Tapescript

Huckabee - Sir Ken Robinson, Author of The Element (01-31-2009)

HUCKABEE (H): Ive long believed that one of the most important things we need to be teaching our kinds in school is music and art, and here is why. An education system that symply just transfers data from one brain to another, is not an education system, its a data download. We need real education. Joining me now, is a person who understand something about it, and probably the most gifted communicator on Earth when it comes to helping to explain the value of creative, Sir Ken Robinson, the author of the brand new book that I hope youll read, called The Element. Sir Ken Robinson joins me here today. Sir Ken, its great to have you here, what a pleasure. Now, this book is a fascinating book in to why creativity has an important impact on the economy. So tell me in a time when people are loosing their jobs, worried about the economy, why on Earth should we be even discussing creativity and things of that nature. SIR KEN ROBINSON (SKR): Well, my, the world is moving so quickly now, technology is changing everything, populations are increasing, there is more competition, globalization is taking all the basic fundamentals of the success of the American economy headed too, and truthfully a nation that doesn't innovate will simply fall behind and innovating in the 21st century means developing everybodys talents, its a totally different game now. H: Different than the old days of here, we needed to learn these math tables and learn the cientific formulas. SHR.: Well, you need to know all those things too. This isnt to say that creativity means not learning things, it means learning things from a child level. But my big concern really in my writing the book is that in my experience most people, most adults, have no idea what their real talents are, and their children dont know what their real talents are either, and I think one of the reasons for it is education. I give a lot of stories in the book. You know, Im from Liverpool. H: Right. SHR.: And so are the Beatles, the popular music group. H: You interviewed Paul McCartney for the book in fact. (SHR: Its you mention it.) I am very jealous, very jealous. SHR: Well, Paul McCartney went to the school across the street from I went to, I didnt know him then, but that school is now School for Performing Arts, and I interviewed him from the book and I asked him if he enjoyed Music at school and he said he hated it. In fact, he went through the whole of his education and nobody thought that he had any musical talent. Paul McCartney. He does, doesn't he? They had in the same music class, at the same time, was George Harrison, the lead guitarrist of the I said popular music group, the Beatles, and

nobody thought he had any talents either. So this one music teacher had had half the Beatles in his class and he missed it. Now, this is my point really, that often talent is buried deep, and unless you look for it, unless you really give the encouragement or the conditions for it to flourish, you don't discover it, and the book really is about that, its about how personally if people don't discover their true talents they never, I think, live a life that has real purpose in meaning. And secondly, for the successs of the American economy, the global economy, it makes sense now that we should have an educational system that really looks deep for peoples genuine talents. H: We are talking about getting to double edges on unemployment first time perhaps since the Great Depression thats happened, that may happen his year. If a person is about to loose their job, what would your advice be to them in terms of starting another career and moving on from that? SKR: I think no matter what age they are, they should start to think hard about the things that ever was excited them, about the things when they feel comfortable, the things that make their imagination work In my experience, most people have that, you know, there is a sense that something that they would have done it they could have done it, something that really made them feel most comfortable. A lot of people in my experience, a lot of adults, live their life doing work they don't enjoy much, doing things that don't really turn them on, and they do it because they feel they have to, or because they are just drifted in that direction. I know from your own story, I mean, you discovered music at high school (Yes), theatre, did that not help you become the person you are? H: Oh, I would not be seated here talking to you today had it not been for music and theatre and debate and those things, those were the things that turned me on, and I think there are so many kids the drop-out rate now is one in three kids in America, one in three leaves school, they don't even finish, and its not because they are dumb, its because they are bored. SHR: I think thats true. You know, could I ask you how old you are, am I? H: Im 53. SHR: I cant believe that, you know. H: If I was a female I would slap you, but Im ok by telling you that. SHR: But you are mentally slapping me, I can feel, you know. But most people Im 59. No, Im not, Im 58. I know I dont look that, but I live in Los Angeles, you know. I have worked on, what can I do, but - But most people of my generation had their tonsils taken out, don't know if you had your tonsils taken out? H: Yes, I did.

SHR: May I feel your audience, how many of you had your tonsils taken out? H: The tonsil-less people. SHR: Yeah. When you last had supper, by the way, it doesn't come out socially, do you have your tonsils, doesn't come up. I have asked rooms full of people, maybe 200 people of the boomers, have they had their tonsils taken out. In the fifties and sixties, people routinely had their tonsils removed. (Yes, it did.) When I was a kid, you couldn't afford to clear your throat in public or someone would pinch you and have your tonsils taken out, and probably I don't know if its morality, now people have had body parts removed whimsically. And some people did it voluntarily for the ice-cream. Now, the reason Im saying this, nowadays, if you ask a room full of teenagers if theyve had their tonsils taken out, most of them havent. This is only done now in critical cases and it used to be routine. Now, this generation doesn't suffer from the plage of tonselectomy, it is turned to be a false epidemic. What this generation suffers from is a new false plague, called ADHD (Right!), don't you agree? Now, (applause) don't mistake me, I'm not saying theres not such thing as ADHD. Its a genuine condition, doctors agree on that, some people need their tonsils taken out. What I don't believe is that theres an epidemy. In the early eighties, about half a million kids in America we thought they had ADHD. The current test is of eight million. This is a boom for the drug companies. And I think whats going on here is that kids are living in the most intensively stimulating environment in the history of the Earth, they deal with more information a day what weve done within a year, their minds are moved a thousand miles an hour and we are penalizing that for getting distracted. From what? You know, boring staff. And I think rather than critising them, we should make the program more interesting. H: And put them in music, and put them in art programs, and Ken, our times about gone, but I hope that people would read the book, because if they do, theyll understand that creativity is not some peripheral to our economy, its fundamental to it. I wanna thank you for writing it. I want our viewers to get a copy of this book from your bookstore, from Amazon.com. The author is Sir Ken Robinson, we wanna have him back, have more discussion on the value of creativity and if you are one of those people afraid about losing your job, think that something may happen to your economic situation, maybe its a good time to look at what do you love doing. The book is The Element. Thank you, Ken Robinson for being with us. Well be right back.

