About this Talk
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now."
What did you think of what Sir Ken Robinson has to say about education? Does this resonate with your education? What does he say about dance and the body? How could education be different?
36 comments:
The comments Sir Ken Robinson made in regard to the public education system concur with my experiences. His observations bring to light the harshness of the current education system. I was disappointed, however, that he did not provide any means for change.
He believes that children should have the opportunity to express themselves creatively. Using the body for dance or drama allows children to be creative. Unfortunately, these are low priorities for schools. Sir Robinson says that this is a result of the major schools systems of today forming in the industrial era of the nineteenth century.
A similar conclusion could be drawn today. The public schools, with their very limited resources, are only able to provide a finite number of options for students. Since children are more likely to need skills like mathematics, reading, and writing when they become adults, these topics are given most emphasis.
This leaves little or no room for the arts. In order to improve the education system to include an all encompassing curricula, significant changes will need to occur. The societal expectations of the students need to incorporate artistic knowledge. This implies a drastic change in the public's definition of knowledge.
Thomas,
Do you think there are some courses taught in high school that could be put off until college to make room for more creative classes?
Louis,
I think some classes could be held off until college. But, I do not think it is reasonable to expect all students to go to college. I think that programs like those provided by the YMCA and the Urban League, which offer students of wealth and poverty alike, opportunities to be creative outside of school, are currently making the most progress. Until more money is appropriated to schools, they will have a hard time changing their already minimalistic curricula.
I think Sir Ken Robinson is very amusing. I agree with his opinion that most of current education is just about becoming a Professor of an academic (english, science, math) subject. When I say I am a dance major, many people act like that is not important.
I did have a teacher that liked to have us write plays and make home videos. This was one of the best classes I had, and I still learned how to write and read. I think creativity and movement is very important in education. There are many opportunities to learn the basics and still be creative.
I agree with many of the things that he said. There is so much pressure for students to pick practical majors that will get them jobs, ideally jobs in which you make a great deal of money, like doctors and lawyers and such. I think also that people who want those impractical careers tend to try to train for something that will pay the bills. How many actors survive just on their acting when they first start out? I wanted to perform so much when I was younger, but the training at my school was not that great. There was no money and freedom in our drama department, and of course much of the money went to sports. I felt like unless I paid to go somewhere else to be trained, I wouldn't get any training and I think this contributed to my lack of ambition within the craft of acting. I exhausted a lot of opportunities in my area, and not being rich, I there were few. But regardless, I found other creative outlets in English and other Humanities, and find that I try to stay creative with that. A lot of people think that if you dance, you want to be a professional dancer, but it can be a great way to have a creative outlet. It's also very gender biased and something for the "weaker" sex. We focus so much on test scores and marks, that creative people who aren't good at math or science are completely screwed in getting an education. It would be nice if we could all be creative, supportive of the arts, and that it was realistic for students in the arts to be employed without worrying about it. It would also be nice if students today didn't have to worry about whether or not they will be able to get jobs after they complete their thousands of dollars worth of education. It's quite frightening and as someone who is graduating in June, something I am fighting against.
That was enlightening to say the least. Sir Ken Robinson proposed some very interesting thoughts. I had never realized how correct he was about education. Arts, Dance, Music and Drama are always the least important subjects in public education. It seems ridiculous to deprive children of the arts.
Sir Ken Robinson also raising a very interesting discussion regarding ADHD, it seems like an “illness” that is all too quickly diagnosed. In no way am I saying it does not exist I just think maybe there are other strategies to help solve this “problem.” I hope that my creativity isn’t too far gone by now. I believe one simple way to change education would be to spend more time on arts, but more specifically giving children the power to choose which ones they like and wish to continue. Also, the art classes should be loosely instructed allowing maximum creative behavior.
The arts are an important aspect to education regardless if you like them or not, it is the same concept for enforcing certain math or science classes throughout the education process of a developing child and adult. Art classes, whether they be dance, drama, drawing, photography, etc. allow people to express themselves in a different way and gain a different perspective of the world which is very important. Although this can be an underfunded or less emphasized area in a lot of schools, it is good to see how many do require a certain amount of arts credits while also allowing the choice to be of the students to pick what they want or what they may be more interested in because it is almost impoassible to force someone to be creative or to force them to like a certain form of art. It is great to see how many people find unusual majors or other trades as a way of following their passions.
