Ken Robinson Says that Schools Kill Creativity is the most widely shared "TED talk" ever released. As of the drafting of this essay it has been emailed 54,905 times from the TED website and has been on the site's "Most Emailed This Week" list ever since it was published in June of 2006. What I would like to do here, is to give you the keys to recreating its success. I would argue that the popularity of this talk is due largely to Robinson's ability to: 1. Make his topic applicable to a wide audience. 2. Establish his own Credibility. 3. Use Humor 4. Tell Stories.
The Audience:
Because you may not be familiar with TED.com, I will first explain what it is in conjunction with a description of Robinson's audiences. This will help us better understand why his message is so effective. TED is a yearly conference where experts are invited to share discoveries, new findings, or just anything that they think is an "Idea worth spreading". The conference is held in Palm Springs and Long Beach California. The speakers are give anywhere from 3-36 minutes to present, however most talks are 15-20 minutes long.
The speakers generally keep in mind 2 audiences when they are speaking:
Audience #1: Popular or well-known presenters usually give their talks to large auditoriums with seats for as many as 2,000 paying attendees as well as fellow speakers. Tickets to the conference are quite expensive thus filling the room with people who are either very smart, very successful or both. Speakers present with this in mind.
Audience #1: Popular or well-known presenters usually give their talks to large auditoriums with seats for as many as 2,000 paying attendees as well as fellow speakers. Tickets to the conference are quite expensive thus filling the room with people who are either very smart, very successful or both. Speakers present with this in mind.
The talks are recorded and later published, free for the world's viewing pleasure, at TED.com. TED (Which originally stood for Technology, Entertainment and Design) has since opened up conferences in other countries showcasing pretty much any academic topic you can think of. Talks are then translated into other languages by viewers. This specific talk is available in 47 languages.
Audience #2: These talks reach a huge audience once they are made available online. The online audience, while better informed than your average Joe, is extremely diverse, well-educated, and --dare I say-- liberal.
1. A Broad Topic and a Bold Claim:
The first choice a writer has to make when addressing any audience is choosing what they are going to speak about. Robinson chose an excellent topic for his audience. In his own words: "What I find, is everybody has an interest in education. Don't You?... If you ask [others] about their education they pin you to the wall. Because it's one of those things that goes deep with people." I would have to agree. = good topic (we've started on common ground).
The Bold Claim:
Robinson never actually says the words "Schools Kill Creativity." I think that the publishers on the TED website made up that title for him. It was well-chosen though because it is a bold assertion--bold enough to entice our cursor to glide over and click on it, just to see whether we will find a convincing defense, or a ranting lunatic. I think that this compelling title is an important aspect of creating a popular piece. I am certain that a different topic spoken to the same audience in the same format would not have the same appeal.
Robinson's actual claim is this: "My contention is, all kids have tremendous talents, and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly... My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status." A more accurate title might have said "schools squander kid's talents and creative abilities.".But it doesn't have quite the same shock value, does it? While not as concise as the title, his claim is still bold, as should be any claim worth defending. This thesis statement of sorts, makes us perk up and listen closer to see if the speaker's argument will really have the strength to convince us of anything. While not everyone is completely open-minded, I think that everyone likes a friendly wager. Both the claim and the title seem to say "I bet that I can convince you. Oops, I guess you'll have to watch it to find out."
2. Establishing Credibility
It's hard to put a finger on this aspect of the talk because essentially everything that Robinson does builds his credibility in one way or another. However, I think that one of the most important things that he does is make a sincere connection to his audience. He does not speak down to them as if he were the enlightened intellectual with all of the answers. He treats them as equals with similar interests, and a similar goal in mind. The stories he tells are stories most of his audience can connect with, stories about raising kids, about school, and about children. He never strays away from topics that are familiar to those whom he would have hear his message.
Throughout the talk Robinson subtly drops little bits of ethos in order to gain a little more respect. He mentions in passing his past experience as a husband, father, university professor, book writer, and member of the board of the Royal Ballet in England. The last one draws our attention because it takes Robinson considerable effort to even walk out to the center of the stage (he contracted polio at a young age). This makes us respect more everything that he says concerning the topic of dance, because of all the people whose appreciation of dance we should honor, we should respect those who are limited in their ability to participate in it and yet have risen to such great esteem within the field in which they are disabled.
3. Using Humor Effectively
If things hadn't gone so well in Robinson's career, I think that he definitely could have turned to stand-up comedy as a pretty good alternative.
Why do we have to be so serious? Why can't I let my personality more fully show through when speaking to an academic audience? I know I'm supposed to try and be objective and to not let my biases affect the work I'm doing, but does that truly require voiceless and humorless expression? Apparently Ken Robinson doesn't think so. If a joke were an explosion than his talk would be swiss cheese.
I think that in a literary sense, a joke is an explosion. It is an explosion in our mind that wakes up our senses, it keeps our attention in a way that nothing else can. Bursting with laughter is not only pleasurable, but humor that does not harm is a powerful tool to employ have when trying to reason with others. When we all laugh together walls seem to come down between people making us able to see each other as a little more human, and making us able to be a little more open-minded.
Robinson's often self-depricating humor changes how we view his message and makes it so that we do not become defensive due to being strong-armed by a pushy smart-guy. Rather it changes our perception, so that we view his talk as if it were a humble yet impassioned plea for something more--both from the system, and from all of us who are listening.
Anyone can tell a story, but can you tell a story that does everything that we've already talked about and more?
If you've had the patience to be able to get to this point in my essay, then you'll definitely have the patience to watch the video. Obviously the stories are too long for me to cite them here, so I would encourage you to watch the video and pay special attention to the topics of Robinson's Stories. They are always about children (an emotional topic for anyone), they are always humorous (unless they are deadly serious), they are always passionate, persuasive, and to the point, they are always about something that Robinson has credibility reporting on and that his audience can connect with.
- Now that's an effective story.
Not the solution, but a solution:
Ken Robinson's address is rare in that along with calling attention to the problems in education, he also proposes viable solutions. One reason his talk carries weight with his audience is probably the fact that he is able to help us all see that problems that exist in our education system today are solvable.
"We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we're educating our children... Our task is to educate their whole being, and the only way we'll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are, and seeing our children for the hope that they are."
View a transcript of this talk at http://www.rss-ems.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/sir-ken-robinson-ted-speech-transcript.pdf
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