0:00:02.103,0:00:04.678
Good morning. How are you?

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(Audience) Good.

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It's been great, hasn't it?

0:00:08.408,0:00:10.729
I've been blown away by the whole thing.

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In fact, I'm leaving.

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(Laughter)

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There have been three themes[br]running through the conference,

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which are relevant[br]to what I want to talk about.

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One is the extraordinary[br]evidence of human creativity

0:00:28.491,0:00:30.904
in all of the presentations that we've had

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and in all of the people here;

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just the variety of it[br]and the range of it.

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The second is that it's put us in a place

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where we have no idea[br]what's going to happen

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in terms of the future.

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No idea how this may play out.

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I have an interest in education.

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Actually, what I find is,[br]everybody has an interest in education.

0:00:51.352,0:00:52.669
Don't you?

0:00:52.693,0:00:54.095
I find this very interesting.

0:00:54.119,0:00:58.077
If you're at a dinner party,[br]and you say you work in education --

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actually, you're not often[br]at dinner parties, frankly.

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(Laughter)

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If you work in education,[br]you're not asked.

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(Laughter)

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And you're never asked back, curiously.[br]That's strange to me.

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But if you are, and you say to somebody,

0:01:16.568,0:01:18.346
you know, they say, "What do you do?"

0:01:18.370,0:01:20.058
and you say you work in education,

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you can see the blood run from their face.

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They're like, "Oh my God. Why me?"

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(Laughter)

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"My one night out all week."

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(Laughter)

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But if you ask about their education,[br]they pin you to the wall,

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because it's one of those things[br]that goes deep with people, am I right?

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Like religion and money and other things.

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So I have a big interest in education,[br]and I think we all do.

0:01:45.025,0:01:46.827
We have a huge vested interest in it,

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partly because it's education[br]that's meant to take us into this future

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that we can't grasp.

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If you think of it,

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children starting school this year[br]will be retiring in 2065.

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Nobody has a clue,

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despite all the expertise that's been[br]on parade for the past four days,

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what the world will look like[br]in five years' time.

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And yet, we're meant[br]to be educating them for it.

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So the unpredictability,[br]I think, is extraordinary.

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And the third part of this[br]is that we've all agreed, nonetheless,

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on the really extraordinary[br]capacities that children have --

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their capacities for innovation.

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I mean, Sirena last night[br]was a marvel, wasn't she?

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Just seeing what she could do.

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And she's exceptional, but I think[br]she's not, so to speak,

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exceptional in the whole of childhood.

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What you have there is a person[br]of extraordinary dedication

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who found a talent.

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And my contention is,[br]all kids have tremendous talents,

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and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly.

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So I want to talk about education,

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and I want to talk about creativity.

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My contention is that creativity now[br]is as important in education as literacy,

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and we should treat it[br]with the same status.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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That was it, by the way.[br]Thank you very much.

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(Laughter)

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So, 15 minutes left.

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(Laughter)

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"Well, I was born ... "

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(Laughter)

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I heard a great story recently --[br]I love telling it --

0:03:22.680,0:03:25.051
of a little girl[br]who was in a drawing lesson.

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She was six, and she was[br]at the back, drawing,

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and the teacher said this girl[br]hardly ever paid attention,

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and in this drawing lesson, she did.

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The teacher was fascinated.

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She went over to her,[br]and she said, "What are you drawing?"

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And the girl said,[br]"I'm drawing a picture of God."

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And the teacher said, "But nobody[br]knows what God looks like."

0:03:42.984,0:03:45.072
And the girl said,[br]"They will in a minute."

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(Laughter)

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When my son was four in England --

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actually, he was four[br]everywhere, to be honest.

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(Laughter)

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If we're being strict about it,[br]wherever he went, he was four that year.

0:04:06.815,0:04:09.453
He was in the Nativity play.[br]Do you remember the story?

0:04:09.477,0:04:10.696
(Laughter)

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No, it was big, it was a big story.

0:04:12.571,0:04:14.876
Mel Gibson did the sequel,[br]you may have seen it.

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(Laughter)

0:04:16.185,0:04:17.746
"Nativity II."

