Best of the Web: Vale Sir Ken Robinson – and that one talk that inspired us

(Oliver Friedman, Ted Blog)

The world has lost a giant with the passing of Sir Ken Robinson, one of our leading thinkers on creativity and innovation. Sir Ken’s clarion call was encouraging creativity among children, encapsulated in this 2006 Ted Talk in California, above.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?, writes the author, ‘was a masterclass in public speaking – 19 minutes that sparkled with wit, deep thinking and a fearless confidence in human potential.’

Sir Ken’s message was that school systems were educating children to be good workers, rather than creative thinkers.

It was one of the first TED Talks published online, and has been viewed more than 65 million times since, making it the most watched TED Talk of all time.

Vale, Sir Ken.

The Royal Children’s Hospital is encouraging younger kids to keep up healthy habits during lockdown, with a fun challenge on its RCH TV channel with puppet characters Jazz and Rocco.

The idea is based around five challenges for every day: Move and Groove, Munching and Crunching Good Food, Being Screen Smart, Stay in Touch, and Get Enough Sleep.

You’ll also find a downloadable Healthy Habits Challenge chart so kids can mark off their progress, and colour in the Champions Badge when they get to the end of the week, as well as hashtags for sharing on social media.

(Linda Morris, The Age)

Increasing numbers of parents are valuing the importance of the arts in their children’s education, according to new research from the Australia Council for the Arts.

The research shows that growing numbers value the arts for its role in building social cohesion, personal happiness, overcoming stress and anxiety, as well as contributing to economic growth.

The survey of 9000 found that 63 per cent of parents believe the arts is crucial to childhood development and education – a increase of 13 per cent from the last survey four years ago.

And 74 per cent of all respondents wanted arts learning to be a spending priority.

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