0:00:00.000,0:00:04.678
Good morning. How are you?

0:00:04.702,0:00:05.912
(Laughter)

0:00:05.936,0:00:08.249
It's been great, hasn't it?

0:00:08.273,0:00:10.729
I've been blown away by the whole thing.

0:00:10.753,0:00:12.245
In fact, I'm leaving.

0:00:12.269,0:00:17.836
(Laughter)

0:00:18.015,0:00:21.222
There have been three themes[br]running through the conference

0:00:21.246,0:00:23.753
which are relevant[br]to what I want to talk about.

0:00:23.777,0:00:28.467
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

0:00:30.928,0:00:32.729
and in all of the people here.

0:00:32.753,0:00:35.404
Just the variety of it[br]and the range of it.

0:00:36.158,0:00:38.301
The second is[br]that it's put us in a place

0:00:38.325,0:00:40.822
where we have no idea[br]what's going to happen,

0:00:40.846,0:00:42.237
in terms of the future.

0:00:42.261,0:00:44.976
No idea how this may play out.

0:00:45.000,0:00:46.892
I have an interest in education.

0:00:46.916,0:00:51.048
Actually, what I find is everybody[br]has an interest in education.

0:00:51.072,0:00:52.210
Don't you?

0:00:52.234,0:00:53.715
I find this very interesting.

0:00:53.739,0:00:55.496
If you're at a dinner party,

0:00:55.596,0:00:57.858
and you say you work in education --

0:00:57.882,0:01:00.846
Actually, you're not often[br]at dinner parties, frankly.

0:01:00.870,0:01:04.666
(Laughter)

0:01:04.690,0:01:07.118
If you work in education,[br]you're not asked.

0:01:07.142,0:01:10.233
(Laughter)

0:01:10.257,0:01:13.976
And you're never asked back, curiously.[br]That's strange to me.

0:01:14.000,0:01:16.475
But if you are, and you say to somebody,

0:01:16.499,0:01:18.276
you know, they say, "What do you do?"

0:01:18.300,0:01:19.976
and you say you work in education,

0:01:20.000,0:01:22.076
you can see the blood run from their face.

0:01:22.100,0:01:24.380
They're like, "Oh my God,"[br]you know, "Why me?"

0:01:24.404,0:01:26.041
(Laughter)

0:01:26.065,0:01:27.688
"My one night out all week."

0:01:27.712,0:01:30.322
(Laughter)

0:01:30.346,0:01:33.587
But if you ask about their education,[br]they pin you to the wall.

0:01:33.611,0:01:37.078
Because it's one of those things[br]that goes deep with people, am I right?

0:01:37.194,0:01:40.535
Like religion, and money and other things.

0:01:40.559,0:01:44.911
So I have a big interest in education,[br]and I think we all do.

0:01:44.935,0:01:46.827
We have a huge vested interest in it,

0:01:46.851,0:01:50.171
partly because it's education[br]that's meant to take us into this future

0:01:50.195,0:01:51.714
that we can't grasp.

0:01:51.873,0:01:55.372
If you think of it,[br]children starting school this year

0:01:55.396,0:01:58.920
will be retiring in 2065.

0:02:00.209,0:02:01.843
Nobody has a clue,

0:02:01.867,0:02:05.311
despite all the expertise that's been[br]on parade for the past four days,

0:02:05.450,0:02:07.976
what the world will look like[br]in five years' time.

0:02:08.000,0:02:10.294
And yet we're meant[br]to be educating them for it.

0:02:10.318,0:02:12.868
So the unpredictability,[br]I think, is extraordinary.

0:02:12.892,0:02:14.259
And the third part of this

0:02:14.283,0:02:16.320
is that we've all agreed, nonetheless,

0:02:16.344,0:02:21.649
on the really extraordinary[br]capacities that children have --

0:02:21.673,0:02:24.007
their capacities for innovation.

0:02:24.031,0:02:26.542
I mean, Sirena last night[br]was a marvel, wasn't she?

0:02:26.566,0:02:28.176
Just seeing what she could do.

0:02:28.200,0:02:32.976
And she's exceptional, but I think[br]she's not, so to speak,

0:02:33.000,0:02:36.956
exceptional in the whole of childhood.

0:02:36.980,0:02:39.776
What you have there is a person[br]of extraordinary dedication

0:02:39.800,0:02:41.067
who found a talent.

