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Theresa Rouse
Senior Director of Educational Services
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Pam Crowell,
Executive Assistant
(831) 466-5800
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Tina Dinsmore,
Executive Assistant
(831) 466-5888
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Sir Ken Robinson Urges Local Educators to Embed Creativity and Innovation throughout the Curriculum
Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader in the development of organizational creativity and innovation, challenged more than 250 Santa Cruz County educational and community leaders to bring creativity to the forefront in public schools. Robinson was the keynote speaker at a morning seminar hosted by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education on August 9th as an inspirational kickoff to the 2007-08 academic year. Robinson, formerly a teacher and university professor, now travels widely advising governments, companies, and organizations on how to develop the talent needed to compete in a world characterized by rapid social, political, and environmental change. Robinson acknowledged that current efforts to focus schools on achieving high academic standards have value, but he is a passionate advocate for also embedding creativity throughout the curriculum.
 Robinson remarked that young children enter pre-school filled with fresh insights into the world around them. By the time they exit higher education, most have relegated creative thinking to artists, performers, and inventors, failing to understand the importance of innovative thinking to any career path they may follow. Robinson believes public education too often nurtures a skill set focused on mastering the known rather than creating the new. He encourages educational leaders to acknowledge that everyone has creative capacities and that these capacities are a valuable resource that can, and should, be systematically cultivated and rewarded in schools.
 To remake our schools into engines for innovation and creativity, Robinson challenges educators to move beyond a focus only on curriculum and assessment by including creativity as an explicit goal. Asserting that the best schools are staffed by great principals and teachers, he calls for investing in creative pedagogy rather than effort to create a curriculum that is “teacher proof.” He envisions remaking schools as community hubs rather than isolated ghettos. To keep students engaged and motivated, he calls for incorporating the technology around which young people now organize their interactions into all aspects of the school curriculum. He recommends a strong emphasis on teamwork since so much of professional life involves leading teams or serving on them.
 Many attendees took advantage of the chance to have Sir Ken sign their copies of his book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. Judging by audience response, most county educators left with a renewed commitment to approaching school reform as a broader and more far reaching enterprise than raising test scores alone.
Additional information: Sir Ken Robinson bio.
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