(no subject)
So, what has my education lead up to so far? Well, here is a speech. I wrote the analysis below in 45 minutes. Judge for yourselves.
Speech Analysis Essay
In his TED speech in February 2006, about how Schools kill Creativity, speaker Ken Robinson, himself a former university professor, delivers his contention about how schools should be more open to support creativity in children, and how we stem that creativity by supporting current rigid, formal, educational systems in which we prioritize the mental arts such as mathematics and language, while not supporting enough the bodily arts such as dance, theater, and drama.
Robinson delivers his message expertly by the use of humor, examples and a razor sharp wit. This could have been a stunningly unclear speech, yet Robinson manages to masterfully avoid this as his message does not drown in the examples or humor; instead it becomes a dynamic, harmonious blend, which captures the audience’s interest, and never let’s go. Likely, this is a great step away from the norm of speeches the educational based audience at the TED has heard. His speech is delivered late in the conference, when the audience has heard many different speeches, with a large range of topics, and he has clearly taken that into account. This is shown by his introduction, where he brings up examples about what he has seen during the conference so far. Not only is this a good way to show that Robinson has been present and alert, he also lays the foundation of building an early rapport with his audience.
Included in developing this rapport, are several humorous stories he brings up early on. The stories serve multiple goals; they relax the audience, making them comfortable, and thus more susceptible and favorable towards Robinson, the stories share a common theme - creativity in children - and helps Robinson to early on to drive in his thesis, already stated before the stories, which was that “…all kids have tremendous talents…” (par. 3) and that “…we squander them, pretty ruthlessly” (par. 3). Throughout his speech, Robinson relies heavily on stories as examples on how we stem children’s creativity. Most are spot on, with one or two exceptions that feel somewhat misplaced in there. At the same time, it must be stated that his weakest example, which would be of Robinson and his family moving from Stratford-on-Avon to Los Angeles, still fits its purpose, which is to build a bridge toward the remaining parts of his speech. While this is quite a paradox, it shows how masterfully Robinson works his speech, and how well coordinated it is; that his weakest part has nothing to do with his speech, yet still fits completely into it. Robinson’s heavy reliance on humor throughout his speech, both in order to drive in points, as well as to lighten up a very heavy subject, works well in all aspects.
Robinson develops his contention within this subject early on. He feels that “…creativity now is as important in education as literacy…” (par. 3) and continues by stating that “…we should treat it with the same status” (par. 3). A major part of his examples show children who takes chances, and develops a free creativity. Robinson weaves this in with stories of how rigid educational systems worldwide closes down this window of imagination, how, by going through the system, the children have “…become frightened of being wrong” (par. 6). Robinson moves on to state that the same educational hierarchy exist world-wide, that in “…the bottom are the arts” (par. 9).
Robinson follows up by drawing on powerful statistics, backed by UNESCO facts, about how, in the near future, individuals will need more and more education in order to secure a job, something Robinson calls a “…process of academic inflation”.
Robinson moves on to explain how this can be developed to support, instead of hinder, the purpose of education. His belief is that the educational systems of today need to “…rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children” (par. 18). Robinson’s solution is to develop a more solid educational basis, one which takes into account not only the current forms, but also includes arts, in order to educate the whole being of the child so they are better prepared to face the future. In stating this he skillfully ties back to the introductional part of his speech, in which he drew upon his though that no one knows how the future looks, and how can it therefore be expected of educators to teach for the future, using the same rigid educational system which, Robinson felt, is now quickly becoming outdated.
As a whole, Ken Robinson delivers a masterful and powerful speech. He quickly builds a strong rapport with his audience while delivering a humorous start. As he moves into the more serious areas of his topic, that of how the school system must change to support children’s creativity instead of repressing it, he weaves in humor. This allows the audience to draw upon the early part of his speech, with its humor, and feel connected even more in Robinson’s message. As Robinson rounds up his speech, he delivers a powerful example of a ballet dancer who was allowed to develop her creativity and thus blossomed, but it was very close that this never happened (par. 17). This last example leaves a powerful subliminal message of how allowing creativity to come to life, may alter life in a positive way. With the audience being mainly within the field of education, Robinson position his audience in a place for thoughts, and shows them that with attainable changes, anything is possible. Ken Robinson’s speech is presented in a respectful, subliminal way, yet delivers a strong message that cannot be mistaken, nor ignored. He presents a hopeful vision of the future, a future where the older generation is obligated to support the younger, and help them reach their full potential.