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But James got the part of Joseph,[br]which we were thrilled about.

0:04:21.678,0:04:24.584
We considered this to be[br]one of the lead parts.

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We had the place crammed[br]full of agents in T-shirts:

0:04:27.119,0:04:28.533
"James Robinson IS Joseph!"

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(Laughter)

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He didn't have to speak, but you know[br]the bit where the three kings come in?

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They come in bearing gifts,[br]gold, frankincense and myrrh.

0:04:35.975,0:04:37.133
This really happened.

0:04:37.157,0:04:40.273
We were sitting there, and I think[br]they just went out of sequence,

0:04:40.297,0:04:42.876
because we talked to the little boy[br]afterward and said,

0:04:42.900,0:04:45.696
"You OK with that?" They said,[br]"Yeah, why? Was that wrong?"

0:04:45.720,0:04:46.876
They just switched.

0:04:46.900,0:04:50.210
The three boys came in, four-year-olds[br]with tea towels on their heads.

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They put these boxes down, and the first[br]boy said, "I bring you gold."

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And the second boy said,[br]"I bring you myrrh."

0:04:55.878,0:04:57.960
And the third boy said, "Frank sent this."

0:04:57.984,0:05:03.461
(Laughter)

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What these things have in common[br]is that kids will take a chance.

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If they don't know, they'll have a go.

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Am I right? They're not[br]frightened of being wrong.

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I don't mean to say that being wrong[br]is the same thing as being creative.

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What we do know is,[br]if you're not prepared to be wrong,

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you'll never come up[br]with anything original --

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if you're not prepared to be wrong.

0:05:32.995,0:05:37.438
And by the time they get to be adults,[br]most kids have lost that capacity.

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They have become[br]frightened of being wrong.

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And we run our companies like this.

0:05:41.664,0:05:43.316
We stigmatize mistakes.

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And we're now running[br]national education systems

0:05:45.666,0:05:48.205
where mistakes are the worst[br]thing you can make.

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And the result is that[br]we are educating people

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out of their creative capacities.

0:05:54.298,0:05:58.725
Picasso once said this, he said[br]that all children are born artists.

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The problem is to remain[br]an artist as we grow up.

0:06:01.995,0:06:05.227
I believe this passionately,[br]that we don't grow into creativity,

0:06:05.251,0:06:06.956
we grow out of it.

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Or rather, we get educated out of it.

0:06:09.607,0:06:11.510
So why is this?

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I lived in Stratford-on-Avon[br]until about five years ago.

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In fact, we moved from Stratford[br]to Los Angeles.

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So you can imagine[br]what a seamless transition this was.

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(Laughter)

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Actually, we lived in a place[br]called Snitterfield,

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just outside Stratford,

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which is where[br]Shakespeare's father was born.

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Are you struck by a new thought? I was.

0:06:30.481,0:06:33.076
You don't think of Shakespeare[br]having a father, do you?

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Do you?

0:06:34.497,0:06:37.388
Because you don't think[br]of Shakespeare being a child, do you?

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Shakespeare being seven?

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I never thought of it.

0:06:39.900,0:06:41.592
I mean, he was seven at some point.

0:06:41.616,0:06:43.882
He was in somebody's[br]English class, wasn't he?

0:06:43.906,0:06:50.693
(Laughter)

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How annoying would that be?

0:06:52.070,0:06:55.070
(Laughter)

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"Must try harder."

0:07:01.303,0:07:04.703
(Laughter)

0:07:05.559,0:07:08.540
Being sent to bed by his dad,[br]to Shakespeare, "Go to bed, now!"

0:07:08.564,0:07:09.722
To William Shakespeare.

0:07:09.746,0:07:11.017
"And put the pencil down!"

0:07:11.041,0:07:12.116
(Laughter)

0:07:12.140,0:07:13.617
"And stop speaking like that."

0:07:13.641,0:07:17.220
(Laughter)

0:07:17.244,0:07:18.568
"It's confusing everybody."

0:07:18.592,0:07:23.862
(Laughter)

0:07:23.886,0:07:29.072
Anyway, we moved[br]from Stratford to Los Angeles,

0:07:29.096,0:07:31.572
and I just want to say a word[br]about the transition.