0:02:41.091,0:02:43.700
And my contention is,[br]all kids have tremendous talents.

0:02:43.800,0:02:45.776
And we squander them, pretty ruthlessly.

0:02:45.800,0:02:47.976
So I want to talk about education

0:02:48.000,0:02:49.872
and I want to talk about creativity.

0:02:49.896,0:02:55.915
My contention is that creativity now[br]is as important in education as literacy,

0:02:55.939,0:02:58.803
and we should treat it[br]with the same status.

0:02:58.827,0:03:00.798
(Applause) Thank you.

0:03:00.822,0:03:05.167
(Applause)

0:03:05.485,0:03:06.744
That was it, by the way.

0:03:06.768,0:03:07.771
Thank you very much.

0:03:07.795,0:03:09.910
(Laughter)

0:03:09.934,0:03:11.611
So, 15 minutes left.

0:03:11.635,0:03:14.571
(Laughter)

0:03:14.595,0:03:16.487
Well, I was born... no.

0:03:16.511,0:03:19.543
(Laughter)

0:03:19.567,0:03:22.312
I heard a great story recently[br]-- I love telling it --

0:03:22.336,0:03:25.051
of a little girl[br]who was in a drawing lesson.

0:03:25.075,0:03:27.210
She was six, and she was[br]at the back, drawing,

0:03:27.234,0:03:30.034
and the teacher said this girl[br]hardly ever paid attention,

0:03:30.058,0:03:31.844
and in this drawing lesson, she did.

0:03:31.868,0:03:33.208
The teacher was fascinated.

0:03:33.232,0:03:35.994
She went over to her,[br]and she said, "What are you drawing?"

0:03:36.018,0:03:38.509
And the girl said, "I'm[br]drawing a picture of God."

0:03:39.642,0:03:42.960
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."

0:03:45.096,0:03:51.878
(Laughter)

0:03:56.662,0:03:58.929
When my son was four in England --

0:03:59.413,0:04:01.604
Actually, he was four[br]everywhere, to be honest.

0:04:01.628,0:04:03.295
(Laughter)

0:04:03.404,0:04:06.791
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)

0:04:10.720,0:04:12.547
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.

0:04:14.900,0:04:16.161
(Laughter)

0:04:16.185,0:04:17.495
"Nativity II."

0:04:17.519,0:04:21.654
But James got the part of Joseph,[br]which we were thrilled about.

0:04:21.678,0:04:24.215
We considered this to be[br]one of the lead parts.

0:04:24.239,0:04:26.716
We had the place crammed[br]full of agents in T-shirts:

0:04:26.740,0:04:28.976
"James Robinson IS Joseph!" (Laughter)

0:04:29.000,0:04:30.607
He didn't have to speak,

0:04:30.631,0:04:33.069
but you know the bit[br]where the three kings come in?

0:04:33.093,0:04:35.824
They come in bearing gifts,[br]gold, frankincense and myrrh.

0:04:35.848,0:04:36.962
This really happened.

0:04:36.986,0:04:40.076
We were sitting there and I think[br]they just went out of sequence,

0:04:40.100,0:04:42.876
because we talked to the little boy[br]afterward and we said,

0:04:42.900,0:04:45.776
"You OK with that?" And he said,[br]"Yeah, why? Was that wrong?"

0:04:45.800,0:04:46.876
They just switched.

0:04:46.900,0:04:48.076
The three boys came in,

0:04:48.100,0:04:50.287
four-year-olds with tea towels[br]on their heads,

0:04:50.311,0:04:51.802
and they put these boxes down,

0:04:51.826,0:04:53.875
and the first boy said,[br]"I bring you gold."

0:04:53.899,0:04:56.037
And the second boy said,[br]"I bring you myrrh."

0:04:56.061,0:04:58.065
And the third boy said, "Frank sent this."

0:04:58.089,0:05:00.989
(Laughter)

0:05:10.711,0:05:13.801
What these things have in common[br]is that kids will take a chance.

0:05:13.825,0:05:16.433
If they don't know, they'll have a go.

0:05:16.457,0:05:19.994
Am I right? They're not[br]frightened of being wrong.

0:05:20.893,0:05:24.400
I don't mean to say that being wrong[br]is the same thing as being creative.

