There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why?
Ken RobinsonRead
Governments decide they know best and they're going to tell you what to do. The trouble is that education doesn't go on in the committee rooms of our legislative buildings. It happens in classrooms and schools, and the people who do it are the teachers and the students. And if you remove their discretion, it stops working.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of teacher and student autonomy in education over bureaucratic control.
Ken Robinson's quote highlights the disconnect between government policies and the actual educational experience that occurs in classrooms. He argues that education is a dynamic process best understood and executed by those directly involved—teachers and students—not by lawmakers and bureaucrats who impose regulations without understanding the nuances of teaching and learning. When educators are stripped of their discretion, the effectiveness of education diminishes, suggesting that collaboration and trust within the classroom are vital for true learning to occur.
Themes
EducationTeachersStudentsAutonomyLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In education debates, one might use this quote to argue for greater teacher autonomy in the curriculum.
More from Ken Robinson
All quotes →Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.
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When my son, James, was doing homework for school, he would have five or six windows open on his computer, Instant Messenger was flashing continuously, his cell phone was constantly ringing, and he was downloading music and watching the TV over his shoulder. I don’t know if he was doing any homework, but he was running an empire as far as I could see, so I didn’t really care.
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Creativity is the greatest gift of human intelligence.
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Teaching for creativity aims to encourage self-confidence, independence of mind, and the capacity to think for oneself.
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Helping people to connect with their personal creative capacities is the surest way to release the best they have to offer.
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