0:07:31.596,0:07:33.398
Actually, my son didn't want to come.

0:07:33.422,0:07:35.817
I've got two kids;[br]he's 21 now, my daughter's 16.

0:07:35.841,0:07:38.044
He didn't want to come to Los Angeles.

0:07:38.068,0:07:41.856
He loved it, but he had[br]a girlfriend in England.

0:07:41.880,0:07:44.737
This was the love of his life, Sarah.

0:07:44.761,0:07:46.136
He'd known her for a month.

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(Laughter)

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Mind you, they'd had[br]their fourth anniversary,

0:07:50.837,0:07:52.773
because it's a long time when you're 16.

0:07:52.797,0:07:54.438
He was really upset on the plane.

0:07:54.462,0:07:56.869
He said, "I'll never find[br]another girl like Sarah."

0:07:56.893,0:07:59.207
And we were rather pleased[br]about that, frankly --

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(Laughter)

0:08:07.434,0:08:10.380
because she was the main reason[br]we were leaving the country.

0:08:10.404,0:08:13.404
(Laughter)

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But something strikes you[br]when you move to America

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and travel around the world:

0:08:19.918,0:08:23.565
every education system on earth[br]has the same hierarchy of subjects.

0:08:23.589,0:08:25.492
Every one. Doesn't matter where you go.

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You'd think it would be[br]otherwise, but it isn't.

0:08:27.810,0:08:30.791
At the top are mathematics and languages,[br]then the humanities.

0:08:30.815,0:08:33.106
At the bottom are the arts.[br]Everywhere on earth.

0:08:33.130,0:08:37.495
And in pretty much every system, too,[br]there's a hierarchy within the arts.

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Art and music are normally given[br]a higher status in schools

0:08:40.400,0:08:41.828
than drama and dance.

0:08:41.852,0:08:43.959
There isn't an education[br]system on the planet

0:08:43.983,0:08:45.902
that teaches dance every day to children

0:08:45.926,0:08:47.576
the way we teach them mathematics.

0:08:47.600,0:08:48.758
Why?

0:08:48.782,0:08:49.949
Why not?

0:08:49.973,0:08:51.567
I think this is rather important.

0:08:51.591,0:08:53.855
I think math is very important,[br]but so is dance.

0:08:53.879,0:08:56.759
Children dance all the time[br]if they're allowed to, we all do.

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We all have bodies, don't we?[br]Did I miss a meeting?

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(Laughter)

0:09:02.645,0:09:04.966
Truthfully, what happens is,[br]as children grow up,

0:09:04.990,0:09:07.704
we start to educate them progressively[br]from the waist up.

0:09:07.728,0:09:09.354
And then we focus on their heads.

0:09:09.378,0:09:10.868
And slightly to one side.

0:09:12.044,0:09:14.115
If you were to visit education as an alien

0:09:14.139,0:09:17.120
and say "What's it for, public education?"

0:09:17.144,0:09:19.871
I think you'd have to conclude,[br]if you look at the output,

0:09:19.895,0:09:21.252
who really succeeds by this,

0:09:21.276,0:09:22.976
who does everything they should,

0:09:23.000,0:09:25.731
who gets all the brownie points,[br]who are the winners --

0:09:25.755,0:09:28.993
I think you'd have to conclude[br]the whole purpose of public education

0:09:29.017,0:09:30.215
throughout the world

0:09:30.239,0:09:32.218
is to produce university professors.

0:09:32.718,0:09:33.886
Isn't it?

0:09:33.910,0:09:35.894
They're the people who come out the top.

0:09:35.918,0:09:37.737
And I used to be one, so there.

0:09:37.761,0:09:41.458
(Laughter)

0:09:41.482,0:09:43.082
And I like university professors,

0:09:43.106,0:09:45.021
but, you know, we shouldn't hold them up

0:09:45.045,0:09:47.976
as the high-water mark[br]of all human achievement.

0:09:48.000,0:09:50.113
They're just a form of life.

0:09:50.137,0:09:51.560
Another form of life.

0:09:51.584,0:09:52.981
But they're rather curious.