0:05:24.886,0:05:27.976
What we do know is,[br]if you're not prepared to be wrong,

0:05:28.000,0:05:30.367
you'll never come up[br]with anything original --

0:05:30.391,0:05:32.476
if you're not prepared to be wrong.

0:05:32.877,0:05:37.010
And by the time they get to be adults,[br]most kids have lost that capacity.

0:05:37.406,0:05:39.926
They have become[br]frightened of being wrong.

0:05:39.950,0:05:41.640
And we run our companies like this.

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

0:05:43.340,0:05:45.642
And we're now running[br]national education systems

0:05:45.666,0:05:48.012
where mistakes are the worst[br]thing you can make.

0:05:48.700,0:05:51.908
And the result is that[br]we are educating people

0:05:51.932,0:05:54.223
out of their creative capacities.

0:05:54.247,0:05:58.725
Picasso once said this, he said[br]that all children are born artists.

0:05:58.749,0:06:01.971
The problem is to remain an artist[br]as we grow up.

0:06:01.995,0:06:05.076
I believe this passionately,[br]that we don't grow into creativity,

0:06:05.100,0:06:06.956
we grow out of it.

0:06:06.980,0:06:08.863
Or rather, we get educated out if it.

0:06:09.247,0:06:10.720
So why is this?

0:06:10.826,0:06:14.907
I lived in Stratford-on-Avon[br]until about five years ago.

0:06:14.931,0:06:17.184
In fact, we moved[br]from Stratford to Los Angeles.

0:06:17.872,0:06:20.536
So you can imagine[br]what a seamless transition that was.

0:06:20.560,0:06:21.976
(Laughter)

0:06:22.000,0:06:24.376
Actually, we lived in a place[br]called Snitterfield,

0:06:24.400,0:06:25.651
just outside Stratford,

0:06:25.675,0:06:27.836
which is where[br]Shakespeare's father was born.

0:06:28.082,0:06:30.457
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?

0:06:33.100,0:06:36.976
Do you? Because you don't think[br]of Shakespeare being a child, do you?

0:06:37.000,0:06:38.567
Shakespeare being seven?

0:06:38.591,0:06:39.840
I never thought of it.

0:06:39.864,0:06:41.548
I mean, he was seven at some point.

0:06:41.572,0:06:43.882
He was in somebody's[br]English class, wasn't he?

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

0:06:50.717,0:06:52.046
How annoying would that be?

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

0:06:59.729,0:07:00.764
"Must try harder."

0:07:00.788,0:07:04.688
(Laughter)

0:07:04.712,0:07:08.176
Being sent to bed by his dad, you know,[br]to Shakespeare, "Go to bed, now!

0:07:08.200,0:07:10.628
And put the pencil down."

0:07:10.652,0:07:11.726
(Laughter)

0:07:11.750,0:07:13.305
"And stop speaking like that."

0:07:13.329,0:07:17.220
(Laughter)

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

0:07:18.592,0:07:23.715
(Laughter)

0:07:23.739,0:07:29.077
Anyway, we moved[br]from Stratford to Los Angeles,

0:07:29.101,0:07:31.542
and I just want to say a word[br]about the transition.

0:07:31.566,0:07:32.976
My son didn't want to come.

0:07:33.000,0:07:35.976
I've got two kids;[br]he's 21 now, my daughter's 16.

0:07:36.000,0:07:38.044
He didn't want to come to Los Angeles.

0:07:38.068,0:07:41.024
He loved it, but he had[br]a girlfriend in England.

0:07:41.048,0:07:44.651
This was the love of his life, Sarah.

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

0:07:46.160,0:07:47.510
(Laughter)

0:07:47.534,0:07:49.790
Mind you, they'd had[br]their fourth anniversary,

0:07:49.814,0:07:52.753
because it's a long time when you're 16.

0:07:52.777,0:07:54.438
He was really upset on the plane,

0:07:54.462,0:07:56.923
he said, "I'll never find[br]another girl like Sarah."

0:07:56.947,0:07:59.325
And we were rather pleased[br]about that, frankly --

0:07:59.349,0:08:02.249
(Laughter)

0:08:07.395,0:08:10.276
Because she was the main reason[br]we were leaving the country.

