1 00:00:27,100 --> 00:00:31,047 Good morning. How are you? (Audience) Good. 2 00:00:31,130 --> 00:00:32,800 It's been great, hasn't it? 3 00:00:33,410 --> 00:00:35,667 I've been blown away by the whole thing. 4 00:00:35,750 --> 00:00:41,170 In fact, I'm leaving. (Laughter) 5 00:00:43,100 --> 00:00:46,607 There have been three themes running through the conference, 6 00:00:46,690 --> 00:00:48,917 which are relevant to what I want to talk about. 7 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:53,407 One is the extraordinary evidence of human creativity 8 00:00:53,490 --> 00:00:57,817 in all of the presentations that we've had and in all of the people here; 9 00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:00,560 just the variety of it and the range of it. 10 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:03,247 The second is that it's put us in a place 11 00:01:03,330 --> 00:01:07,177 where we have no idea what's going to happen in terms of the future. 12 00:01:07,260 --> 00:01:10,187 No idea how this may play out. 13 00:01:10,270 --> 00:01:11,837 I have an interest in education. 14 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:16,267 Actually, what I find is, everybody has an interest in education. 15 00:01:16,350 --> 00:01:19,037 Don't you? I find this very interesting. 16 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:23,017 If you're at a dinner party, and you say you work in education -- 17 00:01:23,100 --> 00:01:25,787 actually, you're not often at dinner parties, frankly. 18 00:01:25,870 --> 00:01:32,057 (Laughter) If you work in education, you're not asked. 19 00:01:32,140 --> 00:01:35,257 (Laughter) 20 00:01:35,340 --> 00:01:39,247 And you're never asked back, curiously. That's strange to me. 21 00:01:39,330 --> 00:01:43,287 But if you are, and you say to somebody, you know, they say, "What do you do?" 22 00:01:43,370 --> 00:01:47,077 and you say you work in education, you can see the blood run from their face. 23 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:48,777 They're like, "Oh my God. Why me?" 24 00:01:48,860 --> 00:01:52,627 (Laughter) "My one night out all week." 25 00:01:52,710 --> 00:01:58,527 (Laughter) But if you ask about their education, they pin you to the wall, 26 00:01:58,610 --> 00:02:01,957 because it's one of those things that goes deep with people, am I right? 27 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:05,477 Like religion and money and other things. 28 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:09,947 So I have a big interest in education, and I think we all do. 29 00:02:10,030 --> 00:02:11,767 We have a huge vested interest in it, 30 00:02:11,850 --> 00:02:15,107 partly because it's education that's meant to take us into this future 31 00:02:15,190 --> 00:02:17,977 that we can't grasp. If you think of it, 32 00:02:18,060 --> 00:02:24,190 children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. 33 00:02:25,270 --> 00:02:26,787 Nobody has a clue, 34 00:02:26,870 --> 00:02:30,367 despite all the expertise that's been on parade for the past four days, 35 00:02:30,450 --> 00:02:32,917 what the world will look like in five years' time. 36 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,237 And yet, we're meant to be educating them for it. 37 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:37,807 So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary. 38 00:02:37,890 --> 00:02:41,257 And the third part of this is that we've all agreed, nonetheless, 39 00:02:41,340 --> 00:02:46,587 on the really extraordinary capacities that children have -- 40 00:02:46,670 --> 00:02:48,947 their capacities for innovation. 41 00:02:49,030 --> 00:02:51,757 I mean, Sirena last night was a marvel, wasn't she? 42 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:53,457 Just seeing what she could do. 43 00:02:53,540 --> 00:02:59,027 And she's exceptional, but I think she's not, so to speak, 44 00:02:59,110 --> 00:03:01,957 exceptional in the whole of childhood. 45 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,817 What you have there is a person of extraordinary dedication 46 00:03:04,900 --> 00:03:08,617 who found a talent. And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents, 47 00:03:08,700 --> 00:03:11,037 and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly. 48 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:14,817 So I want to talk about education, and I want to talk about creativity. 49 00:03:14,900 --> 00:03:20,937 My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, 50 00:03:21,020 --> 00:03:23,747 and we should treat it with the same status. 51 00:03:23,830 --> 00:03:30,407 (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) 52 00:03:30,490 --> 00:03:32,707 That was it, by the way. Thank you very much. 53 00:03:32,790 --> 00:03:36,547 (Laughter) So, 15 minutes left. 54 00:03:36,630 --> 00:03:41,427 (Laughter) "Well, I was born... " 55 00:03:41,510 --> 00:03:47,597 (Laughter) I heard a great story recently -- I love telling it -- 56 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:49,987 of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. 57 00:03:50,070 --> 00:03:52,187 She was six, and she was at the back, drawing, 58 00:03:52,270 --> 00:03:54,977 and the teacher said this girl hardly ever paid attention, 59 00:03:55,060 --> 00:03:56,787 and in this drawing lesson, she did. 60 00:03:56,870 --> 00:03:58,147 The teacher was fascinated. 