WEBVTT 00:00:02.103 --> 00:00:04.678 Good morning. How are you? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:04.702 --> 00:00:06.105 (Audience) Good. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:06.129 --> 00:00:07.797 It's been great, hasn't it? 00:00:08.408 --> 00:00:10.729 I've been blown away by the whole thing. 00:00:10.753 --> 00:00:12.245 In fact, I'm leaving. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:12.269 --> 00:00:16.175 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:18.096 --> 00:00:21.663 There have been three themes running through the conference, 00:00:21.687 --> 00:00:23.973 which are relevant to what I want to talk about. 00:00:23.997 --> 00:00:28.467 One is the extraordinary evidence of human creativity 00:00:28.491 --> 00:00:30.904 in all of the presentations that we've had 00:00:30.928 --> 00:00:32.880 and in all of the people here; 00:00:32.904 --> 00:00:35.555 just the variety of it and the range of it. 00:00:36.158 --> 00:00:38.301 The second is that it's put us in a place 00:00:38.325 --> 00:00:40.822 where we have no idea what's going to happen 00:00:40.846 --> 00:00:42.237 in terms of the future. 00:00:42.261 --> 00:00:45.246 No idea how this may play out. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:45.270 --> 00:00:46.892 I have an interest in education. 00:00:46.916 --> 00:00:51.328 Actually, what I find is, everybody has an interest in education. 00:00:51.352 --> 00:00:52.669 Don't you? 00:00:52.693 --> 00:00:54.095 I find this very interesting. 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:58.077 If you're at a dinner party, and you say you work in education -- 00:00:58.101 --> 00:01:00.846 actually, you're not often at dinner parties, frankly. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:00.870 --> 00:01:04.666 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:04.690 --> 00:01:07.118 If you work in education, you're not asked. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:07.142 --> 00:01:10.321 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:10.345 --> 00:01:14.304 And you're never asked back, curiously. That's strange to me. 00:01:14.328 --> 00:01:16.544 But if you are, and you say to somebody, 00:01:16.568 --> 00:01:18.346 you know, they say, "What do you do?" 00:01:18.370 --> 00:01:20.058 and you say you work in education, 00:01:20.082 --> 00:01:22.131 you can see the blood run from their face. 00:01:22.155 --> 00:01:23.840 They're like, "Oh my God. Why me?" NOTE Paragraph 00:01:23.864 --> 00:01:26.140 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:26.164 --> 00:01:27.688 "My one night out all week." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:27.712 --> 00:01:30.322 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:30.346 --> 00:01:33.587 But if you ask about their education, they pin you to the wall, 00:01:33.611 --> 00:01:37.018 because it's one of those things that goes deep with people, am I right? 00:01:37.042 --> 00:01:40.535 Like religion and money and other things. 00:01:40.559 --> 00:01:45.001 So I have a big interest in education, and I think we all do. 00:01:45.025 --> 00:01:46.827 We have a huge vested interest in it, 00:01:46.851 --> 00:01:50.171 partly because it's education that's meant to take us into this future 00:01:50.195 --> 00:01:51.849 that we can't grasp. 00:01:51.873 --> 00:01:53.039 If you think of it, 00:01:53.063 --> 00:01:59.185 children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. 00:02:00.272 --> 00:02:01.843 Nobody has a clue, 00:02:01.867 --> 00:02:05.426 despite all the expertise that's been on parade for the past four days, 00:02:05.450 --> 00:02:07.976 what the world will look like in five years' time. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.294 And yet, we're meant to be educating them for it. 00:02:10.318 --> 00:02:12.868 So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:12.892 --> 00:02:16.320 And the third part of this is that we've all agreed, nonetheless, 00:02:16.344 --> 00:02:21.649 on the really extraordinary capacities that children have -- 00:02:21.673 --> 00:02:24.008 their capacities for innovation. 00:02:24.032 --> 00:02:26.821 I mean, Sirena last night was a marvel, wasn't she? 00:02:26.845 --> 00:02:28.515 Just seeing what she could do. 