TheElement-KenRobinson.pdf

Table of Contents Title PageCopyright PageDedicationAcknowledgementsIntroduction CHAPTER ONE-The ElementCHAPTER TWO-Think DifferentlyCHAPTER THREE-Beyond ImaginingCHAPTER FOUR-In the ZoneCHAPTER FIVE-Finding Your TribeCHAPTER SIX-What Will They Think?CHAPTER SEVEN-Do You Feel Lucky?CHAPTER EIGHT-Somebody Help MeCHAPTER NINE-Is It Too Late?CHAPTER TEN-For Love or MoneyCHAPTER ELEVEN-Making the Grade AfterwordNotesIndexVIKING Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group(USA)Inc.,375 Hudson Street,New York,New York 10014,U.S.A.Penguin Group(Canada),90 Eglinton Avenue East,Suite 700,Toronto,Ontario,Canada M4P 2Y3(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)Penguin Books Ltd,80 Strand,London WC2R 0RL,England Penguin Ireland,25 St.Stephens Green,Dublin 2,Ireland(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)Penguin Books Australia Ltd,250 Camberwell Road,Camberwell,Victoria 3124,Australia(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd,11 Community Centre,Panchsheel Park,New Delhi-110 017,India Penguin Group(NZ),67 Apollo Drive,Rosedale,North Shore 0632,New Zealand(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)Penguin Books(South Africa)(Pty)Ltd,24 Sturdee Avenue,Rosebank,Johannesburg 2196,South Africa Penguin Books Ltd,Registered Offices:80 Strand,London WC2R 0RL,England First published in 2009 by Viking Penguin,a member of Penguin Group(USA)Inc.Copyright Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica,2009All rights reserved Artwork on page 65:NASA,ESA,and the Hubble Heritage Team(STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration.Acknowledgment:D.Gouliermis(Max Planck Institute for Astronomy,Heidelberg).All other artwork:NASA/JPL-Caltech.LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Robinson,Ken,date.The element:how finding your passion changes everything/Ken Robinson with Lou Aronica.p.cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.eISBN:978-1-440-65618-71.Self-actualization(Psychology)2.Self-realization.3.Creative ability in children.4.School failure.I.Aronica,Lou.II.Title BF637.S4R592 2008 153.9dc22 2008033974 Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,no part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in orintroduced into a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means(electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording or otherwise),without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.The scanning,uploading,and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of thepublisher is illegal and punishable by law.Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in orencourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials.Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.http:/To my sister and brothers,Ethel Lena,Keith,Derek,Ian,John,and Neil;to our extraordinary Mumand Dad,Ethel and Jim;to my son,James,and my daughter,Kate,and to my soul mate,Terry.Thisbook is for you.For all your many talents and for the endless love and laughter we put into eachothers lives.Its when Im with you and the ones you love that I really am in my Element.AcknowledgmentsThey say it takes a village to raise a baby.Rearing a book like this takes a small metropolis.I know Ihave to say I cant thank everyone,and I really cant.I do have to single out a few people,though,forspecial service awards.First and foremost,my wife and partner,Terry.This book simply wouldnt be in your hands but forher.Its origins were in an off-the-cuff remark I made at a conference a few years ago.I had just toldthe Gillian Lynne story,which now opens chapter 1 of the book.In passing,I said that one of thesedays I was going to write a book about stories like that.Ive since learned not to say these things outloud in front of Terry.She asked me when did I have in mind.“Soon,”I said,“definitely soon.”After afew months had passed,she started it herself,wrote the proposal,worked on the ideas,did some ofthe initial interviews,and then found the agent,Peter Miller,who was to help make it happen.Withthe foundations laid so solidly,and the escape routes closed so firmly,I finally kept my word and goton with the book.I want to thank Peter Miller,our literary agent,for all his great work,not least in bringing LouAronica and me together.I travel a lottoo much,reallyand producing a book like this needstime,energy,and collaboration.Lou was the ideal partner.He is seriously professional:sage,judicious,creative,and patient.He was the calm center of the project as I orbited the earth,sendingnotes,drafts,and second thoughts from airports and hotel rooms.Between us,we also managed tosteer a successful course between the often comic conflicts of British and American English.Thankyou,Lou.My son,James,gave up his precious,final student summer to pore over archives,journals,andInternet sites,checking facts,dates,and ideas.Then he debated virtually every idea in the book withme until I was worn out.Nancy Allen worked for several months