Sir Ken Robinson@TED.com

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honour to introduce you, Sir Kenneth Robinson!

A PhD in education, an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies.

It is rather fortunate because my lecturer showed us Sir Ken Robinson's talk on TED in 2006, that's when I'm inspired by the talk. In just 20 minutes, Sir Ken Robinson showed me how important is creativity to the world, and how the world kills creativity. It is a global phenomenon that the education nowadays has no concern about art nor creativity, in fact, this phenomenon started a long time ago.

Ever since we were born, we were forced to follow the system of education which set up to make sure we have a decent job in the future. According to the education system, art and dance will always stay at the bottom, because they know that both of the subject will not guarantee our future, that we might end up being a beggar. The truth is, art and dance is one of the way to practice creativity, yet, the society had account them as 'the express way to poverty'. It's so true because I was born in this education system too, since primary school, my got to attend art and music class once a week only, comparing with other subjects such as maths, science, subjects like art and music are really nothing much important. Eventually, we don't put much attention nor effort in these creative subjects.


 'When you get good marks, you can enter a good school, 

when you enter good school, you can find a good job and you'll make money!'

I believe each and every person had heard this quote before from their parents. It's true that parents always wanted the best for their child, I mean which parents don't expect their children to get good grades in school? But the moment parents threw out the quote, they had indirectly emphasized the importance of marks, but not the knowledge. It's funny because school is place to gain knowledge, not marks, however, the cruel reality had proved us that marks are far more important than knowledge. In other words, school is no longer a place to seek knowledge, but a place to get a paper called certificate. I found it quite hilarious because our job nowadays is fully depended on just this little piece of paper.

Now, in order to get good marks, we mostly give up on those subjects that occupy least marks, so there goes arts and music. Have you ever tried telling your parents that you want to be a dancer or an artist in the future? I bet your parents will look at you like you'd just killed their child, because they think you'd just killed your own future. Why would they think like that? Because the long executed education system had mildly brainwashed them. They think that art and music are for those uneducated people. In other words, you don't get to choose what you like to study, especially art and music, even though you chose to study those, you must first pass through your parents opposition, then you're on your own.

I would say the road to study creativity is difficult. Not only the education system will stop you, the society will also boycott you. Whenever you're trying to be creative, the society will try their best to pare down your confidence. As Mr Robinson said, there are actually a lot of creative people think they are not creative because they are being stigmatize by others. That's why, being creative needs courage.

A few years from now, more people will be graduating from university, more people will be having a certificate in their hands, at that time, maybe you'll need a master degree to work as a waiter at a coffee shop. Then, creativity will be instantly valued by the society, because they know that certificate is no longer valuable, everyone will have the same standard of knowledge. However, creativity in other hand, is something that will always be new, always different. 

So, inspite of waiting that kind of phenomenon to happen, why don't we start appreciating creativity now? 

Define 'Creativity'

5 words associated with ‘Creativity’:

Courage

I believe creativity is born in every human’s brain, everyone can be creative, but the question is, do you have the courage to do so? Most of the people in the world are common people, which means their thoughts are generally the same, restricted by lots of issue, such as science, physics, common sense, that are taught by their teacher, lecturer since they were born. To be creative, you’ll have to stood up against their way of thinking, but in order to do that, you’ll first have to endure lots and lots and lots and lots of their discrimination. The moment you felt like cannot accept the fact that you’re different from others, you’ll end up just as one of the common people.

For example, you've now entered a fine dining restaurant and ordered a cup of red wine, people usually drink red wine with a red wine cup, but you have decided to be a little creative by drinking it using a juice cup and a straw. Now, people surrounding you will start thinking you as a weirdo or a freak and gossip about your stupidity, but you know deep down in heart you've done nothing stupid, wine is just a drink, why must it be filled with wine cup instead of juice cup? Is it against the law to drink wine using juice cup? No! You’re just drinking it in a creative way, but the common people think of it as law-breaking because they were taught that wine is drank by using wine cup since they were born, so it is against their common sense. This is the moment of truth, if you can’t bear with the discrimination, you’ll give up using juice cup and change to wine cup, just like one of them, but if you can bear with the discrimination, then you’re proud to be called different, special, creative, one-of-a-kind, or still, a freak among common people.