0:09:53.005,0:09:54.969
And I say this out of affection for them:

0:09:54.993,0:09:57.068
there's something curious[br]about professors.

0:09:57.092,0:10:00.838
In my experience -- not all of them,[br]but typically -- they live in their heads.

0:10:00.862,0:10:03.005
They live up there[br]and slightly to one side.

0:10:03.495,0:10:06.931
They're disembodied, you know,[br]in a kind of literal way.

0:10:06.955,0:10:10.105
They look upon their body as a form[br]of transport for their heads.

0:10:10.129,0:10:16.176
(Laughter)

0:10:16.200,0:10:17.577
Don't they?

0:10:17.601,0:10:19.746
It's a way of getting[br]their head to meetings.

0:10:19.770,0:10:24.998
(Laughter)

0:10:25.022,0:10:28.944
If you want real evidence[br]of out-of-body experiences, by the way,

0:10:28.968,0:10:32.443
get yourself along to a residential[br]conference of senior academics

0:10:32.467,0:10:34.818
and pop into the discotheque[br]on the final night.

0:10:34.842,0:10:37.454
(Laughter)

0:10:37.478,0:10:38.834
And there, you will see it.

0:10:38.858,0:10:43.351
Grown men and women[br]writhing uncontrollably, off the beat.

0:10:43.375,0:10:45.867
(Laughter)

0:10:45.891,0:10:49.216
Waiting until it ends, so they can[br]go home and write a paper about it.

0:10:49.240,0:10:51.221
(Laughter)

0:10:51.245,0:10:55.106
Our education system is predicated[br]on the idea of academic ability.

0:10:55.130,0:10:56.301
And there's a reason.

0:10:56.325,0:10:59.954
Around the world, there were[br]no public systems of education,

0:10:59.978,0:11:02.085
really, before the 19th century.

0:11:02.109,0:11:05.356
They all came into being[br]to meet the needs of industrialism.

0:11:05.380,0:11:07.432
So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas.

0:11:07.456,0:11:12.018
Number one, that the most useful[br]subjects for work are at the top.

0:11:12.042,0:11:15.075
So you were probably steered benignly away[br]from things at school

0:11:15.099,0:11:16.251
when you were a kid,

0:11:16.275,0:11:17.428
things you liked,

0:11:17.452,0:11:19.894
on the grounds you would never[br]get a job doing that.

0:11:19.918,0:11:21.069
Is that right?

0:11:21.093,0:11:23.505
"Don't do music, you're not[br]going to be a musician;

0:11:23.529,0:11:25.380
don't do art, you won't be an artist."

0:11:25.404,0:11:28.150
Benign advice -- now, profoundly mistaken.

0:11:28.174,0:11:30.319
The whole world[br]is engulfed in a revolution.

0:11:30.343,0:11:32.440
And the second is academic ability,

0:11:32.464,0:11:35.283
which has really come to dominate[br]our view of intelligence,

0:11:35.307,0:11:38.046
because the universities design[br]the system in their image.

0:11:38.070,0:11:39.221
If you think of it,

0:11:39.245,0:11:42.909
the whole system of public education[br]around the world is a protracted process

0:11:42.933,0:11:44.084
of university entrance.

0:11:44.108,0:11:46.401
And the consequence is[br]that many highly talented,

0:11:46.425,0:11:48.943
brilliant, creative people[br]think they're not,

0:11:48.967,0:11:51.100
because the thing[br]they were good at at school

0:11:51.124,0:11:53.426
wasn't valued,[br]or was actually stigmatized.

0:11:53.450,0:11:55.679
And I think we can't afford[br]to go on that way.

0:11:55.703,0:11:57.990
In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO,

0:11:58.014,0:12:01.420
more people worldwide will be[br]graduating through education

0:12:01.444,0:12:03.639
than since the beginning of history.

0:12:03.663,0:12:04.820
More people.

0:12:04.844,0:12:07.765
And it's the combination[br]of all the things we've talked about:

0:12:07.789,0:12:10.182
technology and its[br]transformational effect on work,

0:12:10.206,0:12:12.684
and demography and the huge[br]explosion in population.

