I was watching another TED Talk the other day title ‘Do schools kill creativity?’ with Sir Ken Robinson, in which he makes an entertaining and moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

In his talk Sir Ken intersperses his serious message with comical anecdotes.  One I really like is a play on the old philosophical question ‘If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, did it really happen?’.

In this case he saw an updated version on a T-Shirt that said...

‘If a man speaks his mind in a forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?’ You can imagine the audience’s response.  I love it.

But on a serious note, the key question being asked is ‘Do schools kill creativity?’ and I know many people would say it does.  But is this an unfair assessment, and if it is accurate where is the main source of the problem – is it the education system, the curriculum, the teachers or just that we have been (and may still be) working with a misconception of how the brain works, and how creativity is nurtured?

These are big questions with strong views on all sides.  All I know is that creativity needs to be nurtured not just in schools, but in organisations of all types with people of every age and position.    

For those TED fans who haven’t watched Sir Ken’s presentation yet, I recommend you do, and for those not yet familiar with TED Talks I highly recommend you go to www.ted.com/talks right away.  Better yet subscribe to TED Talks through iTunes and download to your iPod or iPhone to watch these brilliant insights wherever you are with a few minutes to spare.