I really enjoyed the things that Sir Ken Robinson had to say about education. While I do agree that we need to foster creativity in our education system today, I am also aware that it would be extremely difficult to accomplish this task. Most schools are overall concerned with how they match up to other schools in the country and with how well their students perform in different areas. Unfortunately for those of us who enjoy expressing ourselves creatively, whether or not a school is achieving its goals is usually measured in average SAT scores, and how many students take and pass AP exams. Unless we can somehow change the national image of what a "succesful" school is, individual schools will be reluctant to focus time and money on the creative aspects of the education that they offer. I think that the most effective way to incorporate creativity into education is through extracurricular activities. I know that at my high school a large percentage of students were involved in some sort of artistic extracurricular whether it was band, choir, orchestra, dance team, color guard, or the creative writing club. Pushing activities such as these will encourage students to think creatively.
I do think he makes a great case about how children are influenced away from art and other things they "won't need" in adulthood, but I'm not sure that dance would be the perfect answer for everyone. He spoke about how we don't move our bodies, yet I had required p.e. classes during all of my public school education.
I got the feeling that he was implying that dance brought out the creativity in everyone. I'm not sure if I agree with this or not, but I do remember in third grade my teacher got a grant for some professional dancer to come in and teach us about dancing, creativity, and improvisation.
Perhaps the best of both worlds would be to require physical education classes that go over virtually everything-from football to running to yoga to dance. In this way, children could get a chance to experience all types of movement and personally choose which types they favor.
I find the talk very interesting, and it really open my eyes about education. yes i agree with him that mostly people focus on math,sciences,language as important, not arts. I agree that a lot of people think this way because they go through the same thing, or it becomes a tradition.
when i was in singapore, the school system was divided into three classes. for example class 4-1 being the best ones because they do 3 sciences and 2 mathematics, 4-2 being the average where they only do 1 math and 2 sciences, and 4-3 which only 1 math and art classes. the school marked 4-3 students as 'bad' students. They dont really appreciate arts and creativeness
although the education both in singapore and indonesia where i went to offer music, p.e classes, and dance as extracurricular.
however, i did not agree totally with him because most public school in my country could not afford such facilities (dance room, music room with intstruments) so we only learn minimal about it. although we are allowed to be creative in some ways or another. Mostly people who are able to go to dance classes or take up music lessons are those who are above average income people. so we could not really blame education totally.
I could not agree more that we need creativity for our brain to work to the maximum, or to relax. we are born creative one way or another, like take mathematicians for example, they like to do either poetry or music in their free time for chance.
What a great talk. Through my whole education, I have been pushed into certain subjects in school by my parents especially and the programs in my high school never had enough funds to develop the art programs that I was interested in. I always got by and did okay in other programs but I definitely did better in the art programs. Everything came so easy and it was because I loved doing it.
Besides my personal love for creativity, the arts help students do better in the other areas that are considered more important.
My high school was more inclined to give the football team money than the marching band. The children in marching band have a way greater chance of having a future with their music than a high school football player has to become a major player in some big city team.
Unfortunately, there are so many things people can do, but schools cannot support everything. There is a lot to be said about more arts in school, but the areas that are emphasized are extremely important.
I am glad I am not the one to decide what people do with school funds, but my hope is that as a parent someday I can give my child the opportunity to explore all subjects and find what they truly love.
Hi,
that was a very thought provoking speech.
I agree with Thomas in that it is unfortunate he doesn't provide any possible solutions to this problem.
I think the general consensus on this blog is that extra curricular activities should be able to act as creative outlets outside of school. I doubt Sir Robinson would necessarily argue against the importance of these outlets, but I think his point is that these outlets don't provide the nurturing environment that schools can provide. He thinks that art and dance are just as important as math and science and should be seen as such within our educational system. It really is an incredibly complicated argument.
I agree with most of what April said. There is a lot of pressure to study a subject that will guarantee you a high paying job. Usually when I tell people I'm studying dance they ask "what are you going to do with that?" Sure I could respond with "become a stripper" but I shouldn't have to. Obviously I'm not going to become a famous dancer. I am dancing for the sake of enjoyment. I think this is just as legitimate as Thomas studying to become a chemical engineer. Really, the only difference I see is that Thomas will become rich and successful and I will starve to death in a gutter...or possibly marry money and be a trophy husband.
