Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative

Wonderful book everyone who has children approaching school age should read it, but anyone can get value from it. This man really makes sense, what a wonderful world we would have if this was our blueprint for teaching children.

I was looking for something that covered what the sub title states - learning to be creative. After 150 pages of somewhat interesting background information about the brain and the pace of change in society I gave up. They're just aren't any ideas presented that , as another reviewer put it, actionable. The book was a disappointment.

This book should be standard requirement for anyone who wants to teach - for anyone allowed to teach! I hope this information is part of the shift in the way we educate in this country and around the world!

Wow!!! I Mean WOW!

Some books contain stuff that stick to your soul - This is one of them. They should give you a pair of gloves or a bib with this book. This is one of them.

I adore books I truly learn from where the delightful capacity to read about a subject of interest is not turned into a burden by a bright author - that just can't write very well. Sir Ken Robinson's book, Out of Our Minds - Learning To Be Creative is clearly NOT one of those.

Here are a few tidbits that I really appreciated:

The necessity of unlearning: "We all live our lives guided by ideas to which we are devoted but which may no longer be true or relevant. We are hypnotized or enthralled by them. To move forward we have to shake free of them." (p. 7).

The Reality of Change: "The rate and scale of change engulfing the world is creating a tidal shift in how people live and earn their living." (p. 82).

THE 21st Century Challenge: "In the 21st century humanity faces some of its most daunting challenges. Our best resource is to cultivate our singular abilities of imagination, creativity and innovation. Our greatest peril would be to face the future without investing fully in those abilities." (P. 47).

The Imperative Questions: "The questions we ask are often more important than the answers we search for. Every question leads to particular lines of inquiry. Change the question and whole new horizons may open up to is. The true value of a generative idea is that it leads to new sorts of questions." (P.163).

I just cannot do this book justice here. The practical, insightful, approachable manner that Robinson shares his wisdom with the reader is refreshing and magnetic.

A really Great Book!

I am giving this one star because, although I have downloaded it several times, the Kindle edition skips pages! In many places sections of text are completely missing. When you advance to the next page in several locations at mid-sentence, the next page starts with text in another sentence.

Anyone who is an employee, business or civic leader, student or a parent must feel the intense and increasing pressure to "think outside the box". It's fast becoming one of the top criteria for employers (see the recent NY Times article about Google and their open-ended interview questions designed to test exactly this among perspective employees), and while all children have it, something happens on the way to adulthood and we lose it. Ken Robinson quickly points this out and anyone who has memories of creative endeavors as a child and wonders why they aren't as an adult will be able to totally relate to this loss.

This book is an excellent eye-opener into why creativity matters and what we can do about it, especially within our educational system. If we as a society are serious about encouraging creativity, then Mr. Robinson's book lays out plenty of ways for us to develop this skill, we only need the will to go there. And education is the starting point. Our methods of educating children, especially the current "one size fits all" approach to education by its very nature requires the suppression of developing the creative mind. I've often thought creativity is like a foreign language; if you don't use it, you lose it. But luckily we don't have to give that up, and in more importantly, we can encourage the growth of our creativity. Surveys and studies have shown time and time again, people's happiness, self-satisfaction and fulfillment are directly related to the level of creativity they believe they have in their daily lives. Let's face it, we are ALL creative beings - creativity isn't exclusively restricted to those involved in the arts.

Mr. Robinson has put much of this food for thought into several TED Talks programs on creativity and his book expounds on this. A note of caution, this book is not targeted to those who are looking to rekindle their creativity, it is written for and speaks directly to policy-makers, educators, administrators and parents, and to start the necessary dialog to affect change with respect to integrating creativity into education. My sincere hope that enough people will read this book such that a dialog can begin so we can constructively address our educational goals and stop unintentionally squelching creativity, and instead develop this invaluable skill across the board for everyone.

I know Sir Ken Robinson from his TED Talks,. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. These are leaders and interesting people from the world over who give short speeches that are sent out on video each week. They are creative, cutting edge, and vary from fun to profound.

So I truly wanted to know what Robinson had to say in book length. It is similar, but much more in depth and he spends more time with the proof. The book is how we have failed as a country, the USA, to support the innovation and creativity that made us what we once were. We have taken creativity out of our classrooms. We are narrowing curriculum rather than teaching students to use their intellectual abilities and creativity.

If you need good research about creativity and innovation this is the place to find it. If you are looking for a book about being creative, then you will need to look somewhere else. In spite of the name, Learning to be Creative, there are actually not procedures to follow.

This book is not one that you can read and simply put on the shelf. I would say that that reading, reflection, review, perhaps even your own research are all necessary with this book. This book requires thinking as you read and after you put it away.

Sir Ken does believe that everyone has creative potential it is just a matter of using it. So perhaps the beginning is learning about creativity.

Sir Ken Robinson has written a number of works on creativity. In this book he explains how the current educational model works against creativity. Today's model was structured to meet the growing needs of the industrial revolution; that is education was structured in such as a way as to provide labor for the growing industrial revolution economy. As such, it needed people who conformed and were schooled in a standardized way. By its nature, this model stifles creativity as it fails to promote individual expression and therefore creativity. This model also created a hierarchy between "hard" subjects like math and science, and "soft" subjects like art and music. Creating this hierarchy leads to the latter being jettisoned whenever there are budgets crunches. It also creates an illusion that art and music are somehow inferior subjects that do not contribute to the make up of an economy. Robinson goes into a lot of interesting detail as to how education was divided into these two disciplines, from way back to the ancient Greeks to today. If we want creative individuals who will contribute positively to society in today's fast paced and always changing world, educators, elected officials and policy makers need to seriously re-think how education is provided. This book provides an excellent diagnosis of the problems and begins to provide suggestions for improvement.