0:12:12.708,0:12:15.145
Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything.

0:12:15.169,0:12:16.846
Isn't that true?

0:12:16.870,0:12:19.851
When I was a student,[br]if you had a degree, you had a job.

0:12:19.875,0:12:22.673
If you didn't have a job,[br]it's because you didn't want one.

0:12:22.697,0:12:25.031
And I didn't want one, frankly.

0:12:25.055,0:12:26.646
(Laughter)

0:12:26.670,0:12:30.475
But now kids with degrees[br]are often heading home

0:12:30.499,0:12:32.293
to carry on playing video games,

0:12:32.317,0:12:35.365
because you need an MA[br]where the previous job required a BA,

0:12:35.389,0:12:37.176
and now you need a PhD for the other.

0:12:37.200,0:12:38.976
It's a process of academic inflation.

0:12:39.000,0:12:42.756
And it indicates the whole structure[br]of education is shifting beneath our feet.

0:12:42.780,0:12:45.322
We need to radically rethink[br]our view of intelligence.

0:12:45.346,0:12:47.270
We know three things about intelligence.

0:12:47.294,0:12:48.445
One, it's diverse.

0:12:48.469,0:12:51.450
We think about the world in all the ways[br]that we experience it.

0:12:51.474,0:12:54.451
We think visually, we think in sound,[br]we think kinesthetically.

0:12:54.475,0:12:56.796
We think in abstract terms,[br]we think in movement.

0:12:56.820,0:12:58.816
Secondly, intelligence is dynamic.

0:12:59.673,0:13:01.976
If you look at the interactions[br]of a human brain,

0:13:02.000,0:13:05.023
as we heard yesterday[br]from a number of presentations,

0:13:05.047,0:13:07.205
intelligence is wonderfully interactive.

0:13:07.229,0:13:09.467
The brain isn't divided into compartments.

0:13:09.872,0:13:11.446
In fact, creativity --

0:13:11.470,0:13:15.490
which I define as the process of having[br]original ideas that have value --

0:13:15.514,0:13:17.444
more often than not comes about

0:13:17.468,0:13:21.025
through the interaction of different[br]disciplinary ways of seeing things.

0:13:22.472,0:13:26.103
By the way, there's a shaft of nerves[br]that joins the two halves of the brain,

0:13:26.127,0:13:27.425
called the corpus callosum.

0:13:27.449,0:13:28.670
It's thicker in women.

0:13:29.471,0:13:31.194
Following off from Helen yesterday,

0:13:31.218,0:13:34.229
this is probably why women[br]are better at multitasking.

0:13:34.253,0:13:36.078
Because you are, aren't you?

0:13:36.102,0:13:39.436
There's a raft of research,[br]but I know it from my personal life.

0:13:39.865,0:13:42.800
If my wife is cooking a meal[br]at home, which is not often ...

0:13:44.224,0:13:45.390
thankfully.

0:13:45.414,0:13:48.104
(Laughter)

0:13:48.128,0:13:49.580
No, she's good at some things.

0:13:49.604,0:13:52.499
But if she's cooking,[br]she's dealing with people on the phone,

0:13:52.523,0:13:55.170
she's talking to the kids,[br]she's painting the ceiling --

0:13:55.194,0:13:56.209
(Laughter)

0:13:56.233,0:13:58.258
she's doing open-heart surgery over here.

0:13:58.282,0:14:01.280
If I'm cooking, the door[br]is shut, the kids are out,

0:14:01.304,0:14:02.543
the phone's on the hook,

0:14:02.567,0:14:04.257
if she comes in, I get annoyed.

0:14:04.281,0:14:07.071
I say, "Terry, please,[br]I'm trying to fry an egg in here."

0:14:07.095,0:14:13.825
(Laughter)

0:14:14.254,0:14:15.454
"Give me a break."

0:14:15.478,0:14:17.198
(Laughter)

0:14:17.222,0:14:19.721
Actually, do you know[br]that old philosophical thing,

0:14:19.745,0:14:23.228
"If a tree falls in a forest,[br]and nobody hears it, did it happen?"

0:14:23.252,0:14:24.581
Remember that old chestnut?

