Hyper-Text Essay

The book I read, Out of Our Minds, was about being creative, using your imagination everyday, and everything that goes with it. For example, everyone is creative, the people that think they are not just simply need to be taught. In a great portion of the book, Ken Robinson talks about how education can affect the way kids are creative through out their life. You could go anywhere and ask an adult whether they think kids are more creative or are adults more creative, almost everyone would say kids. Why is this? In class I was shown a video on a little kid named Caine who made his own arcade at only nine years old. Just think of the world we would be living in if everyone had that kind of imagination and creativity and put it to good use. How Schools Kill Creativity is a Ted Talk done by Robinson as well. He does a great job explaining how creativity works and that every person needs to be in touch with their creative side. He says, "All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it, or rather we get educated out of it."

            Schools need to be constantly changing along with the world we live in. Nothing stays the same and if it does, it will quickly die out. In my book, Robinson talks about how the world has evolved. Back in the day black and white television was as good as they thought it was going to get, some imagination they had. With the way computers have evolved in such a short amount of time they compare it to cars that can travel six times the speed of sound, be capable of 1000 miles per gallon, and cost about one dollar. “Ray Kurzweil believes that by “the third decade of the 21^st century, we will be in a position to create complete, detailed maps of the ‘computationally relevant features of the human brain,’ and to recreate these designs in advanced neural computers.” There will be a variety of bodies for our machines too, “from virtual bodies in virtual reality to bodies comprising swarms of nanobots…” Humanoid robots that walk and have lifelike expressions have been developed in several laboratories.” This kind of evolution is crazy too think about, but needs to be thought of for the world to grow and become better. This means we also need schools to help kids be creative throughout their whole time spent in school and not just elementary years.

Schools need to help us learn how to be creative to help us succeed in the future. The kids that are in school right now will have jobs that don’t even exist at the moment; new jobs will need to be thought of. How do you do that? With imagination and creativity of course! For all the other jobs that are out there need to have creativity as well. Employees will be more creative if they work in a fun environment. For example, the Pixar campus offers over a hundred courses including complete filmmaking curriculum, classes on painting, drawing, sculpting, and creative writing. It also offers the equivalent of an undergraduate education in fine arts and the art of filmmaking. Every member of the Pixar payroll including the animators, accountants, security guards, catering staff, technicians, production assistants, marketers, and security guards are entitled and encouraged to spend four hours every week in the Pixar University. If everyone was offered something similar to this at their job just think of how the stress levels would go down and the quality of production would go up! Working in creative places means creative people working better together.

Tony Wagner talks in a video called 7 skills students need for their futures. He does a great job explaining how students need to think differently to really be successful in the world that keeps changing. He talks about critical thinking, agility and adaptability, initiative, accessing and analyzing information, communication,  and of course, curiosity, and imagination. This is also very important in adults too. All the skills he talks about is key in getting a successful job and even finding new jobs.

While kids go through school, they are being taught what others think is best for us and will prepare us for the real world. Constantly being compared to standardized tests the average of everything. What people fail to realize is that the 'real world' is happening all at the same time. They also fail to recognize is that we need to be able to choose classes that help us find our element; to find our purpose in life, what drives us to do better. Being in your element is not only about aptitude, it's about passion: it is about loving what you do. The most successful people in the world struggled in school, like Albert Einstein. 

I believe everyone should have to read this book. It really makes you think about how you learned as you grew up and how kids are learning in todays age. Out of Our Minds is able to help everyone get in touch with their creative side, which is key in living a successful life. It will also give life a more exciting feel. You will be able to see things in a different way. What people need to remember about transforming education is that it's not easy but the price of failure is more than we can afford, while the benefits of success are more than we can imagine.