61 00:03:58,230 --> 00:04:00,957 She went over to her, and she said, "What are you drawing?" 62 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:03,540 And the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." 63 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:07,897 And the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." 64 00:04:07,980 --> 00:04:10,017 And the girl said, "They will in a minute." 65 00:04:10,100 --> 00:04:16,880 (Laughter) 66 00:04:21,660 --> 00:04:24,327 When my son was four in England -- 67 00:04:24,410 --> 00:04:26,547 actually, he was four everywhere, to be honest. 68 00:04:26,630 --> 00:04:31,727 (Laughter) If we're being strict about it, wherever he went, he was four that year. 69 00:04:31,810 --> 00:04:34,397 He was in the Nativity play. Do you remember the story? 70 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:37,487 (Laughter) No, it was big, it was a big story. 71 00:04:37,570 --> 00:04:39,817 Mel Gibson did the sequel, you may have seen it. 72 00:04:39,900 --> 00:04:42,687 (Laughter) "Nativity II." 73 00:04:42,770 --> 00:04:46,597 But James got the part of Joseph, which we were thrilled about. 74 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,527 We considered this to be one of the lead parts. 75 00:04:49,610 --> 00:04:53,477 We had the place crammed full of agents in T-shirts: "James Robinson IS Joseph!" 76 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:54,527 (Laughter) 77 00:04:54,610 --> 00:04:58,187 He didn't have to speak, but you know the bit where the three kings come in? 78 00:04:58,270 --> 00:05:00,897 They come in bearing gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. 79 00:05:00,980 --> 00:05:02,077 This really happened. 80 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:05,217 We were sitting there, and I think they just went out of sequence, 81 00:05:05,300 --> 00:05:07,817 because we talked to the little boy afterward and said, 82 00:05:07,900 --> 00:05:10,637 "You OK with that?" They said, "Yeah, why? Was that wrong?" 83 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:11,817 They just switched. 84 00:05:11,900 --> 00:05:15,147 The three boys came in, four-year-olds with tea towels on their heads. 85 00:05:15,230 --> 00:05:18,497 They put these boxes down, and the first boy said, "I bring you gold." 86 00:05:18,580 --> 00:05:20,797 And the second boy said, "I bring you myrrh." 87 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:22,897 And the third boy said, "Frank sent this." 88 00:05:22,980 --> 00:05:28,460 (Laughter) 89 00:05:35,710 --> 00:05:38,737 What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. 90 00:05:38,820 --> 00:05:42,247 If they don't know, they'll have a go. 91 00:05:42,330 --> 00:05:45,360 Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. 92 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,570 I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. 93 00:05:49,890 --> 00:05:52,917 What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, 94 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,307 you'll never come up with anything original -- 95 00:05:55,390 --> 00:05:57,917 if you're not prepared to be wrong. 96 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:02,377 And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. 97 00:06:02,460 --> 00:06:04,867 They have become frightened of being wrong. 98 00:06:04,950 --> 00:06:06,577 And we run our companies like this. 99 00:06:06,660 --> 00:06:10,587 We stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national education systems 100 00:06:10,670 --> 00:06:13,200 where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. 101 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:19,217 And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities. 102 00:06:19,300 --> 00:06:23,667 Picasso once said this, he said that all children are born artists. 103 00:06:23,750 --> 00:06:26,917 The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. 104 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:31,897 I believe this passionately, that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. 105 00:06:31,980 --> 00:06:33,860 Or rather, we get educated out of it. 106 00:06:34,610 --> 00:06:36,510 So why is this? 107 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:39,847 I lived in Stratford-on-Avon until about five years ago. 108 00:06:39,930 --> 00:06:42,330 In fact, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles. 109 00:06:42,910 --> 00:06:45,477 So you can imagine what a seamless transition this was. 110 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:49,317 (Laughter) Actually, we lived in a place called Snitterfield, 111 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:53,247 just outside Stratford, which is where Shakespeare's father was born. 112 00:06:53,330 --> 00:06:55,397 Are you struck by a new thought? I was. 113 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:58,017 You don't think of Shakespeare having a father, do you? 114 00:06:58,100 --> 00:07:02,327 Do you? Because you don't think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? 115 00:07:02,410 --> 00:07:04,817 Shakespeare being seven? I never thought of it. 116 00:07:04,900 --> 00:07:06,537 I mean, he was seven at some point. 