Out of Our Minds – Learning to be Creative

by Ken Robinson

Hardcover, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

153.35

Publication

Capstone

Description

There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? Organizations across the globe are competing in a world that is changing faster than ever. They say they need people who can think creatively, who are flexible and quick to adapt. Too often they can't find them. Why not? In this provocative and inspiring book, Ken Robinson addresses three vital questions:-Why is it essential to promote creativity? Business leaders, politicans and educators emphasize the vital importance of promoting creativity and innovation. Why does this matter so much?-What is the problem? Why do so many people think they're not creative? Young children are buzzing with ideas. What happens as we grow up and go through school to make us think we are not creative?-What can be done about it? What is creativity? What can companies, schools and organizations do to develop creativity and innovation in a deliberate and systematic way?In this extensively revised and updated version of his bestselling classic, Ken Robinson offers a groundbreaking approach to understanding creativity in education and in business. He argues that people and organizations everywhere are dealing with problems that originate in schools and universities and that many people leave education with no idea at all of their real creative abilities. Out of Our Minds is a passionate and powerful call for radically different approaches to leadership, teaching and professional development to help us all to meet the extraordinary challenges of living and working in the 21st century.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member JerryColonna
I loved Ken Robinson's Ted talks and so read and enjoyed The Element.
Out Of Our Minds is less directly relevant to the work of finding your passion but is, like so much of what Robinson does, thought-provoking, funny, and erudite.

I found myself learning so much.

Two things in particular leap
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out...the first is a great quote from Socrates Robinson shares in speaking about the problems in education today.
Socrates: Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. And my first thought? Yup..so is Leadership.

The second is an incredible chapter called Knowing and Feeling which, essentially, gives the neurological and intellectual basis for the the split between thinking and sensing that's dominated (and wrecked havoc with the self esteem of) so many Westerners.

“I think therefore I am.” As Robert Witkin pointed out, an equally powerful starting point would have been, “I feel therefore I am.”13 Feelings are a constant dimension of human consciousness. To be is to feel." (p. 183). John Wiley and Sons. Kindle Edition.

To which I instinctively add, "I am therefore I think and feel."
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LibraryThing member mitchellray
There are three themes running throughout Ken Robinson’s "Out of Our Minds":

1. We are living in revolutionary times.
2. To survive and flourish in these times of change we must think differently about our abilities and make best use of them.
3. We need to operate our organizations in radically
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different ways than we are presently.

The key to addressing these themes, according to Robinson, is creativity. While Robinson argues that everyone has the capacity to be creative, our current educational system and workplaces stifle creative expression. Robinson delineates the problems within our schools and organizations and then prescribes how we may deal with them. He outlines how we need to rethink education and how to exercise creative leadership to redesign our corporations. This is not a detailed how-to manual. Robinson aims to convince us of the need to creatively deal with the challenges of society and to map out an approach to doing so. The book is worthwhile reading for educators, parents, managers, consultants, policy makers, and anyone else concerned about the future of our society and planet. According to Robinson, it is critical for the future of humanity to extricate ourselves from the outmoded paradigms of the past. To do so, we each must claim our inherent creative capacities and unite in addressing the twenty-first century challenges of concern to all of us.
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LibraryThing member pithos
Too theoretical for my taste. Focus was also on how formal education isn't leading us to be creative. It looked like it was leading to what other sorts of education / training help us be creative but I abandoned it after the first 100 pages.
LibraryThing member debnance
What we need, says education expert Sir Ken Robinson, is not more education or more training; instead, Robinson thinks we need to be free to be creative.

How to do that is the subject of this book. Along the way, Robinson dispels the myths of creativity, including the overriding myth that creativity
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is something that only exists in certain individuals.

The best part of the book, for me, were the last two chapters where Robinson clearly defines ways for teachers to encourage students to be more creativity.
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LibraryThing member willszal
Education and creativity. A wide survey.
LibraryThing member dasam
An excellent analysis with implications for education, business, and society as a whole.
LibraryThing member DrFuriosa
Sir Ken Robinson has the right theories, for sure. But as an educator, I found myself saying, "Yes, and..." a lot. Theories of creativity are all well and good. Yes, our schools and attitudes towards schools need to change. So how do we start from the bottom up, in each classroom unit? That
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question is never answered, and it is to the book's practical detriment.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

8.4 inches

ISBN

1907312471 / 9781907312472
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