I found Sir Ken Robinson very interesting. I enjoyed his humor, while also addressing important issues today. I agree with his opinions and it takes me back to my childhood and the advices my parents and others gave.
In my school education was put upon higher than other activities such as art, music and dance. While I was in middle school are music program was actually put on hold because of other expenses. This goes to show that in many superiors minds, art and the creative side of children isn't has important as learning math or science.
This idea of education above curricular activities is also seen in other cultures. Many cultures around the world focus on educating their child and making sure they will be successful and get a good job. They see music and dance as just a distraction that takes up time that could be spent for studying.
I found Sir Ken Robinson very interesting. I enjoyed his humor, while also addressing important issues today. I agree with his opinions and it takes me back to my childhood and the advices my parents and others gave.
In my school education was put upon higher than other activities such as art, music and dance. While I was in middle school are music program was actually put on hold because of other expenses. This goes to show that in many superiors minds, art and the creative side of children isn't has important as learning math or science.
This idea of education above curricular activities is also seen in other cultures. Many cultures around the world focus on educating their child and making sure they will be successful and get a good job. They see music and dance as just a distraction that takes up time that could be spent for studying.
Wow. I really like what he has to say. He definitely has a fantastic point. It is true that the arts are not valued in school and it's very sad. I can kind of see the hierarchy he talks about with the arts and having music be on the top and drama and dance on the bottom, but I think that music and drama and dance keeps getting pushed lower and lower. School districts that once had excellent music programs are having them destroyed by people who did not have any art education or background because they don't understand it.
I guess this subject is close to my heart because I'm watching the district my siblings are in now and after going through all 13 years of public education there I see how people who think math and science are the most important things to learn in school destroy wonderful art programs. It ends up hurting kids who have talent in music and dance and drama. As the district took away more and more space from arts classes to make room for science and math classes, we protested. A lot of us didn't think we could've survived our schooling without our creative outlet and we didn't want the kids who still had years to go to be deprived. As of now, it's still very hard to argue with people who aren't "creative" or "artsy" and it's unfair that such people have a lot of control over what happens to the arts.
In my education, I guess I was lucky. I skated by the new regulations and took all the music and drama classes I could. I was able to dance outside of school in musical productions and waive my required P.E. credits for graduation because I was dancing and actually working. Now at the UW, I'm not getting a degree in vocal performance, though I'd like to, because in the "real world" it's not respected.
Public schools should do more with dancing. It gives people a chance to let go and not have to think about silly math problems. I think more people would respect the arts if the educational system placed more emphasis on it. It'd be easier to make it with a performing arts degree if the educational system taught people to be more accepting.
The educational system has to realize that success should be different for everyone. No WASL or other ridiculous test should be the basis for whether or not someone is smart. People are smart in their own ways and have their own talents. I have no problem learning science and math, but I've found that a lot of it won't apply to me and I don't need it to be successful in the world. I don't want to be a scientist or a math professor. The educational system needs to be more flexible and develop the talents that people are born with.
These are some quality responses. I think that Jianna brings up a good point when she reflects upon her experience in humanities. Teachers have such a large influence on education. Having teachers who are willing to bring creative curricula into their classrooms, but still work within the structure of the schools, are proof that creativity does not have to come in the form of dance or theatre, if a school cannot afford such programs.
Lisa Meyer brought up another good point. Her comments regarding standards for comparing students and schools hint at, what I believe to be, one of the major problems with the current education system. That problem being a structure which is designed for analyzing specific abilities and skills. This structure is, of course, a reflection of the people in charge of education: politicians and therefore voters. The opinion of the majority of these individuals is clearly that creativity, while useful and important, is not a priority.
Trevor's comments indicate he has met people with similar opinions. I think that the majority of these people would probably agree that programs which encourage creativity are beneficial to students, but should only be provided in addition to more traditional classes (math, science, history, English, etc). This means that more money needs to be appropriated schools so that they can provide the traditional core classes in addition to implementing creative programs (dance, drama, etc).
Proving to the majority of voters that more money is needed for schools is tough, though. With the national debt at an all-time high and already high taxes, it seems very unlikely that a majority of voters will decide to increase taxes for any reason. So, for now those with money will continue to have creative opportunities, and those without will have to count on the good will of others.