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:34.088 And she's exceptional, but I think she's not, so to speak, 00:02:34.112 --> 00:02:37.017 exceptional in the whole of childhood. 00:02:37.041 --> 00:02:39.872 What you have there is a person of extraordinary dedication 00:02:39.896 --> 00:02:41.067 who found a talent. 00:02:41.091 --> 00:02:43.677 And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents, 00:02:43.701 --> 00:02:46.095 and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:46.119 --> 00:02:47.976 So I want to talk about education, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.872 and I want to talk about creativity. 00:02:49.896 --> 00:02:55.992 My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, 00:02:56.016 --> 00:02:58.803 and we should treat it with the same status. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:58.827 --> 00:02:59.939 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:59.963 --> 00:03:01.152 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:01.176 --> 00:03:05.461 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:05.485 --> 00:03:07.771 That was it, by the way. Thank you very much. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:07.795 --> 00:03:09.910 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:09.934 --> 00:03:11.611 So, 15 minutes left. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:11.635 --> 00:03:14.792 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:14.816 --> 00:03:16.487 "Well, I was born ... " NOTE Paragraph 00:03:16.511 --> 00:03:19.982 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:20.006 --> 00:03:22.656 I heard a great story recently -- I love telling it -- 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:25.051 of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. 00:03:25.075 --> 00:03:27.250 She was six, and she was at the back, drawing, 00:03:27.274 --> 00:03:30.034 and the teacher said this girl hardly ever paid attention, 00:03:30.058 --> 00:03:31.844 and in this drawing lesson, she did. 00:03:31.868 --> 00:03:33.208 The teacher was fascinated. 00:03:33.232 --> 00:03:36.021 She went over to her, and she said, "What are you drawing?" 00:03:36.045 --> 00:03:38.536 And the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." 00:03:39.642 --> 00:03:42.960 And the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." 00:03:42.984 --> 00:03:45.072 And the girl said, "They will in a minute." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:45.096 --> 00:03:51.878 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:56.662 --> 00:03:59.389 When my son was four in England -- 00:03:59.413 --> 00:04:01.604 actually, he was four everywhere, to be honest. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:01.628 --> 00:04:03.380 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:03.404 --> 00:04:06.791 If we're being strict about it, wherever he went, he was four that year. 00:04:06.815 --> 00:04:09.453 He was in the Nativity play. Do you remember the story? NOTE Paragraph 00:04:09.477 --> 00:04:10.696 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:12.547 No, it was big, it was a big story. 00:04:12.571 --> 00:04:14.876 Mel Gibson did the sequel, you may have seen it. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:16.161 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:16.185 --> 00:04:17.746 "Nativity II." 00:04:17.770 --> 00:04:21.654 But James got the part of Joseph, which we were thrilled about. 00:04:21.678 --> 00:04:24.584 We considered this to be one of the lead parts. 00:04:24.608 --> 00:04:27.095 We had the place crammed full of agents in T-shirts: 00:04:27.119 --> 00:04:28.533 "James Robinson IS Joseph!" 00:04:28.557 --> 00:04:29.590 (Laughter) 00:04:29.614 --> 00:04:33.242 He didn't have to speak, but you know the bit where the three kings come in? 00:04:33.266 --> 00:04:35.951 They come in bearing gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. 00:04:35.975 --> 00:04:37.133 This really happened. 00:04:37.157 --> 00:04:40.273 We were sitting there, and I think they just went out of sequence, 00:04:40.297 --> 00:04:42.876 because we talked to the little boy afterward and said, 00:04:42.900 --> 00:04:45.696 "You OK with that?" They said, "Yeah, why? Was that wrong?" 