117 00:07:06,620 --> 00:07:08,827 He was in somebody's English class, wasn't he? 118 00:07:08,910 --> 00:07:15,637 (Laughter) 119 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:20,070 How annoying would that be? (Laughter) 120 00:07:24,940 --> 00:07:29,700 "Must try harder." (Laughter) 121 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:33,477 Being sent to bed by his dad, to Shakespeare, "Go to bed, now!" 122 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:35,957 To William Shakespeare. "And put the pencil down!" 123 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:38,557 (Laughter) "And stop speaking like that." 124 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:43,507 (Laughter) "It's confusing everybody." 125 00:07:43,590 --> 00:07:48,807 (Laughter) 126 00:07:48,890 --> 00:07:54,017 Anyway, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles, 127 00:07:54,100 --> 00:07:56,517 and I just want to say a word about the transition. 128 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:58,337 Actually, my son didn't want to come. 129 00:07:58,420 --> 00:08:00,757 I've got two kids; he's 21 now, my daughter's 16. 130 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:02,987 He didn't want to come to Los Angeles. 131 00:08:03,070 --> 00:08:06,797 He loved it, but he had a girlfriend in England. 132 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:09,677 This was the love of his life, Sarah. 133 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:12,447 He'd known her for a month. (Laughter) 134 00:08:12,530 --> 00:08:15,757 Mind you, they'd had their fourth anniversary, 135 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:17,717 because it's a long time when you're 16. 136 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:19,377 He was really upset on the plane. 137 00:08:19,460 --> 00:08:21,807 He said, "I'll never find another girl like Sarah." 138 00:08:21,890 --> 00:08:28,460 And we were rather pleased about that, frankly -- (Laughter) 139 00:08:32,430 --> 00:08:35,317 because she was the main reason we were leaving the country. 140 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:38,400 (Laughter) 141 00:08:41,140 --> 00:08:44,837 But something strikes you when you move to America and travel around the world: 142 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:48,507 every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. 143 00:08:48,590 --> 00:08:50,437 Every one. Doesn't matter where you go. 144 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:52,727 You'd think it would be otherwise, but it isn't. 145 00:08:52,810 --> 00:08:55,737 At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities. 146 00:08:55,820 --> 00:08:58,047 At the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on earth. 147 00:08:58,130 --> 00:09:02,437 And in pretty much every system, too, there's a hierarchy within the arts. 148 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:06,767 Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. 149 00:09:06,850 --> 00:09:08,897 There isn't an education system on the planet 150 00:09:08,980 --> 00:09:12,517 that teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics. 151 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:16,507 Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. 152 00:09:16,590 --> 00:09:18,797 I think math is very important, but so is dance. 153 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:21,697 Children dance all the time if they're allowed to, we all do. 154 00:09:21,780 --> 00:09:24,177 We all have bodies, don't we? Did I miss a meeting? 155 00:09:24,260 --> 00:09:29,907 (Laughter) Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, 156 00:09:29,990 --> 00:09:32,647 we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. 157 00:09:32,730 --> 00:09:34,297 And then we focus on their heads. 158 00:09:34,380 --> 00:09:35,870 And slightly to one side. 159 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:42,057 If you were to visit education as an alien and say "What's it for, public education?" 160 00:09:42,140 --> 00:09:44,807 I think you'd have to conclude, if you look at the output, 161 00:09:44,890 --> 00:09:47,917 who really succeeds by this, who does everything they should, 162 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:50,667 who gets all the brownie points, who are the winners -- 163 00:09:50,750 --> 00:09:53,937 I think you'd have to conclude the whole purpose of public education 164 00:09:54,020 --> 00:09:57,220 throughout the world is to produce university professors. 165 00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:00,837 Isn't it? They're the people who come out the top. 166 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:02,677 And I used to be one, so there. 167 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:08,027 (Laughter) And I like university professors, 168 00:10:08,110 --> 00:10:09,957 but, you know, we shouldn't hold them up 169 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:12,917 as the high-water mark of all human achievement. 170 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:16,497 They're just a form of life. Another form of life. 171 00:10:16,580 --> 00:10:19,907 But they're rather curious. And I say this out of affection for them: 172 00:10:19,990 --> 00:10:22,007 there's something curious about professors. 