Every education system on Earth has the same hierarchy of subjects: at the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts.

Ken Robinson made this observation in the context of his critique of modern mass schooling, especially in industrialized countries, where curricula and assessment regimes tend to privilege “academic” disciplines tied to standardized testing and economic utility. He argued that this hierarchy—math and language at the top, humanities next, and arts at the bottom—reflects historical priorities of the industrial era and policy assumptions about employability and national competitiveness. Robinson used the point repeatedly in talks and interviews while advocating for creativity, arts education, and broader definitions of intelligence and achievement in schools.

The quote argues that schooling is not a neutral transmission of knowledge but a value system that ranks forms of thinking. By placing mathematics and languages above the arts, education implicitly treats analytical and linguistic skills as more “serious” or economically legitimate, while casting artistic practice as optional or recreational. Robinson’s larger claim is that this hierarchy narrows human potential: it discourages diverse talents, marginalizes creative identities, and can contribute to disengagement among students whose strengths lie outside the top-ranked subjects. The remark functions as a diagnosis of systemic bias and a call to rebalance curricula toward creativity and multiple intelligences.

1) “Every education system in the world has the same hierarchy of subjects: maths and languages at the top, then the humanities, and the arts at the bottom.”
2) “There’s a hierarchy of subjects in schools everywhere: mathematics and languages first, humanities next, and the arts last.”