0:08:10.300,0:08:13.300
(Laughter)

0:08:16.059,0:08:18.401
But something strikes you[br]when you move to America

0:08:18.425,0:08:19.791
and travel around the world:

0:08:19.815,0:08:23.193
Every education system on Earth[br]has the same hierarchy of subjects.

0:08:23.537,0:08:25.492
Every one. Doesn't matter where you go.

0:08:25.516,0:08:27.786
You'd think it would be[br]otherwise, but it isn't.

0:08:27.810,0:08:29.776
At the top are mathematics and languages,

0:08:29.800,0:08:32.234
then the humanities,[br]and at the bottom are the arts.

0:08:32.258,0:08:33.376
Everywhere on Earth.

0:08:33.400,0:08:37.495
And in pretty much every system too,[br]there's a hierarchy within the arts.

0:08:37.519,0:08:40.376
Art and music are normally[br]given a higher status in schools

0:08:40.400,0:08:41.567
than drama and dance.

0:08:41.591,0:08:43.847
There isn't an education[br]system on the planet

0:08:43.871,0:08:45.929
that teaches dance everyday to children

0:08:45.953,0:08:48.000
the way we teach them mathematics. Why?

0:08:48.524,0:08:51.225
Why not? I think this is rather important.

0:08:51.249,0:08:53.552
I think math is very[br]important, but so is dance.

0:08:53.576,0:08:56.476
Children dance all the time[br]if they're allowed to, we all do.

0:08:56.500,0:08:58.976
We all have bodies, don't we?[br]Did I miss a meeting?

0:08:59.000,0:09:02.338
(Laughter)

0:09:02.510,0:09:04.845
Truthfully, what happens is,[br]as children grow up,

0:09:04.869,0:09:07.637
we start to educate them progressively[br]from the waist up.

0:09:07.661,0:09:09.286
And then we focus on their heads.

0:09:09.310,0:09:10.800
And slightly to one side.

0:09:11.319,0:09:13.976
If you were to visit[br]education, as an alien,

0:09:14.000,0:09:16.976
and say "What's it for, public education?"

0:09:17.000,0:09:19.776
I think you'd have to conclude,[br]if you look at the output,

0:09:19.800,0:09:21.176
who really succeeds by this,

0:09:21.200,0:09:22.976
who does everything that they should,

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

0:09:25.755,0:09:29.094
I think you'd have to conclude[br]the whole purpose of public education

0:09:29.118,0:09:30.215
throughout the world

0:09:30.239,0:09:32.192
is to produce university professors.

0:09:32.216,0:09:33.527
Isn't it?

0:09:33.551,0:09:35.534
They're the people who come out the top.

0:09:35.558,0:09:37.737
And I used to be one, so there.

0:09:37.761,0:09:40.397
(Laughter)

0:09:40.421,0:09:43.522
And I like university[br]professors, but you know,

0:09:43.546,0:09:45.021
we shouldn't hold them up

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

0:09:48.000,0:09:49.976
They're just a form of life,

0:09:50.000,0:09:51.560
another form of life.

0:09:51.584,0:09:54.882
But they're rather curious, and I say this[br]out of affection for them.

0:09:54.906,0:09:57.876
There's something curious[br]about professors in my experience --

0:09:57.900,0:10:00.576
not all of them, but typically,[br]they live in their heads.

0:10:00.600,0:10:02.743
They live up there,[br]and slightly to one side.

0:10:03.495,0:10:06.869
They're disembodied, you know,[br]in a kind of literal way.

0:10:06.893,0:10:09.986
They look upon their body as a form[br]of transport for their heads.

0:10:10.010,0:10:16.176
(Laughter)

0:10:16.200,0:10:17.216
Don't they?

0:10:17.240,0:10:19.462
It's a way of getting[br]their head to meetings.

0:10:19.486,0:10:24.998
(Laughter)

0:10:25.022,0:10:28.852
If you want real evidence[br]of out-of-body experiences,

0:10:28.876,0:10:32.362
get yourself along to a residential[br]conference of senior academics,

0:10:32.386,0:10:34.629
and pop into the discotheque[br]on the final night.

0:10:34.653,0:10:37.454
(Laughter)

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

0:10:38.858,0:10:42.976
Grown men and women[br]writhing uncontrollably, off the beat.

0:10:43.000,0:10:45.867
(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.

0:10:49.240,0:10:51.144
(Laughter)

0:10:51.168,0:10:55.011
Our education system is predicated[br]on the idea of academic ability.