173 00:10:22,090 --> 00:10:25,777 In my experience -- not all of them, but typically -- they live in their heads. 174 00:10:25,860 --> 00:10:28,060 They live up there and slightly to one side. 175 00:10:28,500 --> 00:10:31,877 They're disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. 176 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:35,047 They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads. 177 00:10:35,130 --> 00:10:41,117 (Laughter) 178 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:44,687 Don't they? It's a way of getting their head to meetings. 179 00:10:44,770 --> 00:10:49,937 (Laughter) 180 00:10:50,020 --> 00:10:53,887 If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, 181 00:10:53,970 --> 00:10:57,387 get yourself along to a residential conference of senior academics 182 00:10:57,470 --> 00:10:59,757 and pop into the discotheque on the final night. 183 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:03,777 (Laughter) And there, you will see it. 184 00:11:03,860 --> 00:11:08,297 Grown men and women writhing uncontrollably, off the beat. 185 00:11:08,380 --> 00:11:14,157 (Laughter) Waiting until it ends, so they can go home and write a paper about it. 186 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,167 (Laughter) 187 00:11:16,250 --> 00:11:20,047 Our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. 188 00:11:20,130 --> 00:11:24,897 And there's a reason. Around the world, there were no public systems of education, 189 00:11:24,980 --> 00:11:27,027 really, before the 19th century. 190 00:11:27,110 --> 00:11:30,297 They all came into being to meet the needs of industrialism. 191 00:11:30,380 --> 00:11:32,377 So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas. 192 00:11:32,460 --> 00:11:36,957 Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are at the top. 193 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:41,187 So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, 194 00:11:41,270 --> 00:11:44,837 things you liked, on the grounds you would never get a job doing that. 195 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:48,447 Is that right? "Don't do music, you're not going to be a musician; 196 00:11:48,530 --> 00:11:50,317 don't do art, you won't be an artist." 197 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:53,087 Benign advice -- now, profoundly mistaken. 198 00:11:53,170 --> 00:11:55,257 The whole world is engulfed in a revolution. 199 00:11:55,340 --> 00:11:57,377 And the second is academic ability, 200 00:11:57,460 --> 00:12:00,227 which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, 201 00:12:00,310 --> 00:12:02,987 because the universities design the system in their image. 202 00:12:03,070 --> 00:12:04,167 If you think of it, 203 00:12:04,250 --> 00:12:07,847 the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process 204 00:12:07,930 --> 00:12:11,337 of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly talented, 205 00:12:11,420 --> 00:12:13,887 brilliant, creative people think they're not, 206 00:12:13,970 --> 00:12:16,037 because the thing they were good at at school 207 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:18,367 wasn't valued, or was actually stigmatized. 208 00:12:18,450 --> 00:12:20,617 And I think we can't afford to go on that way. 209 00:12:20,700 --> 00:12:22,927 In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, 210 00:12:23,010 --> 00:12:26,357 more people worldwide will be graduating through education 211 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:28,577 than since the beginning of history. 212 00:12:28,660 --> 00:12:32,707 More people. And it's the combination of all the things we've talked about: 213 00:12:32,790 --> 00:12:35,127 technology and its transformational effect on work, 214 00:12:35,210 --> 00:12:37,627 and demography and the huge explosion in population. 215 00:12:37,710 --> 00:12:40,087 Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything. 216 00:12:40,170 --> 00:12:44,797 Isn't that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. 217 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:47,617 If you didn't have a job, it's because you didn't want one. 218 00:12:47,700 --> 00:12:49,967 And I didn't want one, frankly. 219 00:12:50,050 --> 00:12:55,417 (Laughter) But now kids with degrees are often heading home 220 00:12:55,500 --> 00:12:57,237 to carry on playing video games, 221 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:00,307 because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA, 222 00:13:00,390 --> 00:13:02,117 and now you need a PhD for the other. 223 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:03,917 It's a process of academic inflation. 224 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,697 And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. 225 00:13:07,780 --> 00:13:10,267 We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence. 226 00:13:10,350 --> 00:13:12,207 We know three things about intelligence. 227 00:13:12,290 --> 00:13:13,387 One, it's diverse. 228 00:13:13,470 --> 00:13:16,387 We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. 229 00:13:16,470 --> 00:13:19,397 We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically. 