Can anybody tell me the title of the radio 4 program on creativity in education?

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

It was, I hear, about the importance of creativity, including the quote that primary children should do 'as many hours dancing as maths'! I really wanted to listen ... But somehow missed it.

I didn't hear the programme, but it reminded me of something Ken Robinson has said. I googled and sure enough: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04d4nvv

If you want to hear more of his ideas on education, you can watch some of his lectures on Ted Talks.

It's The Educators with Sarah Montague, it's a series and the first inerviewee was indeed Ken Robinson.

It's on on Wdnesday at 4pm.

Thank you! Now that I know who it was, may I share m.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Can't do links on my iPad, but do watch it...

Oooo ... Maybe I can!

Ken Robinson is the guy who gushes about how clever he was to leave Britain in late 1980s (neatly maximising his capital gains before the house price crash) and then he gushes on about how marvellous living in America was (and is).

Since I am American but don't like the American lifestyle, I could tell from those details that we didn't have much in common. And that's before I listened to his poorly evidenced and very sweeping claims about everything educational. This is the guy who argues that schools teaching basket weaving is probably as valuable as them teaching arithmetic.

He must have some good ideas, but his style annoys me so much I can't take it in.

I listened to the interview with him and thought it made a lot of sense ... the fact that the chase after basically meaningless statistics is completely overshadowing the needs of children and, in some cases, being counterproductive and doing damage. As a teacher, I disliked the system; as a parent I am now appalled and angry.

okay, so I went back to my bullet points, when I managed to strip out all of his annoying personality & got to his simple core ideas. (That was insanely hard work).

I guess I wonder how would the education system be accountable without some form of standardised testing. Would most people really be comfortable with no grades or tracking as reassurance.

How does creative exploring innovative multi-sensory education that boosts self-esteem also justify taxpayer's money being spent on it? How do you tell if you've successfully boosted self-esteem of you don't measure it? And if you can't measure efficacy, how can you be sure any strategy was ever a good one. I've heard mixed statements about whether Finland achieves some of this, for instance.

I'm told KR is super happy to answer tweets so maybe someone could ask him how it works in practice.

That would be interesting ...
I agree that we need some kind of standardised testing, but the testing has become an end to itself, and is the main focus of the school year. Most teacher time and mental energy is spent on 'raising standards', which sounds great, until you realise that it is actually all focussed on the number on the score card, achieved by any means. Whether the child actually understands or values the 'achievement' measured, is beside the point.
Children miss out on a broad education to spend time being tutored in the very narrow areas which are tested. Many miss out on the 'less important' elements of school life, such as PE, other languages, art, music, etc, to spend time going over and over maths facts and spellings. This is terribly demotivating for children who might actually enjoy or do well in these other areas.
When the year 6 SATs results come back, we are well aware who miraculously scraped a level 4 but really has no idea what they are doing, because they have simply been trained in a skill which they cannot independently apply. Those children might well have excelled at dance, DT or French, but they will never have the chance to find out. By the time they have finished their primary career, they already know that they are 'no good at anything' (Quote from year 6 child who did get her level 4s).
I think if your own child excels in this narrow academic field (as I did when I was at school), you may not see the negative effects of the system. If your child is physical and creative but not academic, the system suddenly looks very different. This is where I am at the moment.

I believe one of the main problems is that in this country we over value academic and text book exam achievements and under value practical skills.

Definitely. I used to live in Germany, where practical skills are far more valued and that has done their economy and society no harm at all!
I have taught children who really struggled academically, but excelled at DT, for example, yet felt total failures. Not everyone can be good in the same narrow field and a huge amount of potential is wasted.