--- title: 10 Questions for Sir Ken Robinson | TIME description: The author, speaker and educator talks about the pitfalls of America's school system, how to find the perfect job, and growing up with polio canonical: https://time.com/video/vE3YyKqf/ og:title: 10 Questions for Sir Ken Robinson og:description: The author, speaker and educator talks about the pitfalls of America's school system, how to find the perfect job, and growing up with polio og:url: https://time.com/video/vE3YyKqf/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vE3YyKqf/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Sir Ken Robinson twitter:description: The author, speaker and educator talks about the pitfalls of America's school system, how to find the perfect job, and growing up with polio twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vE3YyKqf/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Sir Ken Robinson > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Sir Ken Robinson [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Sir Ken Robinson](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vE3YyKqf.m3u8) (5:25)  _Published 2013-05-29. The author, speaker and educator talks about the pitfalls of America's school system, how to find the perfect job, and growing up with polio_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:35 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [10 Questions for Teach for America's Wendy Kopp](/video/oflo3VZr/) ### 10 Questions for Teach for America's Wendy Kopp [10 Questions with Ken Burns](/video/1dCqT9oy/) ### 10 Questions with Ken Burns [10 Questions for Smokey Robinson](/video/CHoz1imh/) ### 10 Questions for Smokey Robinson --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Ken Robinson. Or, as he's known in some circles, Sir Ken, is an educator, an author, a speaker. He's got a new book called Finding Your Element. And I'm delighted to say that he's here with us today. Sir Ken, welcome. Thank you, Brenda. It's a real pleasure. I believe this passionately. That we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Your TED Talk was a kind of a grand vision on how education systems were killing children's creativity, and this book, Finding Your Element, it's more kind of self- help. Did you scale down your ambition? No, part of the argument of that TED Talk was an attempt really just to say that there are features of. Mass education which militate against individuality and, and creativity. So at the heart of my argument, for what should happen in education is the different conception of talent. And ability. And what drives people. And that's what this book is about. Explain for people who, in our way, what, what is this thing called the element? There are some people who don't enjoy the work they do at all. But I also meet people who love what they do. And they couldn't imagine doing anything else. If you said to them, why don't you try something else for a change? They wouldn't know what you meant. They'd say this isn't what I do, it's who I am. And they could be anything. They could be homemakers, they could be carers, they could be veterinarians, they could be cabinet makers, teachers, name it. If you think of any occupation, that anybody could do, or life they could lead, some people will love it. And other people couldn't bear it for five minutes. And the common expression we use for that is that they're in their element. It's, what is it that chimes so strongly with your own sense of who you are, that you feel that you're at your most natural when your doing it? So, how do we find our element? I have no idea. [ LAUGH ] Good well we're done. We're all finished. It's really a two way journey. It's an inward journey, you have to learn more about yourself. A lot of people don't know themselves very well, I think, and and I think it's, it's poss, possibly even a greater risk now, than maybe previously. Because there's so much clatter out there. There's so much distraction. There's so much so many demands on your time and attention. So part of the book is to encourage people to look inwardly, and to learn more about their talents and themselves, and what it is that that ignites their energy. It's also an outward journey. It's finding out things, more things about the world around you. Taking opportunities. What about I mean there are jobs that people just have to do. They have to be done but would not seem to be inspiring anybody's passion. My argument is not that you have to do this for a living but that you owe it to yourself. To find some point in the week or the day, in your life, where you do things that really fulfil you, that you find are speaking to you in a different way than, the things that you just have to get done. It seems to me that what you're describing should be something that we, learn at school. Like, this is what education is for. Why aren't schools doing this? Well, that, that's, my point really. That, that part of, the transformation we need in education. [ COUGH ] Is to think differently about talent. On international comparisons, the US has one of the highest non- graduation rates from high school, in the developed world despite spending more money on education than many countries. And one of the reasons is that kids at school don't find it. Engaging, interesting, fulfilling, relevant. So how do we improve that? I think we improve it by making education a much more personal process. We individualize it. I can't imagine there's a student in America who gets up in the morning wondering how they can improve the state's test scores. They are like you and me, they get involved in education if it is interesting, if it speaks to them. Is there a country that's doing it better than America, that we, that you could observe? The one that's most often quoted. And you have to be careful how you quote it, but it's worth referring to Finland. And Finland has attracted attention globally as having one of the most successful education systems. What's interesting about Finland is, they don't have any standardized testing. They don't promote competition, between the schools, they promote collaboration and cooperation between them. It's not a command and control system, head teachers have massive discretion over the school, and teachers that are respected professionals. They're paid well, it's hard to become a teacher. And they're well supported when they become teachers. At almost every point. It's definitely the way we do things in America. As a child, you were stricken with polio. How has that affected the direction that your life has moved? Completely. My father'd been a semi- professional soccer player. And he used to say to me, apparently, he's gonna be the, the football player in the family. Cuz I was very fast and strong. Then there was this polio epidemic that swept across America and Europe. I got it. So I was in the hospital for eight months, and I came out, on two braces and crutches. And my dad was quite clear about it. He never went to college. He left school when he was 14. He said it's perfectly clear he said that you're not gonna be able to make a living doing manual work. You're gonna have to use your head. So, you know, it wasn't an easy context overall, coming from. And nothing seemed less probable when I was lying in hospital in 1954, than I'd be doing what I do now. Sir Ken, thank you so much. 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