230 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:21,737 We think in abstract terms, we think in movement. 231 00:13:21,820 --> 00:13:23,820 Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. 232 00:13:24,670 --> 00:13:26,917 If you look at the interactions of a human brain, 233 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,967 as we heard yesterday from a number of presentations, 234 00:13:30,050 --> 00:13:32,147 intelligence is wonderfully interactive. 235 00:13:32,230 --> 00:13:34,470 The brain isn't divided into compartments. 236 00:13:34,870 --> 00:13:36,387 In fact, creativity -- 237 00:13:36,470 --> 00:13:40,427 which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value -- 238 00:13:40,510 --> 00:13:42,387 more often than not comes about 239 00:13:42,470 --> 00:13:46,070 through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things. 240 00:13:47,470 --> 00:13:51,047 By the way, there's a shaft of nerves that joins the two halves of the brain, 241 00:13:51,130 --> 00:13:53,670 called the corpus callosum. It's thicker in women. 242 00:13:54,470 --> 00:13:56,137 Following off from Helen yesterday, 243 00:13:56,220 --> 00:13:59,167 this is probably why women are better at multitasking. 244 00:13:59,250 --> 00:14:01,017 Because you are, aren't you? 245 00:14:01,100 --> 00:14:04,440 There's a raft of research, but I know it from my personal life. 246 00:14:04,870 --> 00:14:07,820 If my wife is cooking a meal at home, which is not often... 247 00:14:09,220 --> 00:14:14,517 thankfully. (Laughter) No, she's good at some things. 248 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:17,437 But if she's cooking, she's dealing with people on the phone, 249 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:21,147 she's talking to the kids, she's painting the ceiling -- (Laughter) 250 00:14:21,230 --> 00:14:23,197 she's doing open-heart surgery over here. 251 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:27,487 If I'm cooking, the door is shut, the kids are out, the phone's on the hook, 252 00:14:27,570 --> 00:14:29,197 if she comes in, I get annoyed. 253 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,017 I say, "Terry, please, I'm trying to fry an egg in here." 254 00:14:32,100 --> 00:14:38,830 (Laughter) 255 00:14:39,250 --> 00:14:44,667 "Give me a break." (Laughter) Actually, do you know that old philosophical thing, 256 00:14:44,750 --> 00:14:48,167 "If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it, did it happen?" 257 00:14:48,250 --> 00:14:52,457 Remember that old chestnut? I saw a great T-shirt recently, which said, 258 00:14:52,540 --> 00:14:57,337 "If a man speaks his mind in a forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?" 259 00:14:57,420 --> 00:15:03,030 (Laughter) 260 00:15:05,090 --> 00:15:08,520 And the third thing about intelligence is, it's distinct. 261 00:15:09,110 --> 00:15:11,557 I'm doing a new book at the moment called "Epiphany," 262 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:14,027 which is based on a series of interviews with people 263 00:15:14,110 --> 00:15:15,917 about how they discovered their talent. 264 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:18,057 I'm fascinated by how people got to be there. 265 00:15:18,140 --> 00:15:21,277 It's really prompted by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman 266 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:23,977 who maybe most people have never heard of, Gillian Lynne. 267 00:15:24,060 --> 00:15:25,597 Have you heard of her? Some have. 268 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:28,067 She's a choreographer, and everybody knows her work. 269 00:15:28,150 --> 00:15:30,107 She did "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera." 270 00:15:30,190 --> 00:15:34,257 She's wonderful. I used to be on the board of The Royal Ballet, as you can see. 271 00:15:34,340 --> 00:15:36,207 (Laughter) 272 00:15:36,290 --> 00:15:39,757 Gillian and I had lunch one day. I said, "How did you get to be a dancer?" 273 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,207 It was interesting. When she was at school, she was really hopeless. 274 00:15:43,290 --> 00:15:46,017 And the school, in the '30s, wrote to her parents and said, 275 00:15:46,100 --> 00:15:48,077 "We think Gillian has a learning disorder." 276 00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:50,197 She couldn't concentrate; she was fidgeting. 277 00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:52,097 I think now they'd say she had ADHD. 278 00:15:52,180 --> 00:15:57,627 Wouldn't you? But this was the 1930s, and ADHD hadn't been invented at this point. 279 00:15:57,710 --> 00:15:59,687 It wasn't an available condition. 280 00:15:59,770 --> 00:16:04,987 (Laughter) People weren't aware they could have that. 281 00:16:05,070 --> 00:16:11,637 (Laughter) Anyway, she went to see this specialist. 282 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:15,367 So, this oak-paneled room, and she was there with her mother, 283 00:16:15,450 --> 00:16:17,717 and she was led and sat on this chair at the end, 284 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:21,397 and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes, while this man talked to her mother 285 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:23,887 about all the problems Gillian was having at school, 286 00:16:23,970 --> 00:16:27,457 because she was disturbing people, her homework was always late, and so on. 287 00:16:27,540 --> 00:16:28,637 Little kid of eight. 