I agree that our educational system should allow students to be more creative. During middle and high school I remember going to class, and having to do exactly what the teacher told me to do. Do this math sheet. Do this experiment. Spell this word. Luckily I was apart of an afterschool program that allowed me to learn creatively. I was able to learn how to film and edit videos, but I was allowed to write my own scripts, choose the locations to film, choose how I wanted to edit. I learned how to create websites, flash animations, and interactive cd-roms. I was also encouraged to use my knowledge in other areas, such as history, and science. I am a hip hop dancer, and I was also able to incorporate that into my learning. Through the afterschool program I received many opportunities, including two high school internships at Microsoft and a scholarship from Boeing. I believe that learning creatively can benefit both the studnets and the teachers. I think that if I only learned things in the traditional way and not creatively I wouldn't be at the UW today.
This was a great video, my roommates watched it with me and really enjoyed it as well. The things that he had to say correlate with my school experience very closely. I'm not sure I ended up ever having to take an art class once I was out of elementary school because I was so involved in other more "academic" subjects that my schools placed a higher level of importance on.
Dance does a lot of great things for people. If nothing else it is at least a way to keep people active, which is a huge problem in our society today. All art forms are so helpful in the rounding out of a person's education, as well as various types of coordination and brain development.
I think that the first part of changing education would have to be school systems not enforcing the idea of art as a lesser form of education. I've always been at schools where all sorts of art classes were available, but hardly anyone took them because they didn't think it was worth "wasting" the credits on. That's obviously not a natural human instinct and must be something that people learn at some point along the way. It really has to stop if we intend on keeping people from turning into robots who don't know how to do anything other than think strictly logically.
I read this far on 1-24-2008
I think that Sir Ken Robinson is correct in that the education systems tends to provide negative reinforcement when people make mistakes. Creativity involves risk and making mistakes. Most creative people have many ideas that didn't work so well and a few that work great.
What he says does resonate with my education in that the arts are not part of regular curriculum. Since there are so many things that education could teach, priorities have to be made, and traditional academic subjects take priority. So the arts becomes an extra thing -- if you want to dance, take a full course load, work your job, and then dance in your "spare" time.
Your body and your mind are the two things that (hopefully) stay with you all of your life. I can't understand how you can be educated without knowing how to use them both.
Because time is not infinite, this means that you have to make substitutions. You have to take away some calculus, or some english, or whatever, and add in the arts. I think it is a necessary thing.
Me too.
I think that Sir Ken Robinson is very correct in his statements. My whole life it has been engraved in my head that I have to go to college and i have to get a good high paying job. I know this is engraved in many students head and like he said more and more people are gradating every year and we are having an inflation on college education. You have to have a PhD to be recognized or stand out. People who are art or dance majors don't get as much recognition for their work as per say med or law students. I think that if in your younger years of school we did more art and dance then we would appreciate it more here. I agree that when dance majors tell people what they major in a lot of people think its a waste of money. i know personally from my own experience that when i was younger and i told my parents i wanted to go to college for dance that did not fly over well. Society looks down on the arts because it is not the norm. Also so society views classes like math and science "important" and classes like dance fillers. Even when you apply for colleges or to your major here at UW they mostly care about your core classes. So even if you aren't a scientist or a mathematician but are creative you can be considered a bad student. I think this should be changed and the arts should be taken more seriously.
Why won't this open up on my computer!?!? Wah!
:(
I think the idea of Sir Ken Robinson has significant meaning to the education system today. I agree with his idea that creativity is as important as literacy. Creativity is a necessary aspect of intelligence which should be nurtured and fully evaluated in educational system. However, creativity is not that considered to be one of the main parts of inteligence. To achieve a better education which can explore and truly cultivate talents, changing peoples recognition about intelligence is paramount.
He reffered to dance as one of important subjects to cultivate talents of children and young people. He thinks it is pity that arts have lower priority compared to "brain-using" subjects. It is actually sad that "math is taught to almost everyone but dance is not, although everyone has a body." How differently arts subject and others are evaluated is illustrated in the difference of credits. It is actually pretty sad that our ballet class is only 2 credits.
In my case, I am exactly one of those who have chosen practical major due to the pressure. In Japan, we have to decide major when entering the college by chosing a department. All we do there is our major study. As I am in the Law department, I had to study criminal law, civil law, the constitution and commercial law, from the first year. I would never be able to take ballet class five times a week unless I came here! So I can say american college system is less bad, or even rather desireable for gaining various perspectives and broadening views and possibilities during college life. To be honest, I was pretty much surprised that we have so many options of classes here, from drawing class to Astoronomy. Focusing on practical studies is efficient for some people, but not for others. I know so many people who changed their mind and regret of chosing this major. This suggests the idea that education should be more flexible. It includes the importance of evaluating creativity.
