In Memorandum – Ken Robinson (1950-2020)
A Message for Safety
Those with an interest in learning and education will be saddened to learn of the passing of Ken Robinson (21 August). Ken was a visionary who inspired people to learning, creativity, imagination, discovery, curiosity and innovation. As tributes flow for Ken people focus on his many awards (http://sirkenrobinson.com/) but it was his down to earth approach and desire to improve grassroots education that matters most.
Ken really came to prominence with his TED Talk ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity?’ . This simple talk echoes the work of: Freire, A.S. Neill, Holt, Illich, Blishen, Macklin, Postman, Weingarten, Reimer and other freeschoolers and deschoolers who went before him (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3120717.pdf?seq=1 ). Of course the answer to the question is ‘yes’. The institutionalization of education in schooling serves the dynamics of ‘social reproduction’ more than creativity and vision. Ken has other talks on TED that continue the same theme (https://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson).
Those who care about education and learning resonate with the sentiments of Ken’s speeches and books. Two books: The Element and Out of Our Minds are essential reading. In my library you know how good a book is by the number of flags sticking out and pages marked.
Perhaps a few quotes are worth highlighting:
The Element p. 32
‘One of the enemies of creativity and innovation especially in relation to our own development is common sense. The playwright Bertolt Brecht said that as soon as something seems the most obvious thing in the world, it means that we have abandoned all attempts at understanding it.’
The Element p. 42
‘How intelligent are you? The real answer, though, is that the question itself is the wrong one to ask.’
The Element p. 92
‘Once you think about being in the zone, you are immediately out of it.’
The Element p. 136
‘Fear is perhaps the most common obstacle to finding your element’.
Out of Our Minds P.51
‘we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it.’
Out of Our Minds P.72
‘Instead of examinations and test being an indicator of how they are progressing, they are like continually pulling up a plant to see how well it is growing’.
Out of Our Minds P.228
‘Nourishing imagination is an essential part of growing a culture of innovation’.
Of course, the enemy of education and learning is zero. The goal of education and learning is movement not stasis. You will find no language of absolutes or perfection in the works of Ken Robinson. You will hear no silly talk of perfection, numeric, metrics or fear. Education and learning is all about risk and fallibility, these are the energies of living life.
In the safety industry consumed with ‘controls’, ‘hazards’, blame, compliance, checklisting, policing and ‘telling’, there is so little discourse about education, learning, imagination, helping, creativity and innovation. There is nothing more destructive to these education values than turning the development of safety into a ‘schooling’ process – data in, regurgitate out. The only way to becoming a learning organization is to dump the dumb discourse of zero.
It is so amusing looking at the ‘so called’ ‘vision’ statements of safety associations and various safety groups, nothing new, no vision, nothing different, all about what is feared (injury) and the continued attraction to stasis (zero) and seduction of measurement. All this branding and propaganda in safety about vision is non-vision and anti-vision, building up a body of knowledge as if this is the map of the territory, this is the opposite of education and vision.
If Safety wants to develop any sense of vision or being professional, it could start by reading and watching the works of Ken Robinson.
bernardcorden says
The following link provides access to an obituary in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/26/sir-ken-robinson-obituary
I never realized he was born in Liverpool in the UK adjacent to Goodison Park and the “Do Schools Kill Creativity” TED Talk makes most safety conference presentations look rather mediocre.
Audrey Silver (SafetyLady) says
A sad loss, big fan of Ken since seeing his first (now world beating) TED talk.
How strange that I found out about his passing yesterday from the comments whilst I was actually watching his most recent youtube talk (November 2019) – I checked and lo, it was just coming on the news.
I too related his views as relevant to safety folk – more on the creative v academic aspects, as the topic of the Ted talk, linking to everyone having something to offer – we just have to see it and allow for diversity as a norm. I was laughed at when I included ‘creativity’ in a recruitment job ad – “what, for a safety adviser? Why?”. Why indeed.
Education, learning, imagination, helping, creativity and innovation should be key elements of the safety world.
Rob Long says
Great observations Audrey. I had a colleague in a global Board Meeting for a construction company get howled down for trying to include the word ‘people’ in a vision statement about safety. Its works like those of Ken Robinson, Guy Claxton and those outside the safety club that have the most to say to Safety about learning. What is a risk assessment if it is not an exercise in imagination?
bernardcorden says
I bet not too many of the Australian OHS Education Accreditation Board are familiar with his work.