Speech Analysis Essay
In his TED speech in February 2006, about how Schools kill Creativity, speaker Ken Robinson, himself a former university professor, delivers his contention about how schools should be more open to support creativity in children, and how we stem that creativity by supporting current rigid, formal, educational systems in which we prioritize the mental arts such as mathematics and language, while not supporting enough the bodily arts such as dance, theater, and drama.
Robinson delivers his message expertly by the use of humor, examples and a razor sharp wit. This could have been a stunningly unclear speech, yet Robinson manages to masterfully avoid this as his message does not drown in the examples or humor; instead it becomes a dynamic, harmonious blend, which captures the audience’s interest, and never let’s go. Likely, this is a great step away from the norm of speeches the educational based audience at the TED has heard. His speech is delivered late in the conference, when the audience has heard many different speeches, with a large range of topics, and he has clearly taken that into account. This is shown by his introduction, where he brings up examples about what he has seen during the conference so far. Not only is this a good way to show that Robinson has been present and alert, he also lays the foundation of building an early rapport with his audience.
Included in developing this rapport, are several humorous stories he brings up early on. The stories serve multiple goals; they relax the audience, making them comfortable, and thus more susceptible and favorable towards Robinson, the stories share a common theme - creativity in children - and helps Robinson to early on to drive in his thesis, already stated before the stories, which was that “…all kids have tremendous talents…” (par. 3) and that “…we squander them, pretty ruthlessly” (par. 3). Throughout his speech, Robinson relies heavily on stories as examples on how we stem children’s creativity. Most are spot on, with one or two exceptions that feel somewhat misplaced in there. At the same time, it must be stated that his weakest example, which would be of Robinson and his family moving from Stratford-on-Avon to Los Angeles, still fits its purpose, which is to build a bridge toward the remaining parts of his speech. While this is quite a paradox, it shows how masterfully Robinson works his speech, and how well coordinated it is; that his weakest part has nothing to do with his speech, yet still fits completely into it. Robinson’s heavy reliance on humor throughout his speech, both in order to drive in points, as well as to lighten up a very heavy subject, works well in all aspects.
Robinson develops his contention within this subject early on. He feels that “…creativity now is as important in education as literacy…” (par. 3) and continues by stating that “…we should treat it with the same status” (par. 3). A major part of his examples show children who takes chances, and develops a free creativity. Robinson weaves this in with stories of how rigid educational systems worldwide closes down this window of imagination, how, by going through the system, the children have “…become frightened of being wrong” (par. 6). Robinson moves on to state that the same educational hierarchy exist world-wide, that in “…the bottom are the arts” (par. 9).
Robinson follows up by drawing on powerful statistics, backed by UNESCO facts, about how, in the near future, individuals will need more and more education in order to secure a job, something Robinson calls a “…process of academic inflation”.
Robinson moves on to explain how this can be developed to support, instead of hinder, the purpose of education. His belief is that the educational systems of today need to “…rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children” (par. 18). Robinson’s solution is to develop a more solid educational basis, one which takes into account not only the current forms, but also includes arts, in order to educate the whole being of the child so they are better prepared to face the future. In stating this he skillfully ties back to the introductional part of his speech, in which he drew upon his though that no one knows how the future looks, and how can it therefore be expected of educators to teach for the future, using the same rigid educational system which, Robinson felt, is now quickly becoming outdated.
As a whole, Ken Robinson delivers a masterful and powerful speech. He quickly builds a strong rapport with his audience while delivering a humorous start. As he moves into the more serious areas of his topic, that of how the school system must change to support children’s creativity instead of repressing it, he weaves in humor. This allows the audience to draw upon the early part of his speech, with its humor, and feel connected even more in Robinson’s message. As Robinson rounds up his speech, he delivers a powerful example of a ballet dancer who was allowed to develop her creativity and thus blossomed, but it was very close that this never happened (par. 17). This last example leaves a powerful subliminal message of how allowing creativity to come to life, may alter life in a positive way. With the audience being mainly within the field of education, Robinson position his audience in a place for thoughts, and shows them that with attainable changes, anything is possible. Ken Robinson’s speech is presented in a respectful, subliminal way, yet delivers a strong message that cannot be mistaken, nor ignored. He presents a hopeful vision of the future, a future where the older generation is obligated to support the younger, and help them reach their full potential.