288 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:31,567 In the end, the doctor went and sat next to Gillian and said, 289 00:16:31,650 --> 00:16:34,307 "I've listened to all these things your mother's told me. 290 00:16:34,390 --> 00:16:35,917 I need to speak to her privately. 291 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,937 Wait here. We'll be back. We won't be very long," and they went and left her. 292 00:16:41,020 --> 00:16:42,597 But as they went out of the room, 293 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:45,477 he turned on the radio that was sitting on his desk. 294 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:49,547 And when they got out of the room, he said to her mother, "Just stand and watch her." 295 00:16:49,630 --> 00:16:54,697 And the minute they left the room, she was on her feet, moving to the music. 296 00:16:54,780 --> 00:16:58,227 And they watched for a few minutes, and he turned to her mother and said, 297 00:16:58,310 --> 00:17:00,227 "Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick. 298 00:17:00,310 --> 00:17:01,980 She's a dancer. 299 00:17:03,340 --> 00:17:05,917 Take her to a dance school." I said, "What happened?" 300 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,917 She said, "She did. I can't tell you how wonderful it was. 301 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,767 We walked in this room, and it was full of people like me -- 302 00:17:11,850 --> 00:17:16,947 people who couldn't sit still, people who had to move to think." 303 00:17:17,030 --> 00:17:18,807 Who had to move to think. 304 00:17:18,890 --> 00:17:22,437 They did ballet, they did tap, jazz; they did modern; they did contemporary. 305 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:25,207 She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School. 306 00:17:25,290 --> 00:17:28,487 She became a soloist; she had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet. 307 00:17:28,570 --> 00:17:31,067 She eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School, 308 00:17:31,150 --> 00:17:34,277 founded the Gillian Lynne Dance Company, met Andrew Lloyd Webber. 309 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:35,597 She's been responsible for 310 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,767 some of the most successful musical theater productions in history, 311 00:17:38,850 --> 00:17:41,817 she's given pleasure to millions, and she's a multimillionaire. 312 00:17:41,900 --> 00:17:45,557 Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down. 313 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:52,420 (Applause) 314 00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:56,917 What I think it comes to is this: Al Gore spoke the other night 315 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:01,520 about ecology and the revolution that was triggered by Rachel Carson. 316 00:18:02,260 --> 00:18:04,307 I believe our only hope for the future 317 00:18:04,390 --> 00:18:08,207 is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, 318 00:18:08,290 --> 00:18:10,757 one in which we start to reconstitute our conception 319 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:13,047 of the richness of human capacity. 320 00:18:13,130 --> 00:18:16,437 Our education system has mined our minds 321 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:19,960 in the way that we strip-mine the earth for a particular commodity. 322 00:18:20,380 --> 00:18:22,737 And for the future, it won't serve us. 323 00:18:22,820 --> 00:18:24,917 We have to rethink the fundamental principles 324 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,007 on which we're educating our children. 325 00:18:27,090 --> 00:18:29,707 There was a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk, who said, 326 00:18:29,790 --> 00:18:34,827 "If all the insects were to disappear from the Earth, 327 00:18:34,910 --> 00:18:37,690 within 50 years, all life on Earth would end. 328 00:18:38,770 --> 00:18:41,747 If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, 329 00:18:41,830 --> 00:18:44,460 within 50 years, all forms of life would flourish." 330 00:18:45,380 --> 00:18:46,660 And he's right. 331 00:18:47,390 --> 00:18:51,120 What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. 332 00:18:51,530 --> 00:18:55,707 We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely, 333 00:18:55,790 --> 00:18:58,957 and that we avert some of the scenarios that we've talked about. 334 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:02,737 And the only way we'll do it is by seeing our creative capacities 335 00:19:02,820 --> 00:19:07,757 for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. 336 00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,617 And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. 337 00:19:11,700 --> 00:19:15,737 By the way -- we may not see this future, but they will. 338 00:19:15,820 --> 00:19:18,477 And our job is to help them make something of it. 339 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:25,210 Thank you very much. (Applause)