Two issues: 1) it seems as if every era claims that today's changes are happening at a faster pace than ever (as I sort of claimed above). I am sure that the Romans felt the same at some point. For me, being aware of this sometimes dampens the sense of urgency that authors try to convey when they make this claim. 2) in the end, although Robinson criticizes the existing educational model as being created to meet the needs of the economic system and not the individual, Robinson's own claims about his proposal include that it will also serve the needs of a changing economy, so I am not so certain that he is as disdainful of the current system as he claims to be if ultimately the goal of his program is in many ways the same.

I thought many of the talking points of this book made sense. Sometimes we don't see or recognize how seemingly minor changes can make enormous impacts on people and society. I found myself taking some extra moments to contemplate ramifications of societal changes and the impacts of education, industry, arts, business, science, global relations, customs, and cultures. This book made me think on both very large scales and very small scales (family units and traditions). The author did a good job of saying a lot and bringing so many topics into consideration, but keeping the focus on creative issues. Why do so many people feel they are not creative? Can you learn to be creative? What kinds of environments and practices are conducive to enabling creativity? How does a lack of thinking or acting in creative ways impact people, society, customs, culture, arts, and business? What are the global ramifications of the degradation of creativity? Who is to judge what is creative and how is creativity judged? Why are core curriculum courses in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) considered more important than the the studies under the umbrella of art? Why can't businesses find the types of workers and leaders they need to make their businesses successful and resilient on every level within a company? Where has the ability to identify and find forward leadership gone, why didn't people see the problems ahead of time, or react to them quicker, or avoid them in the first place? I can't imagine anyone reading this book and not walk away without such a broader and deeper understanding of what creativity is really about; how to hone it within yourself, how to express it with greater success, use it to your advantage both personally and professionally, and really gain a clearer understanding of it's importance (and historical significance) on any level of life as we know it. I really think this is a book that practically anyone could learn something from, especially anyone involved with personel: leaders, supervisors, human resources, teachers, clergy, mentors, Moms and Dads, civic personel, CEO's, and all STEM centered people. Just knowing all the data you ever need is simply not enough. This mindset is really quite self limiting and can have a domino effect.

This is an excellent book. Here are some of Robinson's main points:

* We are living in a time of global change, whether we admit it or not.

"As the world spins faster and faster, organizations everywhere say they need people who can think creatively, communicate and work in teams: people who are flexible and quick to adapt. Too often they say they can't find them. Why not?"

* Young children think they are creative; most adults think they aren't creative. What causes the change over time?

The truth is that our educational system does a lot of harm to some of our most needed abilities and qualities.

"Some of the most successful people in the world did not do well at school.... Many succeeded only after they had recovered from their education."

* With education so vital to advanced post-industrial society, why is it that the legacy of education now seems to include a reduction in creativity, initiative and innovation in so many people? And what can be done about it?

Robinson addresses these questions head on:
"Current approaches to education and training are hobbled by assumptions about intelligence and creativity that have squandered the talents and stifled the creative confidence of untold numbers of people."

I was interested to note that people haven't lost their creativity or creative ability, just their "confidence" in these abilities. Many adults are also out of the habit of using their creativeness. In my view, the conveyor-belt model of learning has caused this result in the lives of most people.

Robinson:
"This waste stems partly from an obsession with certain types of academic ability [e.g. rote memorization, early academic success rather than lasting academic interest, etc.] and from a preoccupation with standardized testing. The waste of talent is not deliberate. Most educators have a deep commitment to helping students do their best....

"The waste of talent may not be deliberate but it is systemic. It is systemic, because public education is a system, and it is based on deep-seated assumptions that are no longer true."

The challenge is that given this systemic, structural reality in our educational models, the time for reform is past. "The challenge now is to transform them."
Robinson writes:
"As Thomas Friedman, author of the World is Flat, puts it, `Those who are waiting for this recession to end so someone can again hand them work could have a long wait.... Those who have the ability to imagine new services and new opportunities and new ways to recruit work...are the new Untouchables. Those with the imagination to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies will thrive....

"Our schools have a doubly hard task, not just improving reading, writing and arithmetic but entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.'"

Top global business and public sector leaders "overwhelmingly agree," Robinson notes, "that the single most important leadership competency for organizations to deal with [the] growing complexity is creativity."

"All over the world, governments are pouring vast resources into education reform. In the process, policy makers typically narrow the curriculum to emphasize a small group of subjects, tie schools up in a culture of standardized testing and limit the discretion of educators to make professional judgments about how and what to teach. These reforms are typically stifling the very skills and qualities that are essential to meet the challenges we face: creativity, cultural understanding, communication, collaboration and problem solving."

"The challenge now is to transform education systems into something better suited to the real needs of the 21st century. At the heart of this transformation there has to be a radically different view of human intelligence and creativity."