Transcript. Oprahs farewell. HOST (H): The phenomenon, the woman who is Oprah Winfrey. After 25 years, she ended her day-time talk-show today and so it is a moment for taking stock. What has Oprah just completed? And how did she do it? And why do so many people care? Barbara Walters joined me for a look at her legacy. (OFF): One more hour of television history. H: The build up was mammoth. With all the dramatics (Music)-, all the heart-felt tributes (OFF): I know you don't have children of your own, but you have mothered millions H: All of the tears. (Music.) On her final program today, it was just Oprah, on her own set, saying thank you. OPRAH (O): From you whose names I will never know, I learnt what love is, you and this show have been the great love of my life. (Music.) H: 4561 shows later. (Laughs.) The program that in many ways redefined the talk-show, with a mix of spiritualism and self-help O: I want people to be responsible for the energy they brought to me. H: And girl-talk. O: Was it a consummated marriage. GUEST: Oh, my God, Oprah! O: I had to ask that question! BARBARA WALTERS (BW): She laughs, she screams, she cries, she emotes, she is a great performer. H: We thought who better to analyze the phenomenon that is Oprah, that the woman she said she wanted to grow up to be: Barbara Walters. O: I see you, on The Today Show, and I say, there is a woman. She is holding that space. Wow, she did that. Maybe I can do that. H: But in fact, Oprah wasnt like anyone else, considered what she told Barbara in their first interview, back in 1988. O: Somewhere, Ive always known that I was born for greatness in my life. Somewhere, Ive always felt it. BW: I mean, thats quite a statement. I was born to do great things? But she really feels that, and sincere she has.

H: It was in that first interview with Walters that Oprah made it crystal clear, as hard as it may be, she was not going to hide from her own tragedies, she would bare them all, like the rape she endored, at the age of 9. O: And Ive been left with a 19 year old cousin, and he raped me. I went into the fifth grade that fall, and I remember Maria Gonzalez on the playground telling me how babies came into the world, and how you make babies, so I went through the entire fifth grade everyday thinking Im gonna have a baby. And at the time though I didnt know that you had to be BW: You make me wanna cry. O: Yeah. And so thats why I weep for the lost innocence, I weep for that, because you are never the same again, youre never the same. H: She seemed to take her shame, her suffering, her vulnerabilities and turn them into empowerement for herself and her viewers. Her abuse helped others deal with theirs. Who can forget this moment? O: There are two hundred men standing in our studio audience right now. Each one is holding a picture of themselves at the age when they say they were first sexually abused. BW: She makes people confess and she is everybodys confessor. Before you confess, shes already done it. She knows the questions to ask that are very provocative and personal, and that someone else might not asked. O: The color of your skin is obviously different than it was when you were younger. MICHAEL JACKSON: I have a skin disorder that destroyes the pigmentation of the skin, its something that I cannot help. H: But celebrities where the least of it. O: Have you ever felt this way before? H: The show seemed to deal with all the social issues of the day, from racism O: [] To try and understand the feelings and motivations of the people of all white Forside county. H: To AIDS. O: When did the rest of the town, did you know the rest of the town also knew you had AIDS? GUEST: When the newspaper run something every day on it. H: Oprah has said it was the real people on her program who touched her most deeply, people like Maddy Dupontit. O: Well, how are you? How is your wealth? How are you doing?

MADDY: Im doing lot better health otherwise, Im doing very where excitement was H: She cared for everyone, big and small. What is it that she does that is so effective? BW: She cares and she says, whatever you are going through, I went through too, and look what I am today, and you can be. H: Who does Walters think will carry forward Oprahs message of self-acceptance? BW: Lady Gaga reminds me a little bit of Oprah. (Music) And you know what she talks about her little monsters? She says to them: be yourself, I was nobody, I was nothing, nobody believed in me but you can make it. This is Lady Gaga. It is a different time but the same message. Oprahs day-time show may have ended but her influence certainly has not. As what made manifested on yesterdays show, when more than 400 men who she helped sent to collage, went to pay their tributes. (Music) H: Are you proud of her? BW: Im very proud of her and I also like her enormously. I respect, I admire her and I truly like her. O: I thank you for being as much as a sweet inspiration for me as Ive tried to be for you. I wont say goodbye. Ill just say until we meet again.