0:14:24.605,0:14:27.515
I saw a great T-shirt[br]recently, which said,

0:14:27.539,0:14:30.976
"If a man speaks his mind in a forest,[br]and no woman hears him,

0:14:31.000,0:14:32.396
is he still wrong?"

0:14:32.420,0:14:38.026
(Laughter)

0:14:40.089,0:14:42.128
And the third thing about intelligence is,

0:14:42.152,0:14:43.521
it's distinct.

0:14:44.114,0:14:46.618
I'm doing a new book at the moment[br]called "Epiphany,"

0:14:46.642,0:14:49.083
which is based on a series[br]of interviews with people

0:14:49.107,0:14:50.971
about how they discovered their talent.

0:14:50.995,0:14:53.116
I'm fascinated by[br]how people got to be there.

0:14:53.140,0:14:56.331
It's really prompted by a conversation[br]I had with a wonderful woman

0:14:56.355,0:14:59.032
who maybe most people[br]have never heard of, Gillian Lynne.

0:14:59.056,0:15:00.652
Have you heard of her? Some have.

0:15:00.676,0:15:03.128
She's a choreographer,[br]and everybody knows her work.

0:15:03.152,0:15:05.168
She did "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera."

0:15:05.192,0:15:06.343
She's wonderful.

0:15:06.367,0:15:09.314
I used to be on the board[br]of The Royal Ballet, as you can see.

0:15:09.338,0:15:11.267
(Laughter)

0:15:11.291,0:15:14.816
Gillian and I had lunch one day.[br]I said, "How did you get to be a dancer?"

0:15:14.840,0:15:15.991
It was interesting.

0:15:16.015,0:15:18.262
When she was at school,[br]she was really hopeless.

0:15:18.286,0:15:21.075
And the school, in the '30s,[br]wrote to her parents and said,

0:15:21.099,0:15:23.134
"We think Gillian[br]has a learning disorder."

0:15:23.158,0:15:25.256
She couldn't concentrate;[br]she was fidgeting.

0:15:25.280,0:15:27.157
I think now they'd say she had ADHD.

0:15:27.181,0:15:28.480
Wouldn't you?

0:15:28.504,0:15:32.681
But this was the 1930s, and ADHD[br]hadn't been invented at this point.

0:15:32.705,0:15:34.745
It wasn't an available condition.

0:15:34.769,0:15:37.984
(Laughter)

0:15:38.008,0:15:40.050
People weren't aware they could have that.

0:15:40.074,0:15:42.499
(Laughter)

0:15:42.523,0:15:46.699
Anyway, she went to see this specialist.

0:15:46.723,0:15:50.430
So, this oak-paneled room,[br]and she was there with her mother,

0:15:50.454,0:15:52.781
and she was led and sat[br]on this chair at the end,

0:15:52.805,0:15:54.750
and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes,

0:15:54.774,0:15:56.455
while this man talked to her mother

0:15:56.479,0:15:58.943
about all the problems[br]Gillian was having at school,

0:15:58.967,0:16:02.516
because she was disturbing people,[br]her homework was always late, and so on.

0:16:02.540,0:16:03.691
Little kid of eight.

0:16:03.715,0:16:06.626
In the end, the doctor went[br]and sat next to Gillian and said,

0:16:06.650,0:16:09.363
"I've listened to all these[br]things your mother's told me.

0:16:09.387,0:16:10.981
I need to speak to her privately.

0:16:11.005,0:16:13.321
Wait here. We'll be back.[br]We won't be very long,"

0:16:13.345,0:16:15.995
and they went and left her.

0:16:16.019,0:16:17.659
But as they went out of the room,

0:16:17.683,0:16:20.539
he turned on the radio[br]that was sitting on his desk.

0:16:20.563,0:16:22.201
And when they got out of the room,

0:16:22.225,0:16:24.603
he said to her mother,[br]"Just stand and watch her."

0:16:24.627,0:16:27.139
And the minute they left the room,

0:16:27.163,0:16:29.758
she was on her feet, moving to the music.

0:16:29.782,0:16:33.285
And they watched for a few minutes,[br]and he turned to her mother and said,

0:16:33.309,0:16:35.288
"Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick.