Robinson's solutions:
* Increase access to education
* Change the way we educate
* Help students learn to ask more questions
* Promote a diversity of subjects, talents and interests
* Increase exposure to the arts and sciences
* Rethink disability as deep ability in something
* Personalize and individualize
* Help students become their best selves rather than emphasize fitting in
* Stop penalizing individuality
* Stop penalizing mistakes; promote mistakes as essential to the creative process and positive to learning
* Teach across the academic fields and remove barriers between topics of knowledge
* Officially make feelings as important to learning as thinking
* Make authenticity a key part of learning
* Stop acting as if life and learning are linear
* Restructure schools and businesses to encourage creativity
* Fund creativity, and give people time to be creative
* Allow each school to be unique
* Use new technologies to help individualize the education of each student
* Help the student be the primary creator of her own program
* Be creative and flexible with the schedule; great learning is the thing, not some list of rules, schedules and plans

This is a truly excellent list of educational transformations. This book is as important to America as Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, Hirsch's Cultural Literacy, or my own book A Thomas Jefferson Education--or at least it should be. Every educator, political official and parent should deeply consider how to apply the reforms it suggests. This is more than a great book, it is a necessary book.

If Robinson's book has a weakness, it is that he gives too little attention to the role of teachers. He mentions how important teachers are, but in my opinion he doesn't go far enough. The reality is that teachers are the lynchpin in all education and educational reforms. If you have a great teacher in the room with your student, you'll watch the young person experience improved and eventually great education. If not, you won't. It really is this simple.

Great teaching results in great learning, because great teachers inspire students to engage the act of getting a great education for themselves. Such education always increases creativity, innovation, imagination and initiative. Great teachers bring great education. Period. Even with all the changes listed above, without great teachers, very little real change will occur. With great teachers, however, such reforms will naturally catalyze a genuine transformation.

Maybe Robinson's next book will be on how to be a great teacher. If we implement the suggestions he made in Out of Our Minds, even in our homes or a school where we have influence, we will be ready when such teachers come along.

Mr. Robinson levels an early charge on the failing educational system in Western society which leaves the reader yearning for his proposed solution. It's not often that I struggle to focus on a book I'm reading, but I found myself contemplating solutions to the most perplexing problems in my professional work as I was slogging through some of the more dreary chapters. For that, I'd have to thank Mr. Robinson rather than despising him for making me think of work when I'm off work. After a marathon session of touting the benefits of dance, music, the arts and other non-academic subjects as equally important to the sciences, viola! The final chapter delves into his ideas of how to fix the vast shortcomings of our educational system.

Mr. Robinson cites numerous schools with varying teaching philosophies, all with one thing in common: Personalized learning. He settles on New York's Blue School with a well balanced education model comprising the core curriculum which includes the arts, humanities, physical education which many schools are deficient in, as well as unconventional subjects to promote creativity.

Mr. Robinson believes the lack of creativity largely emanates from our "educational ideologies of the 19th century". In the process, he gives scant attention to one aspect of our culture which, since the baby boom generation, has excessively focused on instant gratification. This myopic view in society, most notably present in the stock market, where what matters most is the next quarter's earnings report with little tolerance for failure, discourages the kind of creativity that may pay dividends in the longer term. Therefore, the fault doesn't just lie with churning out unprepared graduates. Society's reward systems are partly to blame as well.

In February of 2006, Mr. Robinson gave one of the most viewed speeches on TED (nearly 7 million views and counting). The topic was about how schools kill creativity. While "Out of our minds" is not as exciting and humorous as his famous 20 minute speech, it is a very important piece of work that if read by enough people has the potential to propel our educational system into the 21st century to make it relevant again since the industrial revolution and its mass education roots.

Following up on the success of his bestseller, The Element, Ken Robinson took time to update and rewrite a book you may have missed in 2001 called Out of Our Minds. The new version is a wonderful essay on the importance of making creativity an essential part of our educational plans and programs. Creativity may not be able to be taught however it is certain that creativity can be encouraged. It appears that every child begins with creativity and our educational systems seem to beat it out of all but the most hardy among us. Creativity in science is just as important as creativity in the arts and humanities. Precision in making art is just as important as precision in sending a rocket to Mars. Fortunately, we are creative beings . . . our creative essence is ready made in our DNA.

Read this book if you are a teacher (whatever level, grammar school, secondary, or higher education). Read this book if you are a parent of a child in school or expect to have a child in school someday. Read this book if you are a student at any level, if you have a child who is a student, get this book to her. If you are a teacher, then you will want to urge and persuade your school system to adopt some of the ideas from this book. If you a parent, you will insist that your school system focus attention on encouraging creativity at every level in the school system (that is, teachers, administrators, classified staff, and students all can encourage each other to recognize each other's creativity). If you are a student, then you know that being creative is your birth right as a person . . . don't let anything or anyone prevent you from being the most creative person that you can be. Play the tuba. Paint a picture. Dance to your favorite music. Plan and conduct a science experiment. Write a play, act in a play, design costumes for a play, remember, all the world is a stage. Be present!

I typically read two or three books on creativity a year, because I'm always looking for some fresh insights and ways to express ideas about creativity in a class I teach to software developers on user experience design. Perhaps half the books I read have nothing substantial to say - they just have a rah-rah, "be creative!" mish-mash with no structure or philosophy behind it.

This book was better than that. It starts with a very solid exposition of the author's view of what creativity is, and how it fits into a larger pattern. The simplest way of expressing his point in that first section is (1) we're all capable of imagination because it's a part of being human, (2) creativity is applied imagination, and (3) innovation is applied creativity.

