This presentation by Sir Ken Robinson was among the first six TED Talks to be released online in 2006, and at the time of his death in 2020, it remained the most-viewed talk of all time, having been seen more than 65 million times. As I moved deeper into education, much of what he taught became the bedrock of my philosophy and practice. Seventeen years later, we’ve gained some ground, but we still have a long way to go.

The reality of it struck me hard one day when I substituted in a sixth-grade classroom. The “language arts” unit (at least we’re calling language art these days) was an exciting assignment. We read a true short story that ended with an unsolved mystery. The students were then challenged to write the solution. The possibilities to this writer seemed endless.

Amid the groans and whining, one student explained, “Mr. Boomsma, we’re just not creative.” How does a twelve-year-old reach that conclusion?