. This student is obviously an appalling speller, slaughtering every single word, except ‘illiterate.’ Ironic, but it’s no coincidence. Well, that’s not true--it might be a coincidence in this case--I can’t possibly know, but it illustrates a point I want to make regarding labels. Like I said, this student is an awful speller, yet the one word he or she manages to spell correctly is ‘illiterate’, a word that others likely use to label him or her. If a student who’s this terrible at spelling spells ‘illiterate’ correctly on a test and nothing else, that tells me the student must hear and read the word a good amount, which only reflects on others’ insensitivity with name-calling, or labels. This student may not be an outstanding speller, but I wouldn’t venture to call him or her illiterate, given he or she at least attempts to sound it out. I may be jumping to conclusions, but either way, think twice before you dub someone a label.
And let’s not forget these visionary artists:
Another future animal rights activist. This student has more important things to think about than math, like global warming and endangered animals. They should at least get points for having their priorities in order.
Seriously.
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