I was struck by a quote from Lincoln that really hit home for the world of software design where I work: "As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew." As the recent death of Steve Jobs reminds us, the ability to "think anew and act anew" is far too limited. This book maintains, and I agree, that we have latent stores of creative and innovative thinking, but are hamstrung by an education system that discourages it and a business sector that is not adapting fast enough to the rapid changes of the information economy.

After that thought-provoking first section, the next section on how to think about creativity was more basic and similar to other books I've seen. I think it's quite possible that others have read the earlier edition of this book and spread these ideas to other books. For those who have not read a lot of books on creativity, this section would probably be more valuable than it was to me.

If you're looking for a step-by-step process for creative thinking, this isn't the book for that. I'm skeptical of such processes anyway; there are certainly exercises that can enhance creative flow, but the very nature of creativity defies systemization.

This is a fairly dispassionate view of how to think about creativity and contains only modest material on integrating creativity into your life. If you're really interested in a counter-point that is a lot more personal in nature, you might want to look at Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life.

I do recommend this book, as long as you understand what you're getting. It's quite well written, and thought-provoking, as I mentioned earlier. It's just not prescriptive. It intends to encourage and inspire the wellspring of creativity within you, and expects you to take that inspiration and find your own way to express it in your life.

Ken Robinson challenges his readers to create places, communities, and cultures that inspire creativity. This is not a typical book on creativity. It's not filled with exercises, mind games and problem-solving challenges. Rather, Robinson offers an in-depth analysis of creativity in our world. Creativity is not simply a hip, "right brain" trend at the moment. It is essential for facing the complex challenges in our world today.

Our political and business cultures can get stuck in ruts that hinder the people and teams from seeing beyond the obvious. We need leaders who can foster creative cultures. Robinson talks about a theme that has been circulating in the business world in recent times, creating a culture of innovation. He lists three essential processes that that a leader must cultivate:

1. Imagination - bringing to mind events and ideas that are not present in our senses.
2. Creativity - having original ideas that have value.
3. Innovation - putting original ideas into practice.

Drawing from a range sources in science, the arts, business, technology and more, he develops an extensive survey of exploration and studies on thinking, creativity, and learning. The challenge is to always be open to learning and making new associations. Along the way, he offers a richly textured fabric of stories the highlight creative people.

Consider just one, the story of Leonard Bernstein, the first time he saw a piano. He didn't come from a musical family. When the family was visiting with people who owned a piano. The moment he touched a key and heard the sounds a "wave of excitement ran over him." Bernstein found the medium that would shape and give expression to his creative formation.

Perhaps "Learning to Be Creative" isn't the best title for this book as it truly is an effective and outstanding analysis of the current state of education in the Western World. As a homeschooler, many of the ideas presented by Robinson ring true in my own philosophy. One of my fellow homeschoolers says education should be "lighting a fire not filling a bucket", and in even more eloquent words Robinson expresses the same idea. Yet he goes further by analyzing the rise of the modern educational system, and demonstrates that our industrial one-size-fits-all system once had a purpose. It's not that educators chose this model out of spite or desire to be ineffective, but that is what was deemed to be the way to educate people as we progressed in the industrial age.

Robinson backs up what many of us "know" with hard facts and research, providing a framework for societal change that is based on more than conjecture and hunches. For those who are not educators, it gives an insight into parenting and the proper role of education. He also advises adults in ways to expand our own mindsets.

Recommended book for educators and interested adults seeking a clear and well organized discussion of the role of creativity in our educational system today.

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 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.

There are hundreds of books written on "Creativity" covering a broad range of creativity topics, such as "How to be Creative", "Why to be Creative", "Why not to be Creative" and books that propose different thinking tools and strategies for developing & harnessing the creative habit, such as "Thinking out of the box", "Using your right brain", "Improve Intuition", "Thinking within the box", and last but not the least "Throw away the box", etc.

Any reader interested to learn more about creativity will first have to fight through the maze of conflicting ideas and theories to begin understanding the concepts of creativity. The only common thread across all creativity books is their assumption that creativity is but an explicit trait & it has to be learned, nurtured and adopted. Alas, all of them miss the point that though creativity is to be cultivated, it still remains an inherent human attribute that all of us possess, but do not push ourselves to the extent where normal becomes creative.

Why should someone read this book? For starters, let's consider one of the most used and accepted quotations we have learned at school or from our forefathers regarding innovation - "Necessity is the mother of all Invention". Most would agree to this simple fact, those who don't might get back to their other important activities else read on.

A need that's born out of desperation, urgency, and priority is like the seed that transforms itself into creative acts & also acts as a catalyst in its growth of a creative mind. But today's Academic institutions & parents have alas forgotten this basic form of learning and enhancing a child's thinking skills. Modernity and busy lifestyles have lent parent & teachers to raise children with a golden spoon, who wish to give everything to their child & fulfill even the most unwarranted wishes of their child however justified or unjustified they maybe. They fail to spike the curiosity of their child for things they desire or are provided in a blink of an eye. There is no thought on the why, how, or when, and just on the what. When you get your child everything in hand on a golden platter, you've surely got yourself a dumb lazy couch potato in the works. For, until you create a desire in your child's mind and motivate your child enough to try & understand the need and let them work towards earning the things they desire, you are not only raising a dumb child but are culpable of giving your own child a future filled with struggle and hardships.