Craziness

Sometimes when we’re going to think creatively, craziness is a must, because you need to be crazy enough to think spontaneously, to think like a new born baby. A new born baby doesn't know anything about this world, it doesn't know that pen is used to write, it doesn't know shoes is wore by legs, it doesn't know anything logical of this world. There! When you drop everything that had restricted your mind to think, you’ll be a creative thinker, everything is possible to you! Thomas Edison was called crazy when he thinks of the idea light bulb to replace candle light, but thanks to his craziness, the world is brighter than ever.

Circumspection

There are two way to apply creativity, first is to create your own creation, second is to reuse or re-purpose creation that existed before in a creative way. In order to do that, observation of surrounding environment is almost equal to treasure hunting. Everything of the surrounding might be your clue to your creative thought. Even a small piece of paper might inspire you in an unexpected way.

For example, the world’s first printer was invented by Johannes Gutenberg, but Johannes didn't actually invent the whole machine. He didn't invent the table, he didn't invent the press, but with his ability to observe, he’s able to recombine the uses of these items into something new, something that doesn't exist before. He didn't invent them, but to re-purpose them, that is how creative works.

Eureka

Eureka is a word comes from ancient Greek, means ‘I've found it’, which is popularly attributed to Archimedes. Eureka moment, also named as light-bulb moment. It is a way of creative thinking instead of brainstorming. Creative idea comes in any time, anywhere, anyway, which means brainstorming 24/7 in your room doesn't guarantee you to come out with a new idea, but in other way, relaxing your mind and having fun sometimes do help you in getting new idea. After all, it’s just the matter of time to come out with new idea. All you need is a sip of luck.

For example, Archimedes actually discover his famous principle, Archimedes’ Principle, when he was stepping into a bath and suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. That’s when he screamed ‘Eureka!’ in his bathroom, naked.

Mistake

Mistake is something that is unavoidable in order to be creative. Plus, it is good to have mistake, because who knew maybe a mistake will lead you to another new idea? Or maybe a mistake has perfected the imperfection of your artwork? Therefore, don’t be afraid to make mistake, don’t take mistake as a humiliation, we should take it as another way of being different. Not to ask you to make mistake purposely, but just don’t reject it if mistake really happened.

5 words not associated with ‘Creativity’:

Stubborn

The essence of creativity is to produce or accept what that is original, that is new, that is different from others, and an attitude of stubbornness will only bring you away from creativity. Being passive about accepting other people’s opinion or idea will greatly reduce the chances of you getting a new idea. The sense of ego in your own perspective will keep you thinking in the safe zone and never let you over cross it.

Conservative

Conservative is slightly a bit different than stubborn. If you’re stubborn, you won’t accept any opinion or idea that other people said, but if you’re conservative, you will accept the opinion and idea that people mention, but you preferred staying in your safe zone. This will not do any good to creativity because being creative is to think out of your safe zone, being crazy, being different from others.

Consistence

Consistency is good, but regretfully, it’s only suitable for engineers. In the world of creativity, no one wants an idea that is the same. Everyone is looking for a different, special idea. The only thing that can maintain consistent is to keep thinking creatively, or else you’ll be just a common people.

Shadow

As everyone knows, shadow has a very special ability, it is manipulation. Shadow can manipulate every movement and every gesture of a person, but no matter how good it mimic, it’s still a shadow, it cannot do any new movement or gesture unless that person did it first. Now if a person lives like the shadow, he/she will never create anything creative in his/her whole life instead of manipulating, or should I say, copying other people’s idea.

Free-minded

Creativity need to have a strong observation capability to observe ideas what are already exist and then evolve it into an idea that is new. If a person is free-minded, I would say he/she had lost his/her legs in the world of creativity. Most of the ideas are inspired by the environment that we live in, if a person didn’t observe careful enough, he/she might miss an idea.