If you’re a follower of TED (‘Ideas worth spreading’), you’ve probably watched Ken Robinson (that’s Sir Ken to you) on creativity in education (or lack thereof). He’s bright, persuasive and entertaining – and challenges conventional thinking. You don’t have to agree with him to get something from his presentations.

Then there’s the RSA, the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) which, for the past 250 years, ‘has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress’. Sir Ken was the 2008 recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin Medal, and award which has been going for over 50 years and includes such luminaries as Peter Ustinov, William Walton, Bernard Lovell, Judy Dench and the latest, Elizabeth Gould.

Now the two come together, with a delightful presentation on RSA Animate. Yes, Sir Ken inveigles us with a telling polemic, ‘Changing Education Paradigms‘ (Australian readers will wince at the use of ‘paradigms’, somewhat overused recently by our erstwhile politicians). It’s a wide-ranging take on the state of schooling, including a telling perspective on the ‘scourge’ of ADHT.

This is to the YouTube version, but you might like to pursue it on the RSA site, which also includes such video gems as ‘Smile or Die‘, ‘SuperFreakonomics‘ and ‘21st century enlightenment‘.