Of course such a discourse is a thing of past and nowadays you would come across such proverbial gems only in literature and Sir Ken Robinson's book raises this major issue. Ken's book provides everything one could ever want to know about creativity and the rapid deceleration of creative ideas coming out from the west in the past few decades. Ken highlights the decline of creativity and how modernity and today's educational systems have left creativity undervalued and ignored. He further provides important suggestions on how today's leader can rekindle and grow these fast-reducing creative juices. He brilliantly draws stories and anecdotes of several technological successes for which he indirectly shows that the common root of such scientific feats and advances is but creativity.

This is a big book, not because of its too long, but because it contains ideas larger than life. The books simple style makes reading it easy as in a flow, yet the ideas discussed in this book will certainly make you pause and reflect. It is less a "how to" book than a "why" book on creativity. Sir Ken Robinson's core interests lay within education, but this book will surely captivate everyone interested in creativity. It gives a framework on how we should think about creativity in our society and life's.

Sir Ken Robinson gives his definition of creativity: "imaginative processes with outcomes that are original and of value." He rightfully insists on the fact that "Creativity is a process, not an event." There are several gem of quotations throughout the book, one of my favorites is what Sir Ken describes as - "THE 21st Century Challenge: In the 21st century humanity faces some of its most daunting challenges. Our best resource is to cultivate our singular abilities of imagination, creativity and innovation. Our greatest peril would be to face the future without investing fully in those abilities."

The practical, insightful, approachable manner that Robinson shares his wisdom with the reader is refreshing and magnetic. The book contains some interesting developments on the difference between art and sciences. Part of the problem is the edging out of artistic subjects (and P.E.) from schools so that "core" subjects such as science and mathematics have more room. But great scientists and mathematicians are creative- or at least they were in the past. Who is to say that Artists are not worthy? Why someone who has a Ph.D. on ballet is deemed cleverer than the principle dancer of a ballet?
The book was first published in 2001, but if anything, the education system has got worse. Teaching to the test and worrying about artificially boosting entrance requirements to gain more funding for the department\school is a worrying trend. Overall the book has excellent ideas and strong foundations.

A really Great Book!

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 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.

Ken Robinson surveys societal change. He shows how rapidly technology is advancing, and how unknown names like Google and Facebook can now go from obscurity to ubiquity in a few years. Ken summarizes the work of prominent futurists like Ray Kurzweil and Alvin Toffler, and then asks the question of our current education system: is it preparing society, both children and adults, to deal with the change that is now a constant? Mr. Robinson looks at some innovative institutions that thrive on education and change, like Pixar studios, or the Blue Man school. He also shows how many disciplines such as the arts, dance, and physical education are being neglected at the peril of a society that desires employment, prosperity, and a secure future. Teachers should want to teach, Ken says, and everyone should want to learn.

I found Ken Robinson through a friend that sent me his awesome animated TED talk "Changing the Paradigm". I'd had a very similar experience to the author's in my education and am reading this book to understand my own experiences and to envision what I want my children's educational experience to look like. I have talked extensively with other families about their education choices for their children - why they homeschool or don't, what they like about their kids' schools and not, what they experienced themselves and so forth. I like to keep an open mind for my own four children's education. (They are between the ages of 2 and 9).

I was born in 1976 in eastern Washington, USA. I landed a non-profit internship in NYC and then a job in DC after university which I loved, but it didn't pay enough to live on. I saw how my education was helpful and not in getting me there. Frankly, in 2000 I was just grateful to have a job after college! My first child was born in 2003 and we moved to the suburbs of DC in 2005. The economic upheaval of 2008 landed us with a job in Germany. I have always been happy we moved so I didn't have to subject my first son to the NoVA rigorous teach-to-the-test system many of my friends' children were struggling through. My son would have struggled in that system. Now at age 9 and attending a dual language int'l school with great interest in the Arts, my son still sees himself as very creative. At that same age, I had felt my most creative because my teacher had put me in charge of our 4th grade Thanksgiving play. However, by the age of 13, I no longer saw myself as creative, largely due to a few stressed out or unenlightened teachers and the system. At 36 now, I feel like I've recently just figured out what I'd love to be when I grow up. I've been searching for my passion my whole life. This is an important book to understand yourself and to envision an education for the future. I haven't finished the book yet but my mind is alive with ideas of how to supplement my children's current education and watch/participate in the education debate within the US and wherever we are living.

Like many others, I've watched Robinson's TED presentation and liked it, so I read this book with high hopes ... but I finished it feeling rather disappointed.

The first major problem is that most of the book is filler. Robinson spends a lot of time summarizing ideas from sociocultural and intellectual history, various sciences, and miscellaneous other areas. Some people may appreciate this and may even be impressed, but readers who are well-read will find little or nothing new here. Personally, I found it to be a rather boring rehash of standard stuff, and Robinson does little to bring it to bear on the topic of creativity.

That leads to the second major problem, which is that Robinson doesn't actually have much to say about creativity either. His views can be summarized as follows:

- We need creativity in all fields to deal with our increasingly uncertain, complex, and changing world.

- Creativity is fostered when we each discover our innate interests and potentials, we draw on our full capacities (both sides of the brain, both mind and body, etc.) and try to be reasonably well rounded (ie, multidisciplinary), we work in collaboration with diverse groups of people, we're supported by an appropriate culture, and we work in a physical environment conducive to creativity.

- Our current mainstream educational systems don't foster creativity because they emphasize rationalism, science, and technology, so they need to be reformed.

