Sir Ken Robinson

Don't do music, you're not going to be a musician.

Don't do art, you won't be an artist.

Benign advice.

Now, profoundly mistaken.

The whole world is engulfed in a revolution.

And the second is academic ability, which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence because the universities designed the system in their image.

If you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance.

And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn't valued or was actually stigmatized.

And I think we can't afford to go on that way.

In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating through education than since the beginning of history.

More people.

And it's the combination of technology and its transformation effect on work and demography and the huge explosion in population.

Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything.

Isn't that true?

When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job.

If you didn't have a job, it's because you didn't want one.

And I didn't want one, frankly.

But now, kids with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games.

because you need an MA, where the previous job required a BA, and now you need a PhD for the other.

It's a process of academic inflation, and it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet.