Just when you are despairing of education, feeling that the Gradgrinds have have finally strangled all traces of originality, and thinking that Sir Michael Wilshaw makes Chris Woodhead look unexpectedly and comparatively sane, suddenly Ken Robinson, Sir Ken Robinson, pops up on Desert Island Discs on R4.
What a treat !
Not the programme. The man. God love him, the man.
I was in my shed amusing myself with a recalcitrant table and flicked on the radio in a not-too-hopeful mood. And there he was. Sir K. Chuckling, clever, funny, moving, determined, and a wonderful story teller to boot. (To boot ? Laters.)
If you haven't come across Sir K, you could start with his wonderful report to the early Blair government, All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. Needless to say, the report, though welcomed by teachers everywhere, fell into a governmental black hole and was never mentioned in polite circles. At a time when the whole experience of school,was beginning to be poisoned by targets and an obsession with what could be measured, it was no big surprise that a voice for Creativity should be stifled.
Better still, try his TED talks on YouTube, and join the millions inspired by them.
Most heroes are dead. This one isn't.
His isn't the voice of education, but the warm voice of humanity singing to itself softly by a camp-fire in some happily un-inspected corner of the landscape.
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