This is all fine, but it's really not saying much, and Robinson has very little specific advice on how to implement any changes which would improve creativity. Moreover, it doesn't seem that he realizes that creativity isn't necessarily an end in itself. Yes, being creative is intrinsically enjoyable and can lead to better solutions to problems, but it can also lead to changes which prove to be unexpectedly undesirable, such as nuclear weapons proliferation and development of financial derivatives which contribute to inflation of massive financial bubbles. Not all change is good!

Again, this book is a diappointment, and I'm giving it 3 stars only because I want to believe that Robinson had good intentions (rather than just aiming for self-promotion). There are much better books on creativity out there, which both reflect deeper understanding and offer more specific and useful advice.

Not so great for public education. Sr. Robinson has an illuminating grasp on the aspects of creativity. When we treat imagination, creativity, and innovation in personal growth programs we will naturally excel in our chosen fields.
Problem is, and he either hints at it or avoids it, the introductions of government meddling and cumbersome systems seldom succeed in helping this process.
He does use good examples of how individuals have used their vision to help lift some systems, but not how to make it a standard government policy. Why? Because that's impossible.
His book has provided me a great deal of personal insight towards improving my approach to life. This, to me, is an individual journey. Some mentoring is good, but it comes down to an individual's desire. Desire cannot be standardized or legislated.
Sir Ken deals a lot with inspiration and how it just catches on, either immediately or eventually. Having motivated and experienced educators is a plus, but you need a system that allows use and discourages abuse. Back to the individual and personal values.
For a better understanding on what makes you tick, read this book!

I found this modestly engaging hardcover readable but hardly gripping. The author lays out his arguments and presents his solutions in a logical manner. I did read it all the way through however, so that says something.

I was expecting something along the lines of "A Whack on the Side of the Head" or "How to Get Ideas". As an advertising writer methods of practical creativity interest me.

The jacket/blurb endorsement from John Cleese is due in part to the author and Cleese collaborating on creativity workshops, so they may be in business together. For the context in which the author plies his trade, this book seems an appropriately serious calling card. We know from the bio that he's a knight and he's got plenty of degrees and so forth. Clearly he's the expert in the room.

I was looking forward to fresh insights to help us all tap into our latent genius capacity, but that's not what the book is about. It's more like a criticism of entrenched organizations and their sicknesses. The author's contention is that organizations, schools, businesses (you name it) will increase in effectiveness through adoption of policies and structural changes that foster rather than squelch creativity in personnel.

The major theme is the inertia and resistance to new ideas in both private and public organizations. No surprises there. Like many presenters on progress in business today, Robinson cannot mention Pixar without gushing about Pixar's utopian corporate campus. I suppose the idea is that all businesses which want to make lots and lots of money should nurture creativity in a similar way.

I have a quarrel here:

Pixar, we don't need a reminder, is a cartoon studio - a purveyor of outrageous fantasy stories. To call their business an outlier in terms of creativity is an understatement. Emulating how companies like Pixar function would be like capturing lightening in a bottle. I'd like to see Robinson emphasize how businesses operating in industries not so associated with the cult of individualism can improve their competitive abilities through a more creativity-friendly culture. Pixar, Facebook, Google and Apple with their massive profit margins and limited 1st-world staffing needs can afford to invest lavishly in employee happiness, but these businesses create wealth for a few and do not create meaningful job growth beyond a certain point. There is not unlimited room in the market for businesses like these and I have heard most of what I need to hear about how wonderful they are.

Ironically I found the book workmanlike and uninspired, competently crafted but unexciting with a sort of droning tone. The chapters are pretty much the talking points you'd expect: "The Trouble With Education", "Being A Creative Leader", "Learning To Be Creative" - a summary of Robinson's thoughts up to the present; and in the book's own contextual environment it is hard to disagree with while reading.

I wish the author would have chosen a different title. I expected a book about the individual learning to be creative. That is not what you get here. The title should be taken in a general sense, because it's more about how our society can learn to be a more creative society, and how our current education system is flawed (our of it's mind).

That's not to say the talking points aren't interesting. The author gives a very interesting history of education, looks at the future and what is currently being done in education. We see an environment that doesn't encourage creativity in the right ways. Schools encourage kids to be good citizens and hard workers, and discourage creative thinkers.

He makes very good points that have been repeated by groups championing the arts and free thinking. The book is worth reading, it's just not about teaching yourself to be creative. It's about looking at creativity in society. It will turn what you think about a good education or even intelligence or genius on its head.

It's recognized in business that creativity/innovation is the supreme value for this age. We've traversed the Agricultural, Industrial, Information Ages to arrive at the Innovation age. This book traces the evolution of innovation and explains its context and landscape better than any other source I've read. It does so in plain talk and with humor, entertaining you while it educates. It connects dots in fresh ways. The author says this book addresses three vital issues: 1)Why is it essential to promote creativity 2)What is the problem of doing so? 3) What can be done about it?

The author isn't just an academic on innovation and creativity. He consults to businesses and governments on creating a culture of innovation. He clearly and succinctly explains how innovation functions in business and how to nurture it. He believes there are two new driving forces which make innovation mandatory: population growth and technology.

Regarding education, he offers up ideas and examples, but the path is less clear here than in business regarding how to nurture creativity in schools. This isn't the author's fault. Creativity/innovation is difficult to assess in education compared to business where output can be measured in dollars and products. As a teacher, parent and headmistress of a private school I thought a lot about creativity, read books on it, talked to other educators and parents, attended conferences and experimented with our own curriculum and students.