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:46.876 They just switched. 00:04:46.900 --> 00:04:50.210 The three boys came in, four-year-olds with tea towels on their heads. 00:04:50.234 --> 00:04:53.556 They put these boxes down, and the first boy said, "I bring you gold." 00:04:53.580 --> 00:04:55.854 And the second boy said, "I bring you myrrh." 00:04:55.878 --> 00:04:57.960 And the third boy said, "Frank sent this." NOTE Paragraph 00:04:57.984 --> 00:05:03.461 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:10.711 --> 00:05:13.801 What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. 00:05:13.825 --> 00:05:17.307 If they don't know, they'll have a go. 00:05:17.331 --> 00:05:20.360 Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. 00:05:20.924 --> 00:05:24.431 I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. 00:05:24.886 --> 00:05:27.976 What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.367 you'll never come up with anything original -- 00:05:30.391 --> 00:05:32.971 if you're not prepared to be wrong. 00:05:32.995 --> 00:05:37.438 And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. 00:05:37.462 --> 00:05:39.926 They have become frightened of being wrong. 00:05:39.950 --> 00:05:41.640 And we run our companies like this. 00:05:41.664 --> 00:05:43.316 We stigmatize mistakes. 00:05:43.340 --> 00:05:45.642 And we're now running national education systems 00:05:45.666 --> 00:05:48.205 where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:51.908 And the result is that we are educating people 00:05:51.932 --> 00:05:54.274 out of their creative capacities. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:54.298 --> 00:05:58.725 Picasso once said this, he said that all children are born artists. 00:05:58.749 --> 00:06:01.971 The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. 00:06:01.995 --> 00:06:05.227 I believe this passionately, that we don't grow into creativity, 00:06:05.251 --> 00:06:06.956 we grow out of it. 00:06:06.980 --> 00:06:08.863 Or rather, we get educated out of it. 00:06:09.607 --> 00:06:11.510 So why is this? NOTE Paragraph 00:06:12.124 --> 00:06:14.907 I lived in Stratford-on-Avon until about five years ago. 00:06:14.931 --> 00:06:17.184 In fact, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles. 00:06:17.912 --> 00:06:20.536 So you can imagine what a seamless transition this was. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:21.976 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:24.376 Actually, we lived in a place called Snitterfield, 00:06:24.400 --> 00:06:25.651 just outside Stratford, 00:06:25.675 --> 00:06:28.310 which is where Shakespeare's father was born. 00:06:28.334 --> 00:06:30.457 Are you struck by a new thought? I was. 00:06:30.481 --> 00:06:33.076 You don't think of Shakespeare having a father, do you? 00:06:33.100 --> 00:06:34.473 Do you? 00:06:34.497 --> 00:06:37.388 Because you don't think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? 00:06:37.412 --> 00:06:38.676 Shakespeare being seven? 00:06:38.700 --> 00:06:39.876 I never thought of it. 00:06:39.900 --> 00:06:41.592 I mean, he was seven at some point. 00:06:41.616 --> 00:06:43.882 He was in somebody's English class, wasn't he? NOTE Paragraph 00:06:43.906 --> 00:06:50.693 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:50.717 --> 00:06:52.046 How annoying would that be? NOTE Paragraph 00:06:52.070 --> 00:06:55.070 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:59.939 --> 00:07:01.279 "Must try harder." NOTE Paragraph 00:07:01.303 --> 00:07:04.703 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:05.559 --> 00:07:08.540 Being sent to bed by his dad, to Shakespeare, "Go to bed, now!" 00:07:08.564 --> 00:07:09.722 To William Shakespeare. 00:07:09.746 --> 00:07:11.017 "And put the pencil down!" NOTE Paragraph 00:07:11.041 --> 00:07:12.116 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:12.140 --> 00:07:13.617 "And stop speaking like that." NOTE Paragraph 00:07:13.641 --> 00:07:17.220 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:17.244 --> 00:07:18.568 "It's confusing everybody." NOTE Paragraph 00:07:18.592 --> 00:07:23.862 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:23.886 --> 00:07:29.072 Anyway, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles, 00:07:29.096 --> 00:07:31.572 and I just want to say a word about the transition. 