In this Ted talk from 2006, Ken Robinson questions the way our schools are being run. He argues that we are squandering the wealth of creativity that our children have in abundance.

I used to believe that music and the arts were merely extracurricular activities. I felt they had value I thought they were not as important as math, english, and science. Then I read the book Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change by Maxine Greene and it completely changed my view. In fact, that book helped inspire me to start ArgusFest. In it Greene argues that music and the arts are vital in education. That in order to heal the many social and environmental ills we now face we must first be able to imagine solutions. We must imagine a better world before we can create it. I know, it sounds like a no-brainer but I didn’t really make the connection at the time. I didn’t think about the fact that music and art exercise our imagination skills, which are so crucial in problem solving. And we sure have a lot of problems to solve.

So, if you like this talk by Ken Robinson then you will also like Releasing the Imagination.