There are some dynamics in education that don't exist in business. These are primarily needing to learn and master the content with which to be creative and the limits of time in the seven hour school day. Can we agree there's more to learn and do already than time to master math, literature, sciences, grammar, writing, history, language, physical education, art, music? Don't we hear that students graduate from high school without even learning the fundamentals?

It's acknowledged that you need content to be creative. A creative mathematician can't transfer her skills automatically to creative writing. A creative writer usually can't become an innovative scientist or skilled painter. We know it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to become a world class pianist or a master in any discipline. Often we need to become fairly literate in a subject before we can begin creating anything worthwhile. One of my school parents who had a PhD in physics, combined with a doctorate in psychiatry, told me that Feynman, the physicist, said he spent hours solving equations which provided the content to think innovatively. Practice not only makes perfect, it provides the inspiration and facility of thought to create new ideas and products. School provides the basic framework and building blocks, the literacy and numeracy.

Some of the business practices for encouraging creativity can be applied to education. In the K-12 years when students are learning the basic building blocks of disciplines before they decide what they're going to specialize in, I think the Google model for innovation makes sense. 80% of their time company time--20% is open-ended (creative/innovative) working on projects, self-initiated doing and learning of their choice. In college you might be able to do 50% structured and 50% open-ended similar to Steve Jobs' drop-in program to classes he was interested in. Students in college have the skills and content for more unstructured learning, group projects, and self-initiated studies. Creativity can be taught throughout the grades in workshops on creative skills such as brainstorming techniques, lateral thinking exercises and IDEO type creativity cards. Theater, the arts and dance offer additional right brain avenues to creativity and shouldn't be cut, the author persuasively argues. His example of the dance school for at-risk youth is compelling.

Creativity and structure in education aren't mutually exclusive--they're interdependent. Some educational theory suggests structure/discipline blunts creativity. They believe that drills and exercises are boring and routine like doing scales on the piano. However, practicing piano scales leads to fluency and dexterity so you can play creatively and with passion. Drills can be fun and are among the most time-efficient ways to learn the basic building blocks of reading/writing and math: phonics, the multiplication tables, and grammar. With these basic skills students can read, solve math problems and write well enough to begin to be creative. Creativity needs content to create; often content or fundamentals are easiest taught and mastered through structure. Then provide time, opportunity, freedom and encouragement within the school day to go create without structure, testing and judgment. Encourage teachers to weave creative moments throughout the structure such as having extra-credit divergent thinking questions on tests. Or design group activities which nurture the 4 C's: collaboration, communication, creativity etc. There will need to be teacher-training on creativity.

In an innovative society, schooling can't stop after 16-20 years of school. That's obsolete with the Industrial Age. The author provides an original example of how companies can provide continuing education such as PIXAR'S UNIVERSITY of 100 courses for employees. It's a brilliant prototype on how to provide ongoing life-long learning which is indispensable in this new Innovation Age.

The quote in this book that "discovering the right medium is often the tidal moment in the creative life of an individual" stimulates thought. What is my medium in life is a question every individual should be encouraged to ask themselves.

Fortunately for us the author has made his medium the field of creativity and innovation. This is a masterful book with much original humor--loved his description of his Las Vegas wedding vows renewal and the tale of the flopping fish in the Chinese Restaurant. For anyone interested in the fields of creativity/innovation, the author provides a comprehensive overview and offers original examples and insights not found elsewhere. It's a very digestible and worthwhile book.

When it comes to being creative it seems that our society has had some issues with stifling the creative ability. This book is fantastic as it goes into depth about how creativity has been approached throughout the last few hundred years. As you read you will find the background of how some of our school systems were engineered to help with the process and how some of the creative process has been lost.

The business world and schools would be better off by having more ability to be creative and this book sets up some ideas of how to make that happen.

Sir Ken's insights are slowly leaking into schools. We are finally understanding the extent of the damage brought about by competitive, risk adverse school environments. At the centre of his approach is a belief in really valuing human capacity in its fullest sense, both in ourselves and in others.

Sir Ken has inspired so many educators and organisations through his truly deep insights into how we will ultimately solve the world's problems through collective creativity. So if you are a teacher and know that you want to bring a change of emphasis to your students, and develop open create school climates, then this book will be a perfect resource. Written in 2001 - more relevant than ever in 2008/09.

This book is equally important for all other types of organisation as well.

For a good insight into this topic watch Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk - "Do Schools Kill Creativity"... literally hundred's of thousands of people have!

Sir Ken talks a good game but he completely misses the point. If educators could foster creativity they would be doing it by now. Years of training and assessment, which is the true role of education, has led to teachers and lecturers with almost no creative skills or imagination. Creatives go a in different direction, they do not go to universities to be trained and assessed in convergent thinking. This is a dead end closed loop education system that cannot recover. Some would say it's deliberately designed to provide a social control system. I would not be so cynical (ahem).

I bought this book having seen Sir Ken's brilliant and unforgettable talk from the 2006 TED conference. Unfortunately, his coherence and wit do not convey in the printed version.

There are a handful of points from the book that will stick with me. One reviewer has already mentioned one, that many of us go forward in our lives working in the wrong medium. He tells of a talented concert pianist who realized in mid-stream of a successful career that she had no passion for it, and became an editor. Another idea that was new to me is that subject areas in the education system are in large measure a management tool rather than an objective description of human knowledge. If there are only ten categories, then many of our arts will suffer from sub-category status. Drama? Oh, that goes under English. Or how about dance? Let's throw it in with the rest of physical education. These simplifying reductions are harmful to deeper understanding.