00:07:31.596 --> 00:07:33.398 Actually, my son didn't want to come. 00:07:33.422 --> 00:07:35.817 I've got two kids; he's 21 now, my daughter's 16. 00:07:35.841 --> 00:07:38.044 He didn't want to come to Los Angeles. 00:07:38.068 --> 00:07:41.856 He loved it, but he had a girlfriend in England. 00:07:41.880 --> 00:07:44.737 This was the love of his life, Sarah. 00:07:44.761 --> 00:07:46.136 He'd known her for a month. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:47.510 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:47.534 --> 00:07:50.813 Mind you, they'd had their fourth anniversary, 00:07:50.837 --> 00:07:52.773 because it's a long time when you're 16. 00:07:52.797 --> 00:07:54.438 He was really upset on the plane. 00:07:54.462 --> 00:07:56.869 He said, "I'll never find another girl like Sarah." 00:07:56.893 --> 00:07:59.207 And we were rather pleased about that, frankly -- NOTE Paragraph 00:07:59.231 --> 00:08:03.464 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:07.434 --> 00:08:10.380 because she was the main reason we were leaving the country. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:10.404 --> 00:08:13.404 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:16.141 --> 00:08:18.503 But something strikes you when you move to America 00:08:18.527 --> 00:08:19.894 and travel around the world: 00:08:19.918 --> 00:08:23.565 every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. 00:08:23.589 --> 00:08:25.492 Every one. Doesn't matter where you go. 00:08:25.516 --> 00:08:27.786 You'd think it would be otherwise, but it isn't. 00:08:27.810 --> 00:08:30.791 At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities. 00:08:30.815 --> 00:08:33.106 At the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on earth. 00:08:33.130 --> 00:08:37.495 And in pretty much every system, too, there's a hierarchy within the arts. 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:40.376 Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools 00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:41.828 than drama and dance. 00:08:41.852 --> 00:08:43.959 There isn't an education system on the planet 00:08:43.983 --> 00:08:45.902 that teaches dance every day to children 00:08:45.926 --> 00:08:47.576 the way we teach them mathematics. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:48.758 Why? 00:08:48.782 --> 00:08:49.949 Why not? 00:08:49.973 --> 00:08:51.567 I think this is rather important. 00:08:51.591 --> 00:08:53.855 I think math is very important, but so is dance. 00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:56.759 Children dance all the time if they're allowed to, we all do. 00:08:56.783 --> 00:08:59.233 We all have bodies, don't we? Did I miss a meeting? NOTE Paragraph 00:08:59.257 --> 00:09:02.621 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:02.645 --> 00:09:04.966 Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, 00:09:04.990 --> 00:09:07.704 we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. 00:09:07.728 --> 00:09:09.354 And then we focus on their heads. 00:09:09.378 --> 00:09:10.868 And slightly to one side. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:12.044 --> 00:09:14.115 If you were to visit education as an alien 00:09:14.139 --> 00:09:17.120 and say "What's it for, public education?" 00:09:17.144 --> 00:09:19.871 I think you'd have to conclude, if you look at the output, 00:09:19.895 --> 00:09:21.252 who really succeeds by this, 00:09:21.276 --> 00:09:22.976 who does everything they should, 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.731 who gets all the brownie points, who are the winners -- 00:09:25.755 --> 00:09:28.993 I think you'd have to conclude the whole purpose of public education 00:09:29.017 --> 00:09:30.215 throughout the world 00:09:30.239 --> 00:09:32.218 is to produce university professors. 00:09:32.718 --> 00:09:33.886 Isn't it? 00:09:33.910 --> 00:09:35.894 They're the people who come out the top. 00:09:35.918 --> 00:09:37.737 And I used to be one, so there. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:37.761 --> 00:09:41.458 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:41.482 --> 00:09:43.082 And I like university professors, 00:09:43.106 --> 00:09:45.021 but, you know, we shouldn't hold them up 00:09:45.045 --> 00:09:47.976 as the high-water mark of all human achievement. