Ken Robinson
and Lou Aronica
YOU, YOUR CHILD AND SCHOOL
Navigate Your Way to the Best Education
Creative Schools
Finding Your Element
The Element
Out of Our Minds
UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa
Allen Lane is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
First published in the United States of America by Viking an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 2018
First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane 2018
Copyright © Ken Robinson, 2018
“Dear Teacher” by Emma Robinson. Reprinted with permission.
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover design: Mikey Burton
ISBN: 978-0-141-98863-4
To James and Kate with love
There’s an old myth that the only question on an ancient Chinese Imperial Examination Paper was, “What do you know?” The candidate who gave the longest answer got the job. When I set out to write a book on education for parents, it felt a bit like that. Education covers so many issues and families are so different that it was a puzzle for a time to know what to say, short of everything I could think of. The answer, of course, was to focus on what I think matters most, and to admit that no discussion of these issues can be entirely free of personal values. Most of what I say here is rooted in research and professional experience and is as objective as I can make it. Some is naturally inflected by my own view of things. I trust it’ll be clear which is which and why both are important.
Because education is such a sprawling field, and no one knows everything, I’m intensely grateful to all sorts of people whose advice I sought and who often put me right on matters of fact and steered me back onto solid ground when I was heading into a mire. As is the custom, I can’t mention everyone, or I’d never be done, but I do have to mention the following, who gave me expert advice on specific issues: Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Laura Gross, Bob Morrison, Andy Hargreaves, David Price, Peter Gamwell, Hadley Ferguson, Richard Gerver, Pasi Sahlberg, Kate Robinson, Anthony Dunn, Jerry Mintz, Elliot Washor, James Robinson, Cynthia Campoy-Brophy, Mitchell Bass, Michelle Kinder, and Heather Bryant.
I owe special thanks to my writing partner, Lou Aronica, for being an expert sounding board as the book took shape and for taking on much of the initial research, interviews, and case studies, which form the bedrock of the book. Thanks are due as always to our literary agent Peter Miller, for his tireless enthusiasm for my work and his peerless expertise in promoting it. Thanks to Jodi Rose for managing my schedule and keeping people at bay when I most needed time to write. You wouldn’t have this book in your hand at all if it weren’t for the expert guidance of Kathryn Court, our outstanding publisher at Penguin Random House, and her terrific assistant, Victoria Savanh. Above all, I thank my wife and lifelong professional partner, Terry, for her constant belief and unrivaled support in all I do. Thank you. As always.