• Creative Schools

  • The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education
  • By: Lou Aronica, Ken Robinson
  • Narrated by: Ken Robinson PhD
  • Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (633 ratings)

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Creative Schools

By: Lou Aronica, Ken Robinson
Narrated by: Ken Robinson PhD
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Publisher's summary

Ken Robinson is one of the world's most influential voices in education, and his 2006 TED Talk on the subject is the most viewed in the organization's history. Now, the internationally recognized leader on creativity and human potential focuses on one of the most critical issues of our time: how to transform the nation's troubled educational system.

At a time when standardized testing businesses are raking in huge profits, when many schools are struggling, and students and educators everywhere are suffering under the strain, Robinson points the way forward. He argues for an end to our outmoded industrial educational system and proposes a highly personalized, organic approach that draws on today's unprecedented technological and professional resources to engage all students, develop their love of learning, and enable them to face the real challenges of the 21st century.

Filled with anecdotes, case histories, and groundbreaking research, Creative Schools will inspire teachers, parents, and policy makers alike to rethink the real nature and purpose of education.

©2015 Ken Robinson (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

" Creative Schools is wonderful and enjoyable. It makes us rethink what real schooling, learning, and creativity means. (Malala Yousafzai, author of I Am Malala)
"Hearing Ken Robinson discuss his vision of a better future for education is as riveting as it is eye-opening.... This audiobook should be shared, discussed, and savored by anyone interested in the future of our schools." ( AudioFile)

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What listeners say about Creative Schools

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The Answer to Why Students Stop Trying

This book has inspired me to go into teaching and also to share what I've learned with as many people as possible. It advocates for personalizing education and respecting all skills and abilities...not just those emphasized on the tests all students are evaluated on and told to master. It's a call to action to teach people in a way that inspires rather than kills their desire to challenge themselves toward mastering a skill and exploring their interest as far as they can go. It asks us to redefine "success" on a personal level rather than as seen through the eyes of others.

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7 people found this helpful

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Expected more from this author

I really expected this book to be more engaging . I was looking forward to Ken Robinson’s intelligent humor. Instead the book is plodding and didactic. Endless lists and rants that run into each other. There’s naturally some very good information. But I found it difficult to absorb the knowledge.

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Great speaker but too conventional

Few ideas. Too vague. Talks about different programs but doesn't delve deeply into any. And he doesn't consider their lasting power and doesn't get any feedback from actually students.

He's way too interested in working within the current system. For example, he briefly talks about homeschooling. At first he positive and then for seemingly no reason, he ends that conversation with a very negative and not validated quote about homeschooling from the NEA, a group that depends on as many children as possible attending their local public schools.

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Insightful

In my opinion, the other Ken Robinson's book is better - Out of Our Minds, whether for its content or for the discussions

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Great Read for Inspiring education

Great ideas and innovative examples of schools that are using different schooling ideas. I am glad Mr. Robinson did all of the fascinating research into different schools. This books makes me want to focus on the individual student. I would recommend this book as a great inspiration for leading.

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the greatest TED talk explained in depth

this was a great book that fills the mind with hope, but also with loathing. everywhere, brilliant teaching methods are being devised, but sadly the state is still wasting its valuable resources and time promoting standardization. If you want to see what works, read this book. watch the TED talk everyone's been clamoring over, but then read this book, if you want the full in depth explanation and the positive way forward.

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True colors shine brightly

Would you try another book from Lou Aronica and Ken Robinson, PhD and/or Ken Robinson, PhD?

I would not.

Has Creative Schools turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

Any additional comments?

As an education grassroots activist fighting the shift from helping shape intelligent human beings because of their intrinsic value as individuals to being treated as cogs, human capital and profit units in the collective, Sir Ken's true colors as a European blathering academic entirely disassociated from the realities of America's greatness gleam brightly. As brilliant as he thinks he is, he does NOT understand the root cause of the educational demise we face today as he places the blame squarely on....wait for it....GEORGE BUSH and NCLB. What a colossal disappointment this book is. Please go back to Europe and meddle there and leave our kids alone. American parents do NOT want what you're peddling.

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Great Ideas - Lacks Polish

The ideas presented in this book are spot on. Ken and Lou provide plenty of anecdotal evidence to support them, but that's about the extent of the presentation. More data should have been included to strengthen their arguments. Especially since there's plenty out there.

Also, there were a few spots where Ken started to read something, stopped, and then started reading something different. This made me wonder if there was something missing or if it was a mistake that was overlooked during editing.

That said, this is an excellent book to read if you're looking for ways to improve a system of education.

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Inspired read for parents and educators alike

The late Sir Ken Robinson was truly a force for good and change in the arena of education. His passion for innovation and creativity in education is infectious and empowering. Over the years it has inspired me to exert change where I can and inspire every day. He explains that even within a system that is systemically flawed, that you can be the instrument of fostering creativity in the classroom and individualizing student learning. This ultimately has shown to inspire student engagement and create a passion for learning with students, rather than focusing on inconsequential data points from a standardized industrial approach to learning. The world is diminished with the loss of him.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Practical ideas to improve education

Constructive, workable, practical ideas for dramatically improving the education of our children. There are only two things in our way, the will to make it happen, and a combination of centralized government bureaucracy and special interests that make so much money off of our kids that they won't give up without a fight.

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