We are educating people out of their creative capacities.

Ken Robinson’s line is associated with his critique of modern mass schooling, especially as presented in his widely viewed 2006 TED talk on creativity and education. Speaking in the context of industrial-era education systems—organized around standardization, testing, and a hierarchy of subjects—Robinson argued that schools often reward conformity and penalize risk-taking. He framed this as a cultural and economic problem: societies say they need innovation, yet educational structures can suppress the very dispositions (curiosity, experimentation, divergent thinking) that support creative work. The remark functions as a pointed summary of his broader claim that creativity should be treated with the same seriousness as literacy.

The quote suggests that creativity is not merely an innate gift but a capacity that can be diminished by certain forms of instruction. Robinson implies that education can inadvertently “teach out” creative behavior by privileging single correct answers, discouraging mistakes, and sorting students into narrow definitions of ability. The phrase also reverses a common assumption: rather than education automatically cultivating human potential, it can constrain it when designed primarily for uniform outcomes. As a critique, it calls for educational environments that value imagination, interdisciplinary thinking, and the confidence to try, fail, and revise—conditions under which creative capacities are more likely to develop.

1) “We’re educating people out of their creativity.”
2) “We are educating people out of their creative abilities.”