Coleman Rohde

4/21/21

Tim Leunig Ted Talk

Tim Leunig suggests that there are no jobs for people who can regurgitate information

like photocopiers. Instead one must be creative in order to be successful. In this way he concedes

to Robinson’s point that creativity is required to be successful in the future job market. If you

just have knowledge and are unable to apply that knowledge creatively then that knowledge is

useless as you are forever unable to contribute to the collective of knowledge which, in that case,

is now stagnant and unadaptable to any of the modern and complex structures of progress.

Tim Lunig then discusses the transformation from agrarian society to an industrial one

through technological innovations, specifically the invention of steam power. The inventor of

steam power, newcomer, combined the technologies of pulling a vacuum with steam with the

piston. If he did not know either the piston or the ability for steam to pull a vacuum he could not

have invented the steam engine. The same could be said for the lightbulb. If Edison had no

knowledge of a vacuum or electrical engineering he would not have been able to obtain a

filament that burns well enough to be functional. He also discusses how one of his associates, a

history major, was able to apply their knowledge in a more creative field and found more success

than they would have without their knowledge of history.

Tim Leunig cites Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk and suggests, in opposition to Robinson’s

argument that school is killing creativity, that creativity is based on knowledge and schools are

fostering creativity rather than destroying it. His argument is that creativity is built from

knowledge. However, Leunig’s talk misses the point of Robinson’s talk in that it assumes that

Robinson intends to eliminate STEM education. Robinson is merely suggesting that more
importance be given to the arts. Education reform ultimately has to fall somewhere in between

Leunig’s suggestion and Robinson’s. Education can’t afford to continue its dangerous

appraisement of STEM only as it will only lead to knowledge unable to be applied creatively and

thus rendered useless but education also can’t afford to eliminate focus on STEM education

completely, especially as the world becomes increasingly more complex.