on research issues underincreasingly tight deadlines.My daughter,Kate,had a wonderfully creative collaboration with NickEgan to produce a unique Web site that shows all the other work were now doing.Our assistant,Andrea Hanna,worked tirelessly to orchestrate the myriad moving parts in a project like this.Wewouldnt still be standing up without her.As the book was taking shape,we were extremely fortunate to have the wise and creative counselof our publisher,Kathryn Court,at Viking Penguin.Her benign form of intimidation also ensured thatwe got the book finished in decent time.Finally,I have to thank all of those whose stories illuminate this book.Many of them spent precioushours,amid very busy lives,to talk freely and passionately about the experiences and ideas that lieat the heart of The Element.Many others sent me moving letters and e-mails.Their stories showthat the issues in this book reach into the core of our lives.I thank all of them.Its usual to say,of course,that whatever good things other people have contributed,any faults thatremain in the book are my responsibility alone.That seems a bit harsh to me,but I suppose its true.IntroductionA FEW YEARS AGO,I heard a wonderful story,which Im very fond of telling.An elementary schoolteacher was giving a drawing class to a group of six-year-old children.At the back of the classroomsat a little girl who normally didnt pay much attention in school.In the drawing class she did.Formore than twenty minutes,the girl sat with her arms curled around her paper,totally absorbed inwhat she was doing.The teacher found this fascinating.Eventually,she asked the girl what she wasdrawing.Without looking up,the girl said,“Im drawing a picture of God.”Surprised,the teachersaid,“But nobody knows what God looks like.”The girl said,“They will in a minute.”I love this story because it reminds us that young children are wonderfully confident in their ownimaginations.Most of us lose this confidence as we grow up.Ask a class of first graders which ofthem thinks theyre creative and theyll all put their hands up.Ask a group of college seniors thissame question and most of them wont.I believe passionately that we are all born with tremendousnatural capacities,and that we lose touch with many of them as we spend more time in the world.Ironically,one of the main reasons this happens is education.The result is that too many peoplenever connect with their true talents and therefore dont know what theyre really capable ofachieving.In that sense,they dont know who they really are.I travel a great deal and work with people all around the world.I work with education systems,withcorporations,and with not-for-profit organizations.Everywhere,I meet students who are trying tofigure out their futures and dont know where to start.I meet concerned parents who are trying to helpthem but instead often steer them away from their true talents on the assumption that their kids haveto follow conventional routes to success.I meet employers who are struggling to understand andmake better use of the diverse talents of the people in their companies.Along the way,Ive lost trackof the numbers of people Ive met who have no real sense of what their individual talents andpassions are.They dont enjoy what they are doing now but they have no idea what actually wouldfulfill them.On the other hand,I also meet people whove been highly successful in all kinds of fields who arepassionate about what they do and couldnt imagine doing anything else.I believe that their storieshave something important to teach all of us about the nature of human capacity and fulfillment.AsIve spoken at events around the world,Ive found its real stories like these,at least as much asstatistics and the opinions of experts,that persuade people that we all need to think differently aboutourselves and about what were doing with our lives;about how were educating our children andhow were running our organizations.This book contains a wide range of stories about the creative journeys of very different people.Many of them were interviewed specifically for this book.These people tell how they first came torecognize their unique talents and how they make a highly successful living from doing what theylove.What strikes me is that often their journeys havent been conventional.Theyve been full oftwists,turns,and surprises.Often those I interviewed said that our conversations for the bookrevealed ideas and experiences they hadnt discussed in this way before.The moment ofrecognition.The evolution of their talents.The encouragement or discouragement of family,friends,and teachers.What made them forge ahead in the face of numerous obstacles.Their stories are not fairy tales,though.All of these people are leading complicated andchallenging lives.Their personal journeys have not been easy and straightforward.Theyve all hadtheir disasters as well as their triumphs.None of them have“perfect”lives.But all of them regularlyexperience moments that feel like perfection.Their stories are often