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:50.113 They're just a form of life. 00:09:50.137 --> 00:09:51.560 Another form of life. 00:09:51.584 --> 00:09:52.981 But they're rather curious. 00:09:53.005 --> 00:09:54.969 And I say this out of affection for them: 00:09:54.993 --> 00:09:57.068 there's something curious about professors. 00:09:57.092 --> 00:10:00.838 In my experience -- not all of them, but typically -- they live in their heads. 00:10:00.862 --> 00:10:03.005 They live up there and slightly to one side. 00:10:03.495 --> 00:10:06.931 They're disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. 00:10:06.955 --> 00:10:10.105 They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:10.129 --> 00:10:16.176 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:17.577 Don't they? 00:10:17.601 --> 00:10:19.746 It's a way of getting their head to meetings. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:19.770 --> 00:10:24.998 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:25.022 --> 00:10:28.944 If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, 00:10:28.968 --> 00:10:32.443 get yourself along to a residential conference of senior academics 00:10:32.467 --> 00:10:34.818 and pop into the discotheque on the final night. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:34.842 --> 00:10:37.454 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:37.478 --> 00:10:38.834 And there, you will see it. 00:10:38.858 --> 00:10:43.351 Grown men and women writhing uncontrollably, off the beat. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:43.375 --> 00:10:45.867 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:45.891 --> 00:10:49.216 Waiting until it ends, so they can go home and write a paper about it. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:49.240 --> 00:10:51.221 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:51.245 --> 00:10:55.106 Our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. 00:10:55.130 --> 00:10:56.301 And there's a reason. 00:10:56.325 --> 00:10:59.954 Around the world, there were no public systems of education, 00:10:59.978 --> 00:11:02.085 really, before the 19th century. 00:11:02.109 --> 00:11:05.356 They all came into being to meet the needs of industrialism. 00:11:05.380 --> 00:11:07.432 So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:07.456 --> 00:11:12.018 Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are at the top. 00:11:12.042 --> 00:11:15.075 So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school 00:11:15.099 --> 00:11:16.251 when you were a kid, 00:11:16.275 --> 00:11:17.428 things you liked, 00:11:17.452 --> 00:11:19.894 on the grounds you would never get a job doing that. 00:11:19.918 --> 00:11:21.069 Is that right? 00:11:21.093 --> 00:11:23.505 "Don't do music, you're not going to be a musician; 00:11:23.529 --> 00:11:25.380 don't do art, you won't be an artist." 00:11:25.404 --> 00:11:28.150 Benign advice -- now, profoundly mistaken. 00:11:28.174 --> 00:11:30.319 The whole world is engulfed in a revolution. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:30.343 --> 00:11:32.440 And the second is academic ability, 00:11:32.464 --> 00:11:35.283 which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, 00:11:35.307 --> 00:11:38.046 because the universities design the system in their image. 00:11:38.070 --> 00:11:39.221 If you think of it, 00:11:39.245 --> 00:11:42.909 the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process 00:11:42.933 --> 00:11:44.084 of university entrance. 00:11:44.108 --> 00:11:46.401 And the consequence is that many highly talented, 00:11:46.425 --> 00:11:48.943 brilliant, creative people think they're not, 00:11:48.967 --> 00:11:51.100 because the thing they were good at at school 00:11:51.124 --> 00:11:53.426 wasn't valued, or was actually stigmatized. 00:11:53.450 --> 00:11:55.679 And I think we can't afford to go on that way. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:55.703 --> 00:11:57.990 In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, 00:11:58.014 --> 00:12:01.420 more people worldwide will be graduating through education 00:12:01.444 --> 00:12:03.639 than since the beginning of history. 