The Future of Human Intelligence: Education, AI, & Creativity | Sir Ken Robinson (Full Keynote)

I taught phonics in a Thai school for 13 years and was fired for refusing to stop and instead teach the alphabet. Why? Because a new old woman in charge who spoke poor English insisted, stating she had learnt ABC and what did I think I was doing? Sir ken, spent his life working on changing an outdated system, I like to think I follow in his footsteps as I travel around Thailand continuing to teach phonetics.

Correlation or causation? The college educated "Boomer generation" were of an age that they were in charge of the companies that preferred profits over creating space for the younger generations... Does the term "ladder puller" apply here??

Fearing Sarah Palin getting Donald Trump

The real problem holding so many people back isn’t a lack of raw talent or natural ability. Far too often, it’s the gatekeepers—the self-appointed guardians of success who decide who gets to shine and who gets left in the shadows.

These gatekeepers come in all forms: industry insiders, critics, executives, influencers, and even well-meaning mentors who claim to know exactly what “works” and what doesn’t. They build invisible walls around opportunities, controlling access to platforms, funding, audiences, and recognition. They set arbitrary rules, enforce trends, and quietly (or not so quietly) push out voices that don’t fit their narrow vision of what’s acceptable or marketable.

The painful truth is that countless individuals with genuine passion, unique perspectives, and undeniable potential never get the chance to prove themselves—not because they lack the talent, but because they never make it past these gatekeepers. Many talented creators, thinkers, and doers walk away feeling defeated, convinced they simply “don’t have what it takes,” when in reality, the system itself was designed to filter them out before they could even begin.

What if we stopped blaming ourselves for not being “good enough” and started questioning the gatekeepers who benefit from keeping the bar artificially high—or worse, tilted in their favor? True talent often thrives in the margins, away from the polished approval machines. It bubbles up in unexpected places, raw and unfiltered, precisely because it hasn’t been diluted or sanitized to meet someone else’s checklist.

The solution isn’t waiting for permission from the gatekeepers. It’s about recognizing that their power is largely an illusion we’ve collectively granted them. When we focus less on seeking their approval and more on building, sharing, and connecting directly with the people who actually resonate with our work, we start dismantling those barriers from the inside out.

Talent isn’t the scarce resource we’ve been led to believe. Gatekeeping is. And the sooner we call that out, the sooner more extraordinary voices can finally step forward and be heard.

The gatekeepers are the issue—not the talent so many of us have been wrongly convinced we don’t possess.

Schools will last forever as adult society do not want tones of children, teens and early young people in the streets doing all kind of stupid and harmful things. Society need a parking lot for them. 99% of companies do not give a shit for your creativity. They want you to work hard and to shut up.

No it'll be ok???

No it'll be ok???

Accusations of cheating does not help matters against students made by teachers . Which are not true .
Philadelphia PA USA

Sir Kenneth is correct about market forces impacted by technology moving separate to the industrial age education system.
One successful entrepreneurial sector that is currently making up the shortfall between a country's education system and marketplace demand is the industry of Direct Sales.
Direct Sales includes a leading manufacturer coordinating with a support and training organisation. Together across multiple countries, these are educating anyone above 18-years old to engage in a business model capable of resolving a cost of living crisis.
For 65+ years, Individuals, couples, and families can creatively focus on a private vision board and use their creative energies to follow a recommended plan to raise living standards through entrepreneurship.
The objective is to invite people to collaborate earning efforts for mutually beneficial gains, lifting households out of debt, and growing capital assets to build private wealth.
This, in turn, promotes a better standard of living with greater choices.

🎉👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🎉

This is quarter of a century old. Guess Sir Ken didn't have any effect on the school system, eh? We did things differently alright -- we extinguished creativity completely. Trained people to do exactly as they're told, Swallow anything they're told by The Experts. And look what happened. Shudder.

What a bunch of BS advise! Having creativity is going to be replaced like it is already with all walks of life. Currently music and art and all forms of new ideas or being formulated with artificial intelligence if you see a movie The artificially made you think wow that's fantastic and not a human being in it. If you look at a painting you think that's fantastic but not even with a painter or artists performing the task of the work to paint it. We are all doomed to change in the near future 1 to 2 years you will not have a job you will not have income you will not be able to own a house or a car and basic income will not be afforded to you because the tax base will not be high enough to take care of everybody love everybody this video is such a joke that's pathetic.

Shut up😅

there is no "human intelligence" ... you Narcissists are calling as such "anti-human intelligence" meaning the Evil you will never grow but simply submit to a greater Evil. Even a machin could replace anti-human as they do not have Empathy to grow as HUMAN BEING with Conscious!

I have one in elementary school, soon they will be two.

Miss you Mr. Ken

I was told because l didn't choose art that l would never be a Artist. Decades later l became an self taught artist not perfect but always learning. So don't give up your dream ❤

That's why we need book festivals 😊 education doesn't work for people that struggle with learning difficulties and go a life time with out a diagnose 😊 there's many of thousands of good people around the world that have ADHD

It's not a revolution at all. A revolution suggests a cycle. This is a paradigm change. A paradigm change that humans might witness but wont be a part of. So this conversation, however delightful, is effectively, moot.

I'm sure Sir Ken was absolutely right about needing a better approach to fostering creativity throughout the educational lives of our young, but even if some head teachers are brave enough to think laterally and find ways to do that, how far would they get before being hammered for not adhering to the national curriculum? How can the change envisioned by Sir Ken be made without a radical buy-in from government education departments? And how many parents would resist it and just see it as social experimentation with their children's futures? People are inherently resistant to change. These would most likely be major barriers to these changes being made widely. Yes, they might happen in some private establishments and any success garnered would be viewed by the general public as "alright for the likes of them", yet if made available to that same general public would probably be treated with suspicion. Hard to know how the change could actually be enacted.

I saw Ken's first TED talk when I was in my teens, around the time it was first published. I was considering (and eventually wound up) dropping out of university and was feeling both lost and out of my mind. His talk has never left me. Turns out I actually am neurodivergent. Though to this day, right now, Ken's validation of my experience and articulation of what I at the time could sense but not put words to has shaped the direction of my own thinking and life. I obviously can't speak for him, but I feel like my priorities are largely aligned with what Ken's were, and I am right now, today and for the last several years trying to work out how exactly to embody them in my work and life direction. I wish I could have met him before he passed, I was crushed to find out and I could have used some guidance or advice and I wish I could thank him for helping me recognize my own sanity and stop allowing myself to be gaslit – especially in the midst of the metacrisis as it is today. My username is a website that was in large part a step (or several steps) on this path for me. I'm now getting closer to finding out what the next one(s) might be.

What a sad loss that this man no longer is here to give inspiration.