I think educational system could be better if it pay more attention to our creativity. For example, subjects like arts should be treated more importantly, as much as other subjects.This could help changing the definition of intelligence among people.
What Sir Ken Robinson has to say about education is true. Nowadays, we're so use to the "book method" or education that there's really no room /time for people to be creative and even when people are told to be creative, many people will freeze up or become confused because people no longer really know how to be creative anymore. Like he said, we're being educated " out of creativity". I think alot of what he said is very true. He also mentioned that subjects such as math are very much emphasized and of great importance nowadays while dance may not even be mentioned at all. Our brains and what we put into it seem to be so much more important than our bodies. I believe that although education, math, etc. are important , it is equally important to be educated in dance and art. Education can be different if art classes were required such as math and history classes but in world today, it would be difficult to change the school system. Another way to add creativity to education would be to allow students to express creativity and their own ideas into the class. It doesn't necessarily have to be a dance class but it can be as easy as allowing students to paint in a class such as history. In this way, students will be allowed to use their creativity to paint a picture of what the they believe history looks like.
Just looking over the comments and I noticed that I accidently posted under my sister's account. So, Jianna's comment is actually Jenea's comment.
Sorry about that!
i couldn't get the video to load :(
What a cool guy. I loved when he said: "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you won't come up with anything original. We stigmatize mistakes. We are educating children out of their creativity." This is so true - and the reason I know it is that when we do those silly exercises in class (screaming like witches, prancing like fairies, etc...) I feel SO silly. Which is funny because those are things that I would do at home in front of friends and family. But the school environment is traditionally so proper that it is difficult to move beyond that and take risks and be creative. But ya know, after "exploding" away from the bar a few times, "melting to the floor", and doing the super model, I look around and realize that people really aren't judging - we're just having fun and being creative, and I love that.
I agree Sir Ken is very cool. Thanks for your fantastic thoughts. Megan I will need to up the ante on the silliness now that I know you are a natural.
I totally agree with sir Ken Robinson because education is only go for certain pattern and create the opportunity for the college profssor and the acadmic. The only way that people can be creativity is not throgh school is create by their own. For example, i believe when bill gate create his sofeward that he did not learn from the school, he learn and taught himself, and later of the future he became a big inventure, softward and pc is he creation. I think every one should be creative without any restriction.
I think now day the public school is very lack out of creativity. For example like in the college envirnment such as UW, most class that student take, their grades is either base on the exam or paper, nothing about creative, i feel by the time most student graduate college, we been train to be either a good test taker or paper writer. Students adopt to a pattern from the school envirnment and the way school taught. Most student is lacking out the creativity.
I think in order that we can improving our educational system is cutting down the test and paper. The school should give students creation time and student can have the change to express their own creativity.
I know most successful inventer and musician did not go to school, a lot of inventer such as Aunistin, he did not gone to school to learn create a light ball but he make the big invention for the human in this world. I think school is not everything, creativity and imagination is more important. I think each one of us have our own imagination and creativity.
WOW. Very lovely and so important for every person in our society to hear.
It's interesting that from childhood, society teaches us to reserve ourselves more and more. Teaches us what is acceptable and what is not, but sometimes, the most important and creative things come from throwing that out the window.
I liked that he said Kids will take a chance.
"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." This is such an important and difficult concept - no one wants to be wrong, but those who will learn and accept being wrong because they know they will grow from it, are the people who will succeed and learn more. Risk taking is one of the best and most central facets of our lives.
Remain an artist as you grow up
I absolutely loved the story about the choreographer for Cats - at school she was failing, they thought she had a learning disability when this turned out not to be the case. It is truly beautifulto find people like yourself. I take so much joy in being around people who practice their instruments and understand the dedication that being a musician takes.
I also like how he said that women are good at multitasking :)
The comments Sir Ken Robinson addressed in regards to the public education system, in my opinion, hit the nail right on the head. It seems that everyone while they are children are allowed creative expression through drawing, painting or dancing, music or simply dressing up. However, after you reach middle schools, other subjects dominate the schedule and are completely emphasized more than any of the arts.