0:10:55.035,0:10:56.276
And there's a reason.

0:10:56.300,0:10:59.856
Around the world, there were[br]no public systems of education,

0:10:59.880,0:11:01.986
really, before the 19th century.

0:11:02.010,0:11:04.967
They all came into being[br]to meet the needs of industrialism.

0:11:05.269,0:11:07.432
So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas.

0:11:07.456,0:11:12.053
Number one, that the most useful[br]subjects for work are at the top.

0:11:12.077,0:11:14.108
So you were[br]probably steered benignly away

0:11:14.132,0:11:17.066
from things at school when you[br]were a kid, things you liked,

0:11:17.090,0:11:20.476
on the grounds that you would[br]never get a job doing that. Is that right?

0:11:20.500,0:11:22.881
Don't do music, you're not[br]going to be a musician;

0:11:22.905,0:11:24.706
don't do art, you won't be an artist.

0:11:24.730,0:11:28.150
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,

0:11:32.464,0:11:35.349
which has really come to dominate[br]our view of intelligence,

0:11:35.373,0:11:38.276
because the universities designed[br]the system in their image.

0:11:38.300,0:11:41.794
If you think of it, the whole system[br]of public education around the world

0:11:41.818,0:11:44.044
is a protracted process[br]of university entrance.

0:11:44.068,0:11:46.401
And the consequence[br]is that many highly-talented,

0:11:46.425,0:11:48.860
brilliant, creative[br]people think they're not,

0:11:48.884,0:11:51.022
because the thing[br]they were good at at school

0:11:51.046,0:11:53.154
wasn't valued,[br]or was actually stigmatized.

0:11:53.383,0:11:55.679
And I think we can't afford[br]to go on that way.

0:11:55.703,0:11:58.167
In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO,

0:11:58.191,0:12:01.001
more people worldwide will be graduating

0:12:01.025,0:12:03.571
through education[br]than since the beginning of history.

0:12:03.595,0:12:07.276
More people, and it's the combination[br]of all the things we've talked about --

0:12:07.300,0:12:10.348
technology and its transformation[br]effect on work, and demography

0:12:10.372,0:12:12.176
and the huge explosion in population.

0:12:12.200,0:12:15.065
Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything.

0:12:15.089,0:12:16.469
Isn't that true?

0:12:16.723,0:12:19.476
When I was a student,[br]if you had a degree, you had a job.

0:12:19.500,0:12:22.276
If you didn't have a job,[br]it's because you didn't want one.

0:12:22.300,0:12:24.976
And I didn't want one, frankly. (Laughter)

0:12:25.000,0:12:29.074
But now kids with degrees

0:12:29.098,0:12:32.143
are often heading home[br]to carry on playing video games,

0:12:32.167,0:12:35.365
because you need an MA where[br]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.

0:12:39.000,0:12:41.376
And it indicates the whole[br]structure of education

0:12:41.400,0:12:42.833
is shifting beneath our feet.

0:12:42.857,0:12:45.477
We need to radically rethink[br]our view of intelligence.

0:12:45.501,0:12:47.496
We know three things about intelligence.

0:12:47.520,0:12:48.747
One, it's diverse.

0:12:48.771,0:12:51.776
We think about the world in all the ways[br]that we experience it.

0:12:51.800,0:12:54.776
We think visually, we think in sound,[br]we think kinesthetically.

0:12:54.800,0:12:57.101
We think in abstract terms,[br]we think in movement.

0:12:57.246,0:12:59.000
Secondly, intelligence is dynamic.

0:12:59.587,0:13:01.976
If you look at the interactions[br]of a human brain,

0:13:02.000,0:13:04.976
as we heard yesterday[br]from a number of presentations,

0:13:05.000,0:13:06.976
intelligence is wonderfully interactive.

0:13:07.000,0:13:09.238
The brain isn't divided into compartments.

0:13:09.873,0:13:12.976
In fact, creativity --[br]which I define as the process

0:13:13.000,0:13:15.325
of having original ideas[br]that have value --

0:13:15.349,0:13:18.001
more often than not comes about[br]through the interaction

0:13:18.025,0:13:21.025
of different disciplinary[br]ways of seeing things.

0:13:22.310,0:13:25.976
By the way, there's a shaft of nerves[br]that joins the two halves of the brain

0:13:26.000,0:13:27.491
called the corpus callosum.

