First, a couple of graphics, then a brief (not quite *heh*) disquisition.
And a fuzzy blow-up of part of that screencap:
Now, the problems:
1. The graphics are the result of a screencap from a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson to a group of “more than one hundred school superintendents from around the world” at the 2008 Apple Education Leadership Summit.
2. School administrators, in the US at least, are arguably the stupidest people in education (Check their scores on the GRE, for example: bottom of the barrel.)
3. The talk in the video linked is about creativity and education, and in particular the links to divergent thinking. Sloppy thinking and presentation creates a false dichotomy between divergent and linear thought (something Robinson also does in his book, “Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative,” IIRC).
4. No matter that Robinson does briefly allude to the fact that divergent thinking is but a part of creativity and “genius” (he’s remarkably chary in his description of either) notice the graphic accompanying his talk on the decline of divergent thinking from ages 3-5 to ages 13-15. That’s right. Although his words say he’s talking about divergent thinking, his graphics say he’s talking about “genius”–whatever that is. And remember: he’s talking to what is likely a group of the dumbest people in education…
5. Robinson also makes absolutely stupid and false comments like, “…all children are born artists…” *faugh!* Not even all children are born with enough creative spark to be artists, and NONE of them are born with the talent AND the disciplined training, practice and experience to BE artists. It’s comments like this that encourage idiots to admire their own inartful scribblings, ugly dabblings and awful screechings as though they were art, and also encourage the appreciation of such crap by dullards made even duller by people who buy into Robinson’s stupid meme.
Mozart wasn’t BORN a creative genius. He was born with the POTENTIAL to BECOME a creative genius, and by means of his father’s (often harsh, excessively so, perhaps, if my reading of Mozart’s upbringing and the record itself is accurate*) tutelage, developed that potential to amazing heights.
I could go on and on (and on), but the point is simple: school administrators–as a general class–don’t need to hear this kind of poorly thought out tripe. They’ve already heard too much of this stuff over the years and from the evidence do not have the mental capacity to filter it for nuggets of wisdom or even understand them if they could do so.
*Perhaps, given Wolfgang Mozart’s “adult” antics, Leopold Mozart had good reason for his harsh discipline of the younger Mozart’s early years. Too bad a little more self-discipline didn’t result.