00:12:03.663 --> 00:12:04.820 More people. 00:12:04.844 --> 00:12:07.765 And it's the combination of all the things we've talked about: 00:12:07.789 --> 00:12:10.182 technology and its transformational effect on work, 00:12:10.206 --> 00:12:12.684 and demography and the huge explosion in population. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:12.708 --> 00:12:15.145 Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything. 00:12:15.169 --> 00:12:16.846 Isn't that true? 00:12:16.870 --> 00:12:19.851 When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. 00:12:19.875 --> 00:12:22.673 If you didn't have a job, it's because you didn't want one. 00:12:22.697 --> 00:12:25.031 And I didn't want one, frankly. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:25.055 --> 00:12:26.646 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:12:26.670 --> 00:12:30.475 But now kids with degrees are often heading home 00:12:30.499 --> 00:12:32.293 to carry on playing video games, 00:12:32.317 --> 00:12:35.365 because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA, 00:12:35.389 --> 00:12:37.176 and now you need a PhD for the other. 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:38.976 It's a process of academic inflation. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:42.756 And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. 00:12:42.780 --> 00:12:45.322 We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:45.346 --> 00:12:47.270 We know three things about intelligence. 00:12:47.294 --> 00:12:48.445 One, it's diverse. 00:12:48.469 --> 00:12:51.450 We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. 00:12:51.474 --> 00:12:54.451 We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically. 00:12:54.475 --> 00:12:56.796 We think in abstract terms, we think in movement. 00:12:56.820 --> 00:12:58.816 Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. 00:12:59.673 --> 00:13:01.976 If you look at the interactions of a human brain, 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:05.023 as we heard yesterday from a number of presentations, 00:13:05.047 --> 00:13:07.205 intelligence is wonderfully interactive. 00:13:07.229 --> 00:13:09.467 The brain isn't divided into compartments. 00:13:09.872 --> 00:13:11.446 In fact, creativity -- 00:13:11.470 --> 00:13:15.490 which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value -- 00:13:15.514 --> 00:13:17.444 more often than not comes about 00:13:17.468 --> 00:13:21.025 through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:22.472 --> 00:13:26.103 By the way, there's a shaft of nerves that joins the two halves of the brain, 00:13:26.127 --> 00:13:27.425 called the corpus callosum. 00:13:27.449 --> 00:13:28.670 It's thicker in women. 00:13:29.471 --> 00:13:31.194 Following off from Helen yesterday, 00:13:31.218 --> 00:13:34.229 this is probably why women are better at multitasking. 00:13:34.253 --> 00:13:36.078 Because you are, aren't you? 00:13:36.102 --> 00:13:39.436 There's a raft of research, but I know it from my personal life. 00:13:39.865 --> 00:13:42.800 If my wife is cooking a meal at home, which is not often ... 00:13:44.224 --> 00:13:45.390 thankfully. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:45.414 --> 00:13:48.104 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:48.128 --> 00:13:49.580 No, she's good at some things. 00:13:49.604 --> 00:13:52.499 But if she's cooking, she's dealing with people on the phone, 00:13:52.523 --> 00:13:55.170 she's talking to the kids, she's painting the ceiling -- NOTE Paragraph 00:13:55.194 --> 00:13:56.209 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:56.233 --> 00:13:58.258 she's doing open-heart surgery over here. 00:13:58.282 --> 00:14:01.280 If I'm cooking, the door is shut, the kids are out, 00:14:01.304 --> 00:14:02.543 the phone's on the hook, 00:14:02.567 --> 00:14:04.257 if she comes in, I get annoyed. 00:14:04.281 --> 00:14:07.071 I say, "Terry, please, I'm trying to fry an egg in here." NOTE Paragraph 00:14:07.095 --> 00:14:13.825 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:14.254 --> 00:14:15.454 "Give me a break." NOTE Paragraph 00:14:15.478 --> 00:14:17.198 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:17.222 --> 00:14:19.721 Actually, do you know that old philosophical thing, 00:14:19.745 --> 00:14:23.228 "If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it, did it happen?" 