0:16:35.312,0:16:36.976
She's a dancer.

0:16:38.338,0:16:39.724
Take her to a dance school."

0:16:39.748,0:16:40.976
I said, "What happened?"

0:16:41.000,0:16:43.976
She said, "She did. I can't tell you[br]how wonderful it was.

0:16:44.000,0:16:46.829
We walked in this room,[br]and it was full of people like me --

0:16:46.853,0:16:49.075
people who couldn't sit still,

0:16:49.099,0:16:52.006
people who had to move to think."

0:16:52.030,0:16:53.862
Who had to move to think.

0:16:53.886,0:16:57.496
They did ballet, they did tap, jazz;[br]they did modern; they did contemporary.

0:16:57.520,0:17:00.266
She was eventually auditioned[br]for the Royal Ballet School.

0:17:00.290,0:17:03.543
She became a soloist; she had[br]a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet.

0:17:03.567,0:17:06.122
She eventually graduated[br]from the Royal Ballet School,

0:17:06.146,0:17:08.074
founded the Gillian Lynne Dance Company,

0:17:08.098,0:17:09.335
met Andrew Lloyd Webber.

0:17:09.359,0:17:10.655
She's been responsible for

0:17:10.679,0:17:13.827
some of the most successful[br]musical theater productions in history,

0:17:13.851,0:17:15.447
she's given pleasure to millions,

0:17:15.471,0:17:16.878
and she's a multimillionaire.

0:17:16.902,0:17:20.612
Somebody else might have put her[br]on medication and told her to calm down.

0:17:20.636,0:17:27.418
(Applause)

0:17:28.603,0:17:30.176
What I think it comes to is this:

0:17:30.200,0:17:31.976
Al Gore spoke the other night

0:17:32.000,0:17:36.519
about ecology and the revolution[br]that was triggered by Rachel Carson.

0:17:37.257,0:17:39.369
I believe our only hope for the future

0:17:39.393,0:17:43.268
is to adopt a new conception[br]of human ecology,

0:17:43.292,0:17:45.819
one in which we start[br]to reconstitute our conception

0:17:45.843,0:17:48.104
of the richness of human capacity.

0:17:48.128,0:17:51.499
Our education system has mined our minds

0:17:51.523,0:17:54.964
in the way that we strip-mine the earth[br]for a particular commodity.

0:17:55.377,0:17:57.799
And for the future, it won't serve us.

0:17:57.823,0:17:59.976
We have to rethink[br]the fundamental principles

0:18:00.000,0:18:02.063
on which we're educating our children.

0:18:02.087,0:18:04.761
There was a wonderful quote[br]by Jonas Salk, who said,

0:18:04.785,0:18:09.882
"If all the insects[br]were to disappear from the Earth,

0:18:09.906,0:18:12.689
within 50 years,[br]all life on Earth would end.

0:18:13.770,0:18:16.807
If all human beings[br]disappeared from the Earth,

0:18:16.831,0:18:19.465
within 50 years,[br]all forms of life would flourish."

0:18:20.378,0:18:21.663
And he's right.

0:18:22.390,0:18:26.121
What TED celebrates is the gift[br]of the human imagination.

0:18:26.533,0:18:30.767
We have to be careful now[br]that we use this gift wisely,

0:18:30.791,0:18:34.020
and that we avert some of the scenarios[br]that we've talked about.

0:18:34.044,0:18:37.799
And the only way we'll do it[br]is by seeing our creative capacities

0:18:37.823,0:18:39.610
for the richness they are

0:18:39.634,0:18:42.816
and seeing our children[br]for the hope that they are.

0:18:42.840,0:18:45.238
And our task is to educate[br]their whole being,

0:18:45.262,0:18:46.675
so they can face this future.

0:18:46.699,0:18:49.204
By the way -- we may not see this future,

0:18:49.228,0:18:50.791
but they will.

0:18:50.815,0:18:53.533
And our job is to help them[br]make something of it.

0:18:53.557,0:18:54.742
Thank you very much.

0:18:54.766,0:19:00.213
(Applause)