I never attended a public school in my life until coming to the University of Washington. Consequently, I feel that Sir Ken Robinson's point can be as much applied, if not more so, to private schools alike. I attended a small Christian school and like many other private institutions which rely entirely on tuition than public funding, they tend to cut art over any other subjects in order to save money since it is presumed that most children will go down paths of business, science or english.
I completely agree with everything that his speech entailed and really enjoyed his wit. It really interested me on the story concerning Jillian the choreographer who was that to have a learning disability yet really excelled in a different aspect of learning that the education system failed to offer her. I think that the entire school system should be configured differently with more emphasis and programs for the arts.
I think Sir Ken Robinson makes some excellent points and everything that he says really resonates with my own experiences. I think that there are many different types of intelligence and think it is only a shame that math, english, and science are the only three that are really considered valuable in our society (or, according to Sir Robinson, in every society). I would love to see other subjects, such as the arts, become more stressed and focused on throughout the education system rather than just very early on in children's education. It seems as though we recognize that really young children are creative and need an outlet for their creativity, but after a few years we tell them that they need to focus on "more important" things and then stifle their creativity. I think this can be so harmful to people, especially those whose natural abilities and talents lie in the creative arts, as telling them that their talents and passions are not important and should be stifled can have really detrimental affects on self-worth and self-esteem.
I would really like to hear what Sir Robinson has to stay about mainstream sports. I think kids (well, usually just boys) who are recognized as being really talented athletes in sports like baseball, soccer, football, etc. often have their talents cultivated by parents, coaches, teachers, and society in general and seem like they are often an exception to the math/science/english focus because, hey, these kids are gonna make it big someday. I'm not sure if this is just a U.S. phenomenon or if it is a global thing, but I'd be really curious to hear his thoughts on the topic.
In elementary school, we've had extracurricular subjects such as music, art, and physical education. However, as we reach junior high only physical education remains and those who wish to take drama or choir may do so by choice. There are a number of students who would never sing, act, dance, or draw simply because they "can't." What defines the ability to do so? Can you learn to be creative or is it a innate quality that some have and others don't?
I don't like the fact that most engineers, doctors, and professors make more money than dancers, artists, and writers BUT that's our society. Careers that will enhance our technology, health, and architecture will more likely be supported versus careers that others use to define as hobbies- writing, dancing, and drawing.
I believe that artistic knowledge is important to society. But you can't apply your artistic knowledge without the basic skills necessary to strive in this world such as math, reading, and writing. Hence, the public school systems and the choices to provide such subjects in its educational programs. Well, we are required to take VLPA...? =)
ALL IN ALL, creativity is still what makes the world go round. Because without creative and artistic people in this world, it would be so BLAH..!
Phenomenal talk. It completely resonates with me - especially his remark about how the education system ostracizes individuals for making mistakes, creating a fear of doing so, and ultimately killing the creative process (which according to him, is about the willingness to dive into making mistakes.) I know that for myself, especially in academia, the thought of making mistakes has immobilized me. Not having had parents with unreasonably high expectations of me, I've often wondered where this has come from. I have often been confused by the hypocrisy and asked myself - "but isn't that the process of learning? Isn't that why I am here?"
Because I started college when I was twenty four years old, I am able to compare my experience as an adult now to myself as a young adult then, nearly six years ago. I will have my Bachelors Degree this spring, which is for me, a huge success. Yet I feel in all of my being, that this degree has been at the expense of so much of my creativity. One example is that I used to be an avid writer, and now feel stifled any time I attempt it.... I am, by no means, suggesting that pursuing formal higher education has not been worth it for me, nor am I belittling its value in general. It just seems that you have to be extremely diligent in fighting against the system that stigmatizes you for thinking outside of their box. It's a tiring fight.
I love his comment about how the institution consists of people who are 'disembodied' - like their bodies are just a vehicle for their head... and the reference to academics being at a discotheque, anxious to go home and write about it!!!! LOL!
Dancing has been my savior in school. Last quarter was a serious taste of 'separation from my body' due to an immense amount of academic work that bound me to the desk for up to 12 hours a day. While it may work for some, I made a huge realization that I don't want to live my entire life like that. It really made me reevaluate some of my career goals, which had once been to be a university professor! The experience was valuable for me in that I understood the importance of fostering an active relationship with my creativity and with my body in order to live a life worth living for me.
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