00:14:23.252 --> 00:14:24.581 Remember that old chestnut? 00:14:24.605 --> 00:14:27.515 I saw a great T-shirt recently, which said, 00:14:27.539 --> 00:14:30.976 "If a man speaks his mind in a forest, and no woman hears him, 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:32.396 is he still wrong?" NOTE Paragraph 00:14:32.420 --> 00:14:38.026 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:40.089 --> 00:14:42.128 And the third thing about intelligence is, 00:14:42.152 --> 00:14:43.521 it's distinct. 00:14:44.114 --> 00:14:46.618 I'm doing a new book at the moment called "Epiphany," 00:14:46.642 --> 00:14:49.083 which is based on a series of interviews with people 00:14:49.107 --> 00:14:50.971 about how they discovered their talent. 00:14:50.995 --> 00:14:53.116 I'm fascinated by how people got to be there. 00:14:53.140 --> 00:14:56.331 It's really prompted by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman 00:14:56.355 --> 00:14:59.032 who maybe most people have never heard of, Gillian Lynne. 00:14:59.056 --> 00:15:00.652 Have you heard of her? Some have. 00:15:00.676 --> 00:15:03.128 She's a choreographer, and everybody knows her work. 00:15:03.152 --> 00:15:05.168 She did "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera." 00:15:05.192 --> 00:15:06.343 She's wonderful. 00:15:06.367 --> 00:15:09.314 I used to be on the board of The Royal Ballet, as you can see. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:09.338 --> 00:15:11.267 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:11.291 --> 00:15:14.816 Gillian and I had lunch one day. I said, "How did you get to be a dancer?" 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:15.991 It was interesting. 00:15:16.015 --> 00:15:18.262 When she was at school, she was really hopeless. 00:15:18.286 --> 00:15:21.075 And the school, in the '30s, wrote to her parents and said, 00:15:21.099 --> 00:15:23.134 "We think Gillian has a learning disorder." 00:15:23.158 --> 00:15:25.256 She couldn't concentrate; she was fidgeting. 00:15:25.280 --> 00:15:27.157 I think now they'd say she had ADHD. 00:15:27.181 --> 00:15:28.480 Wouldn't you? 00:15:28.504 --> 00:15:32.681 But this was the 1930s, and ADHD hadn't been invented at this point. 00:15:32.705 --> 00:15:34.745 It wasn't an available condition. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:34.769 --> 00:15:37.984 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:38.008 --> 00:15:40.050 People weren't aware they could have that. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:40.074 --> 00:15:42.499 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:42.523 --> 00:15:46.699 Anyway, she went to see this specialist. 00:15:46.723 --> 00:15:50.430 So, this oak-paneled room, and she was there with her mother, 00:15:50.454 --> 00:15:52.781 and she was led and sat on this chair at the end, 00:15:52.805 --> 00:15:54.750 and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes, 00:15:54.774 --> 00:15:56.455 while this man talked to her mother 00:15:56.479 --> 00:15:58.943 about all the problems Gillian was having at school, 00:15:58.967 --> 00:16:02.516 because she was disturbing people, her homework was always late, and so on. 00:16:02.540 --> 00:16:03.691 Little kid of eight. 00:16:03.715 --> 00:16:06.626 In the end, the doctor went and sat next to Gillian and said, 00:16:06.650 --> 00:16:09.363 "I've listened to all these things your mother's told me. 00:16:09.387 --> 00:16:10.981 I need to speak to her privately. 00:16:11.005 --> 00:16:13.321 Wait here. We'll be back. We won't be very long," 00:16:13.345 --> 00:16:15.995 and they went and left her. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:16.019 --> 00:16:17.659 But as they went out of the room, 00:16:17.683 --> 00:16:20.539 he turned on the radio that was sitting on his desk. 00:16:20.563 --> 00:16:22.201 And when they got out of the room, 00:16:22.225 --> 00:16:24.603 he said to her mother, "Just stand and watch her." 00:16:24.627 --> 00:16:27.139 And the minute they left the room, 00:16:27.163 --> 00:16:29.758 she was on her feet, moving to the music. 