0:13:27.515,0:13:28.781
It's thicker in women.

0:13:29.088,0:13:30.829
Following off from Helen yesterday,

0:13:30.853,0:13:33.976
this is probably why women[br]are better at multi-tasking.

0:13:34.000,0:13:35.817
Because you are, aren't you?

0:13:35.841,0:13:39.048
There's a raft of research,[br]but I know it from my personal life.

0:13:39.738,0:13:44.976
If my wife is cooking a meal at home --[br]which is not often, thankfully.

0:13:45.000,0:13:47.854
(Laughter)

0:13:47.878,0:13:50.376
No, she's good at some things,[br]but if she's cooking,

0:13:50.400,0:13:52.276
she's dealing with people on the phone,

0:13:52.300,0:13:54.856
she's talking to the kids,[br]she's painting the ceiling,

0:13:54.880,0:13:57.976
she's doing open-heart surgery over here.

0:13:58.000,0:14:00.976
If I'm cooking, the door[br]is shut, the kids are out,

0:14:01.000,0:14:03.976
the phone's on the hook,[br]if she comes in I get annoyed.

0:14:04.000,0:14:07.071
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,

0:14:19.745,0:14:22.998
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?

0:14:24.605,0:14:27.014
I saw a great t-shirt[br]recently, which said,

0:14:27.038,0:14:30.976
"If a man speaks his mind[br]in a forest, 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)

0:14:39.976,0:14:41.976
And the third thing about intelligence is,

0:14:42.000,0:14:43.369
it's distinct.

0:14:43.754,0:14:46.327
I'm doing a new book at the moment[br]called "Epiphany,"

0:14:46.351,0:14:48.825
which is based on a series[br]of interviews with people

0:14:48.849,0:14:50.769
about how they discovered their talent.

0:14:50.793,0:14:52.962
I'm fascinated[br]by how people got to be there.

0:14:52.986,0:14:56.176
It's really prompted by a conversation[br]I had with a wonderful woman

0:14:56.200,0:14:58.876
who maybe most people[br]have never heard of, Gillian Lynne.

0:14:58.900,0:15:00.530
Have you heard of her? Some have.

0:15:00.554,0:15:03.076
She's a choreographer,[br]and everybody knows her work.

0:15:03.100,0:15:05.101
She did "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera."

0:15:05.125,0:15:06.103
She's wonderful.

0:15:06.127,0:15:08.273
I used to be on the board[br]of The Royal Ballet,

0:15:08.297,0:15:09.498
as you can see.

0:15:09.522,0:15:11.922
Anyway, Gillian and I had[br]lunch one day and I said,

0:15:12.047,0:15:13.847
"How did you get to be a dancer?"

0:15:13.976,0:15:14.976
It was interesting.

0:15:15.000,0:15:17.350
When she was at school,[br]she was really hopeless.

0:15:17.374,0:15:20.976
And the school, in the '30s,[br]wrote to her parents and said,

0:15:21.000,0:15:23.000
"We think Gillian[br]has a learning disorder."

0:15:23.024,0:15:25.166
She couldn't concentrate;[br]she was fidgeting.

0:15:25.190,0:15:28.480
I think now they'd say she had ADHD.[br]Wouldn't you?

0:15:28.504,0:15:32.563
But this was the 1930s, and ADHD[br]hadn't been invented at this point.

0:15:32.587,0:15:34.976
It wasn't an available condition.

0:15:35.000,0:15:37.737
(Laughter)

0:15:37.761,0:15:39.821
People weren't aware they could have that.

0:15:39.845,0:15:41.979
(Laughter)

0:15:42.003,0:15:46.281
Anyway, she went to see this specialist.

0:15:46.305,0:15:50.027
So, this oak-paneled room,[br]and she was there with her mother,

0:15:50.051,0:15:52.528
and she was led and sat[br]on this chair at the end,

0:15:52.552,0:15:56.191
and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes[br]while this man talked to her mother

0:15:56.215,0:15:58.543
about the problems[br]Gillian was having at school.

0:15:58.567,0:16:02.244
Because she was disturbing people;[br]her homework was always late; and so on,

0:16:02.268,0:16:03.364
little kid of eight.

