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If you sit kids down, hour after hour, doing low-grade clerical work, don't be surprised if they start to fidget. Children are not, for the most part, suffering from a psychological condition, they're suffering from childhood.
Ken Robinson
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Children thrive in engaging environments, not mundane tasks. This quote emphasizes the importance of meaningful activities for children's development.

Ken Robinson highlights the need for meaningful and engaging activities in children's education. He argues that instead of labeling children as problematic or psychologically challenged when they struggle with dull tasks, we should recognize that they are simply responding to an uninspiring learning environment. The quote suggests that education should be designed to stimulate children's natural curiosity and creativity.

Themes

ChildrenEducationEngagementLearningDevelopment

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about educational reform at a parent-teacher meeting.

More from Ken Robinson

There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why?
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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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