Imagine if there was a poetically succinct, jargon free, optimistic and inspiring manifesto, which offered up solutions to not only the primary flaws in most mainstream education systems, but also the greatest challenges humanity faces.
Such a wondrous text has been published. Imagine If… creating a future for us all is a summary of the key ideas of the late Sir Ken Robinson, completed and published by his daughter Kate Robinson.
If you are not familiar with Sir Ken, stop reading this and watch the most watched TED talk in history – Do schools kill creativity?
If you have already seen this recording of Sir Ken, where he presents his conception of people in their element, watch it again before reading the book, to remind yourself of his signature warm, humorous and caring style of communication. Then when you read this latest publication, it will be like he is in your head.
The inside cover of the book reminds us that Sir Ken was “an internationally recognised leader in the development of creativity, innovation, and human potential.” More importantly to me, he is one of my great heroes, and one of the main reasons I persevere working in education.
Those who are familiar with Sir Ken’s talks and publications, especially the books Out of Our Minds and The Element, will immediately recognise many of the messages and phrasing in Imagine If…. For example:
“One of the fundamental issues with narrowly defining intelligence as IQ or academic ability is that it totally disregards the relationship between intelligence and creativity. It creates a divide between the two, and in doing so divides people into groups – those who are intelligent and those who are creative. We do this in our schools when we separate the so-called “core” subjects like mathematics, literacy and the sciences from the “soft” subjects like the arts and humanities. We also do it in our businesses when we separate the “creatives” from the rest of the company. In making these clear distinctions, we buy into and perpetuate several myths about creativity and intelligence.
One myth is that only certain people are creative, and you are therefore either creative or not. Just as we know that we aren’t born with a certain amount of intelligence, we are not born with a certain amount of creativity. Creativity, the brain muscle, changes with use. If we neglect our creative capacities, they lie dormant. If we use them properly, they grow and develop.”
(p33-34)1
Imagine If… is organised into eight short chapters, plus a final rallying call to action. The first two chapters set out how we humans have gotten to where we are, primarily through the deployment of our capacity for imagination, which sets us aside from all other life on earth. The world we have created is shown to be as much a product of our minds as of the resources of the natural environment. The third chapter introduces a signature Sir Ken proposition, that intelligence is diverse, dynamic and distinct, and inseparable from creativity, such that one cannot exist without the other.
Chapters four and five set out Sir Ken’s vision of the purpose of education, reminds us of the roots of mass education in the industrial revolution, and explains why this framework is no longer fit for purpose.
Chapter six gets to the heart of what schools should be:
“Great environmentalists know that the best way to let the natural world heal is to create conditions for ecosystems to thrive… Poor conservation efforts do the opposite: they ignore natural biodiversity and dictate every aspect from the height of the grass to the location of each plant, to which species are allowed near it and how often. The result may look pretty from the outside, but a closer inspection discovers a poor imitation of nature… There is a parallel here with education reform movements. Reform movements ignore the natural diversity of human talents and dictate every aspect of schooling, from reading lists to class room layout to scheduling. The result may look pretty from the outside, but a closer inspection discovers a poor imitation of learning.”
(p68)
The principles for a successful school are put forward to be:
- It values its teachers
- It is interdisciplinary
- It mixes age groups
- It personalizes learning
- Its schedule is flexible
- It keeps assessment in perspective
- It understands the importance of play
- It makes meaningful connections
- It considers the physical environment
- It values the voices of its participants
Chapter seven argues for a new understanding of human capacity which is grounded in living a life of passion and purpose, and recognising that we depend on one planet. Chapter eight is best summarised by its own subtitle:
“Rock ‘n’ roll was not a government-led initiative. Revolutions do not wait for legislation; they emerge from what people do at the ground level.”
(p93)
- All quotations referenced with page numbers are from Robinson, K. and Robinson, K. (2022) Imagine If… creating a future for us all, New York, Penguin, ISBN 9780143134169↺