A world-leading education expert says the academic "caste system" is ruining American schools
In his new book "Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education," Robinson laments the fact that we privilege the kind of intelligence found in academia over those found in the arts or trade work.
"As the story goes, the smart kids go to college. The others may leave school early and look for a job or apply for a vocational course to learn a trade of some sort. Either way," he writes, "they have taken a step down the status ladder in education.
Robinson is a 40-year-veteran in both the US and UK education systems and the man behind the most-viewed TED talk of all-time - the 2006 talk "Do Schools Kill Creativity," in which he champions the diverse range of talents and passions kids have, and which schools quickly beat out of them.
"This academic/vocational caste system," Robinson argues, "is one of the most corrosive problems in education."
By Robinson's measure, one of the most repeated political mantras in the US is severely misguided: No, not all children should go to college.
Giving book smarts more weight than other forms of brilliance puts kids who'd excel in other fields on a path they weren't meant for. In turn, the value of a college degree drops and other forms of work continue to get left out in the cold.
Over the last half-century, college enrollment rates have jumped from 45.1% in 1959 to 68.4% in 2014. Master's degrees are now as popular as bachelor's degrees were in the 1960s, arguably making for "grade inflation."
Undergraduates must pursue higher degrees stay competitive - paying huge tuitions that rise far more quickly than inflation, all with no guarantee of placement into a job. Even once-dependable options like law school or pharmacy school can no longer be relied on for getting gigs.
It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that many financial experts expect the college bubble to burst any day now.
Robinson wants out of the trend.
As "Creative Schools" emphasizes repeatedly, not everyone is built to fit the role of intellectual, and that's totally normal. Over the last several decades, college has gone from a pursuit of the intellectually minded to an expectation of everyone. If you can't go, it's because you're not good enough, the thinking goes. Never mind the kids who find no use in college to pursue what they love.
Consider the raft of professions that rely on handiwork over brainpower and are just as vital to society's progress as traditionally "white-collar" jobs.
Chefs sweat it out in the kitchen, but they also inject creativity and passion into the food they prepare. Auto mechanics diagnose problems inside the highly intricate system of one of daily life's most important machines. Carpenters turn designs into reality.
The forms of intelligence these jobs use aren't the kind you'll find in any ivory tower, Robinson says. Nor should you expect them to be.
"This isn't an anti-theoretical life that people live," he tells Tech Insider. "These are the thoughtful application of ideas, design, craftsmanship, and the use of aesthetics and natural materials. And there are all kinds of areas like this."
"These aren't options that are encouraged or cultivated or promoted in our school systems," Robinson says. "And I think it's a very impoverished view of the way in which many people would actually prefer to make their living."
The solution Robinson advocates is one that involves looser dependence on standardized testing and success in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). It celebrates kids for all their unique qualities and helps them turn those passions into skill sets.
Schools that do this well employ teachers that treat students as individuals that need nurturing, not widgets that get blindly assembled. They also employ principals who create a concrete vision for the school and empower the teachers and students to fulfill that vision. And since kids spend more time at home than in school, the best institutions rely on parent feedback to guide students' education.
If those investments of time and energy are made, instead of students seeing their passions as something looked down on or reserved just for nights and weekends. They'll see them as useful and desired in society. Because they will be.