00:16:29.782 --> 00:16:33.285 And they watched for a few minutes, and he turned to her mother and said, 00:16:33.309 --> 00:16:35.288 "Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick. 00:16:35.312 --> 00:16:36.976 She's a dancer. 00:16:38.338 --> 00:16:39.724 Take her to a dance school." NOTE Paragraph 00:16:39.748 --> 00:16:40.976 I said, "What happened?" 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.976 She said, "She did. I can't tell you how wonderful it was. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:46.829 We walked in this room, and it was full of people like me -- 00:16:46.853 --> 00:16:49.075 people who couldn't sit still, 00:16:49.099 --> 00:16:52.006 people who had to move to think." 00:16:52.030 --> 00:16:53.862 Who had to move to think. 00:16:53.886 --> 00:16:57.496 They did ballet, they did tap, jazz; they did modern; they did contemporary. 00:16:57.520 --> 00:17:00.266 She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School. 00:17:00.290 --> 00:17:03.543 She became a soloist; she had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet. 00:17:03.567 --> 00:17:06.122 She eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School, 00:17:06.146 --> 00:17:08.074 founded the Gillian Lynne Dance Company, 00:17:08.098 --> 00:17:09.335 met Andrew Lloyd Webber. 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:10.655 She's been responsible for 00:17:10.679 --> 00:17:13.827 some of the most successful musical theater productions in history, 00:17:13.851 --> 00:17:15.447 she's given pleasure to millions, 00:17:15.471 --> 00:17:16.878 and she's a multimillionaire. 00:17:16.902 --> 00:17:20.612 Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:20.636 --> 00:17:27.418 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:17:28.603 --> 00:17:30.176 What I think it comes to is this: 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:31.976 Al Gore spoke the other night 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.519 about ecology and the revolution that was triggered by Rachel Carson. 00:17:37.257 --> 00:17:39.369 I believe our only hope for the future 00:17:39.393 --> 00:17:43.268 is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, 00:17:43.292 --> 00:17:45.819 one in which we start to reconstitute our conception 00:17:45.843 --> 00:17:48.104 of the richness of human capacity. 00:17:48.128 --> 00:17:51.499 Our education system has mined our minds 00:17:51.523 --> 00:17:54.964 in the way that we strip-mine the earth for a particular commodity. 00:17:55.377 --> 00:17:57.799 And for the future, it won't serve us. 00:17:57.823 --> 00:17:59.976 We have to rethink the fundamental principles 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.063 on which we're educating our children. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:02.087 --> 00:18:04.761 There was a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk, who said, 00:18:04.785 --> 00:18:09.882 "If all the insects were to disappear from the Earth, 00:18:09.906 --> 00:18:12.689 within 50 years, all life on Earth would end. 00:18:13.770 --> 00:18:16.807 If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, 00:18:16.831 --> 00:18:19.465 within 50 years, all forms of life would flourish." 00:18:20.378 --> 00:18:21.663 And he's right. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:22.390 --> 00:18:26.121 What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. 00:18:26.533 --> 00:18:30.767 We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely, 00:18:30.791 --> 00:18:34.020 and that we avert some of the scenarios that we've talked about. 00:18:34.044 --> 00:18:37.799 And the only way we'll do it is by seeing our creative capacities 00:18:37.823 --> 00:18:39.610 for the richness they are 00:18:39.634 --> 00:18:42.816 and seeing our children for the hope that they are. 00:18:42.840 --> 00:18:45.238 And our task is to educate their whole being, 00:18:45.262 --> 00:18:46.675 so they can face this future. 00:18:46.699 --> 00:18:49.204 By the way -- we may not see this future, 00:18:49.228 --> 00:18:50.791 but they will. 00:18:50.815 --> 00:18:53.533 And our job is to help them make something of it. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:53.557 --> 00:18:54.742 Thank you very much. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:54.766 --> 00:19:00.213 (Applause)