0:16:03.388,0:16:06.443
In the end, the doctor[br]went and sat next to Gillian, and said,

0:16:06.467,0:16:09.172
"I've listened to all these[br]things your mother's told me,

0:16:09.196,0:16:10.815
I need to speak to her privately.

0:16:10.839,0:16:13.215
Wait here. We'll be back;[br]we won't be very long,"

0:16:13.239,0:16:15.564
and they went and left her.

0:16:15.588,0:16:17.224
But as they went out of the room,

0:16:17.248,0:16:19.748
he turned on the radio[br]that was sitting on his desk.

0:16:20.342,0:16:23.772
And when they got out, he said to her[br]mother, "Just stand and watch her."

0:16:24.000,0:16:26.991
And the minute they left the room,

0:16:27.015,0:16:29.499
she was on her feet, moving to the music.

0:16:29.523,0:16:32.976
And they watched for a few minutes[br]and he turned to her mother and said,

0:16:33.000,0:16:36.976
"Mrs. Lynne, Gillian[br]isn't sick; she's a dancer.

0:16:37.000,0:16:38.976
Take her to a dance school."

0:16:39.000,0:16:40.976
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.

0:16:44.000,0:16:46.753
We walked in this room[br]and it was full of people like me.

0:16:46.777,0:16:48.976
People who couldn't sit still.

0:16:49.000,0:16:53.587
People who had to move to think."[br]Who had to move to think.

0:16:53.746,0:16:57.376
They did ballet, they did tap, jazz;[br]they did modern; they did contemporary.

0:16:57.400,0:17:00.220
She was eventually auditioned[br]for the Royal Ballet School;

0:17:00.244,0:17:03.543
she became a soloist; she had[br]a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet.

0:17:03.567,0:17:06.175
She eventually graduated[br]from the Royal Ballet School,

0:17:06.200,0:17:08.175
founded the Gillian Lynne Dance Company,

0:17:08.200,0:17:09.443
met Andrew Lloyd Weber.

0:17:09.568,0:17:10.977
She's been responsible for

0:17:11.001,0:17:14.147
some of the most successful[br]musical theater productions in history,

0:17:14.172,0:17:17.244
she's given pleasure to millions,[br]and she's a multi-millionaire.

0:17:17.269,0:17:21.339
Somebody else might have put her[br]on medication and told her to calm down.

0:17:21.364,0:17:28.146
(Applause)

0:17:28.575,0:17:30.176
What I think it comes to is this:

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

0:17:32.000,0:17:36.269
about ecology and the revolution[br]that was triggered by Rachel Carson.

0:17:37.111,0:17:39.277
I believe our only hope for the future

0:17:39.301,0:17:43.134
is to adopt a new conception[br]of human ecology,

0:17:43.158,0:17:45.976
one in which we start[br]to reconstitute our conception

0:17:46.000,0:17:47.976
of the richness of human capacity.

0:17:48.000,0:17:51.499
Our education system has mined our minds

0:17:51.523,0:17:54.799
in the way that we strip-mine the earth:[br]for a particular commodity.

0:17:55.188,0:17:57.672
And for the future, it won't serve us.

0:17:57.696,0:17:59.976
We have to rethink[br]the fundamental principles

0:18:00.000,0:18:01.968
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,

0:18:04.785,0:18:09.824
"If all the insects[br]were to disappear from the Earth,

0:18:09.848,0:18:12.689
within 50 years all life[br]on Earth would end.

0:18:13.688,0:18:16.760
If all human beings[br]disappeared from the Earth,

0:18:16.784,0:18:19.418
within 50 years all forms[br]of life would flourish."

0:18:20.244,0:18:21.529
And he's right.

0:18:22.291,0:18:25.925
What TED celebrates is the gift[br]of the human imagination.

0:18:26.417,0:18:28.488
We have to be careful now

0:18:28.512,0:18:30.767
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.

0:18:34.044,0:18:37.976
And the only way we'll do it is by seeing[br]our creative capacities

0:18:38.000,0:18:39.610
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,

0:18:45.262,0:18:46.746
so they can face this future.

0:18:46.770,0:18:48.976
By the way -- we may not see this future,

0:18:49.000,0:18:50.430
but they will.

0:18:50.454,0:18:53.533
And our job is to help them[br]make something of it.

0:18:53.557,0:18:54.557
Thank you very much.

0:18:54.581,0:18:57.581
(Applause)