fascinating.But this book isnt really about them.Its about you.My aim in writing it is to offer a richer vision of human ability and creativity and of the benefits to usall of connecting properly with our individual talents and passions.This book is about issues that areof fundamental importance in our lives and in the lives of our children,our students,and the peoplewe work with.I use the term the Element to describe the place where the things we love to do andthe things we are good at come together.I believe it is essential that each of us find his or herElement,not simply because it will make us more fulfilled but because,as the world evolves,the veryfuture of our communities and institutions will depend on it.The world is changing faster than ever in our history.Our best hope for the future is to develop anew paradigm of human capacity to meet a new era of human existence.We need to evolve a newappreciation of the importance of nurturing human talent along with an understanding of how talentexpresses itself differently in every individual.We need to create environmentsin our schools,inour workplaces,and in our public officeswhere every person is inspired to grow creatively.Weneed to make sure that all people have the chance to do what they should be doing,to discover theElement in themselves and in their own way.This book is a hymn to the breathtaking diversity of human talent and passion and to ourextraordinary potential for growth and development.Its also about understanding the conditionsunder which human talents will flourish or fade.Its about how we can all engage more fully in thepresent,and how we can prepare in the only possible way for a completely unknowable future.To make the best of ourselves and of each other,we urgently need to embrace a richerconception of human capacity.We need to embrace the Element.CHAPTER ONEThe ElementGILLIAN WAS ONLY eight years old,but her future was already at risk.Her schoolwork was adisaster,at least as far as her teachers were concerned.She turned in assignments late,herhandwriting was terrible,and she tested poorly.Not only that,she was a disruption to the entireclass,one minute fidgeting noisily,the next staring out the window,forcing the teacher to stop theclass to pull Gillians attention back,and the next doing something to disturb the other childrenaround her.Gillian wasnt particularly concerned about any of thisshe was used to being correctedby authority figures and really didnt see herself as a difficult childbut the school was veryconcerned.This came to a head when the school wrote to her parents.The school thought that Gillian had a learning disorder of some sort and that it might be moreappropriate for her to be in a school for children with special needs.All of this took place in the1930s.I think now theyd say she had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,and theyd put her onRitalin or something similar.But the ADHD epidemic hadnt been invented at the time.It wasnt anavailable condition.People didnt know they could have that and had to get by without it.Gillians parents received the letter from the school with great concern and sprang to action.Gillians mother put her daughter in her best dress and shoes,tied her hair in ponytails,and took herto a psychologist for assessment,fearing the worst.Gillian told me that she remembers being invited into a large oak-paneled room with leather-bound books on the shelves.Standing in the room next to a large desk was an imposing man in atweed jacket.He took Gillian to the far end of the room and sat her down on a huge leather sofa.Gillians feet didnt quite touch the floor,and the setting made her wary.Nervous about theimpression she would make,she sat on her hands so that she wouldnt fidget.The psychologist went back to his desk,and for the next twenty minutes,he asked Gillians motherabout the difficulties Gillian was having at school and the problems the school said she was causing.While he didnt direct any of his questions at Gillian,he watched her carefully the entire time.Thismade Gillian extremely uneasy and confused.Even at this tender age,she knew that this man wouldhave a significant role in her life.She knew what it meant to attend a“special school,”and she didntwant anything to do with that.She genuinely didnt feel that she had any real problems,but everyoneelse seemed to believe she did.Given the way her mother answered the questions,it was possiblethat even she felt this way.Maybe,Gillian thought,they were right.Eventually,Gillians mother and the psychologist stopped talking.The man rose from his desk,walked to the sofa,and sat next to the little girl.“Gillian,youve been very patient,and I thank you for that,”he said.“But Im afraid youll have to bepatient for a little longer.I need to speak to your mother privately now.Were going to go out of theroom for a few minutes.Dont worry;we wont be very long.”Gillian nodded apprehensively,and the two adults left her sitting there on her own.But as he wasleaving the roo