This book is hurt by terrible editing. I care more about ideas than spelling and grammar, but the former are obscured without attention to the latter. I can't tell you how many times Robinson's train of thought is derailed by missing articles, conjunctions, and adverbs. By the time I had read the sentence enough times to put it back together, I had lost the thrust of the argument.

If you haven't seen Sir Ken's TED talk, you must seek it out. His message is as important to our society at the turn of the 21st century as any you'll hear, and his abilities as a speaker are awe inspiring. I would love to be able to recommend his book, but it doesn't really hold together.

This great easy to read book - lots of anecdotes and real-life stories - highlights the need for creativity and how just choosing to go to classical degrees or obtaining conventional majors simply looking at the job market ruins overall job satisfaction as well as the nations future generation. There are excellent examples of how non-traditional, but creativity-driven education has helped some one excel in their career a well lead to significant and gratifying contributuions to the society. great book!

After reading the book, I had a hard time remembering why I had thought it would be great, so I looked again at Sir Ken Robinson's recent and popular lecture at [search "Sir Ken Robinson on TED Talks"]. Now I remember -- he's an entertaining speaker, with some pretty good points about the genius of children and how we school it out of them. But the book, well, it's subtitled "Learning to Be Creative" but that really only comes in the last chapter, and his recommendations seem very conservative. He spends much too much time before that--building up his case--and that case is watered down by being second-hand. If you want to know about what schooling is doing and why, read Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society. If you're really interested in the physiological basis of non-academic intelligence, read Goleman's Emotional Intelligence (which Sir Ken quotes, but better the original). In short, the book, though it's just 200 pages, is simply too long.

I did find one memorable point: that many people miss the chance for creativity because they're not trying in the field that's natural to them. The idea that, in order to be creative, find your medium, whether it be in the "traditional" arts such as painting or dance, or in any other occupation. Whatever is closest to your heart.

I found this book transformational. Well-argued and clearly expressed, it seems to me that the ideas are founded in many years of teaching, rather than of academic publishing experience. Nonetheless each point is supported by interesting references to research. As an educator, this books makes perfect sense to me in its friendly yet uncompromising reframing of the assumptions underlying much of the received wisdom about our own, and our institutions' approach to creativity. It offers a useful guide to creating more inspiring and at the same time disciplined education that will be of greater relevance to ours, and our childrens', futures.

Out of Our Minds is clear and very well written. It provides a wonderful overview of the thinking behind the development of the English approach to education, its philosophical underpinnings and shortcomings for our current world. Fascinating for those interested in the histroy of thought behind the education system. However, if, like me, you are looking for techniques to develop your creativity - this book will not fulfill this desire. It's recommendations are geared toward those behind the design and implementation of education programs.

This book is one of the most important works available for anyone who is concerned with the state of the educational system in America and the world. Ken Robinson articulates the issues and problems in education very well and then articulates what it will take for us to remake the system. I was impressed with the depth of feeling, understanding, and vision presented in the book and wish this book had been available twenty years ago. This is a must read for every educator and administrator in the education system.

Another reviewer had said many of the same things that I would say here, but I felt that another similar voice was needed. Similarly, I cannot give this book a bad review, but simply say that it is poorly titled; Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, is misleading as to the actual contents of the book.

The book is largely about the history of creativity, through interesting anecdotes, factoids, statistics, stories, speculations and opinions. I kept on waiting for chapters like "Being Creative" and "Learning to be Creative" to have some actual, useful suggestions on actually being creative, but was disappointed only to read yet another set of arguments on why creativity is so important and why we should all be creative and teach others to be creative. I also found parts to be quite repetitive, reframing arguments from earlier chapters in an only slightly different context. Also, if you are familiar with Robinson's talks online about creativity and passion, you will recognize many of the anecdotal passages almost verbatim, except without the charismatic presentation.

If you're looking for a quiet and quick weekend read that is chock full of conversation fodder, then sure, pick this book up and enjoy it, but if you're as busy as most of us are these days, I'd recommend watching Robinson's two Ted talks and the one on Passion he gave for the School of Life. They are more than adequate summaries of this book, highly engaging and easily shared with others.

In my opinion, the book is successful in making the argument for creativity, but lacks the usefulness that the title promises.

After I had plowed through the pompously written, long-winding first chapters, I decided to skip ahead to the more interesting stuff, about 'learning to be creative'. Forget it, the book is not about that. Robinson just states over and over again how badly we need creativity, and how our current society and education systems kill it.
On the cover, John Cleese states: "Brilliant". Really?!? I believed him to be more critical than that...

'Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative' by Ken Robinson is one of the 'must read' books for modern classroom teachers. Robinson challenges many of the widely held beliefs and processes of education found in the majority of western countries. In a time of rapidly changing social and educational climates, the ideas that are raised in this book allows teachers to consider the real purpose of educating students for a modern society.

Sometimes a writer has an uncanny kknack of sharply focusing something which up until then you had not seen in all its simplicity and brilliance. This book does that but at the next moment it makes connections never before imagained. Even the most obstinately prosaic and safe thinkers will be tempted out of their box by Ken Robinson's ideas, theories and speculations. What's more, he writes as he speaks, in a way that, magnetically and compulsively, is simply irresistible.

This book is essential reading for anyone involved in education. It is a new world, an entirely different world and education and commerce well never be the same. This book provides analysis with respect to where we are and establishes a strategy for dealing with the future. We ignore these realities at our peril.