Finding One's Place in the Sun

Margaret Throsby interviewed internationally renowned British writer and foremost authority in innovation, Sir Ken Robinson, in today's ABC Classic FM Morning Interview. What follows is the gist of what Sir Robinson had to say on imagination, creativity, and finding one's calling in life.

• Imagination is an agent that brings to mind something that does not exist physically yet


• Creativity is the practical application of imagination. It produces valuable original ideas


• Everyone is born with creativity but it gets inhibited by "assembly line" education and adult misconceptions about creativity


• IQ does not test intelligence. It only reveals the ability to do IQ tests


• "People feel that if you can't count it, it doesn't count". IQ test is a product of the Victorian bias for the scientific method


• The question to ask is not how intelligent one is but how one is intelligent


• Being in one's element means doing something that one has aptitude for. Sir Robinson offered the example of a female snooker player who lost the sense of time when playing snooker


• Watch children to find out what ticks them in order to find their aptitude


• The current education system was designed along factory assembly line that churns out finished products. A more appropriate metaphor for education is gardening. Both gardening and education are organic processes that never stop


• What adults remember about their education are their teachers. Teaching is the heart of education


• To find your aptitude, do two things: (1) Spend some time with yourself. List the things you enjoy and try to find the commonality in them and (2) Try something you have always wanted to do


• It is never too late to find one's true calling in life