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ioanaisreading's review against another edition
4.0
If you have watched Ken Robinson's TED talks you will read this book with his voice in your head. Just be warned.
jengiuffre's review against another edition
halfway through. head is not in the right space for this right now. But, I am enjoying it. Will definitely come back to it. Seems great for teachers.
ruthie_the_librarian's review against another edition
4.0
Inspiring. Looking forward to his follow up to this book...
zarasecker23's review against another edition
4.0
Ken Robinson is a well known speaker, author and international speaker for the arts. He has done many talks dealing with education and living a fulfilled life. The Element is yet another example of his work and passion. When reading this book I felt I could hear him speaking just like I had seen on many video clips. What he said in his book made so much sense to me in that he truly highlighted how a person playing to their passion makes all the difference to not only their own lives but also to how easily performing all the relevant tasks for the job comes for them. To further highlight this Ken used examples of many different celebrities and how they found their element. Whilst it was good to have these examples the proliferation of them became a bit annoying and detracted from the overall feel of the book. In spite of this though it is still a worthwhile read for anybody and especially for those who are trying to find where their passion is.
ashalucienne's review against another edition
1.5
300 pages just to say that you need to find something you’re good at and you love. smh.
dougiewougie's review against another edition
4.0
It started out strong and finished in the camp of humanism.
ejmiddleton's review against another edition
4.0
There was a lot to like here, though how to practically implement it seems such a stretch as to be impossible.
sawyerbell's review against another edition
4.0
Thought provoking and inspiring. Would have liked some practical tips on how to implement some of the ideas, particularly ideas on how to find or build a tribe. A good read for anyone interested in exploring ways to create a more meaningful life; a must read for all educational policy-makers and teacher-trainers.
grantkeegan's review against another edition
4.0
I was assigned The Element in class without any previous knowledge of it or the author, except for a very enjoyable TED talk from Ken Robinson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc&t=613s. I was skeptical at the beginning of the book. The idea of The Element didn’t convince me, as I thought the book would focus on the overly optimistic ideas of “You can do anything” and “Follow your dreams” we see so much on pop psychology nowadays. But as I kept reading and understanding Robinson’s ideas, I fell in love with the concepts he was presenting.
The Element is a book that combines research in psychology and observations of human nature to determine what is it that makes people excel in particular things. Throughout the book, Robinson’s main idea centers around how every person has one or several innate passions where they excel the best at, which he calls “the element”. He also argues that sometimes these elements fall outside what the education system or society views as “normal”, or “what one has to be doing”. I share this point of view, but I also recognize that it can be hard for certain people to recognize what their element is in the beginning of their life.
Robinson does a great job including examples of people with various elements. He tells the stories of writers, artists, musicians, and people who overcame difficult challenges to illustrate his points. I loved reading about these people and understanding how they lived their lives in order to accomplish great things. The ones that stuck the most to me were Bob Dylan, Matt Groening, Paul McCartney, and Ridley Scott. I think these stories were presented in a great way that highlighted the purpose of each chapter.
One of the few criticisms I can point out is that some of these stories suffer from survivorship bias, but I doubt that is what Robinson intended. Because overall, this is a great read that left me a lot to think of, and helped me focus on my own elements, and the best ways to reach them. R.I.P. Ken Robinson, the world will always remember what he did for education through his ideas, books, and speeches.
Final Score: 78/100
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The Element is a book that combines research in psychology and observations of human nature to determine what is it that makes people excel in particular things. Throughout the book, Robinson’s main idea centers around how every person has one or several innate passions where they excel the best at, which he calls “the element”. He also argues that sometimes these elements fall outside what the education system or society views as “normal”, or “what one has to be doing”. I share this point of view, but I also recognize that it can be hard for certain people to recognize what their element is in the beginning of their life.
Robinson does a great job including examples of people with various elements. He tells the stories of writers, artists, musicians, and people who overcame difficult challenges to illustrate his points. I loved reading about these people and understanding how they lived their lives in order to accomplish great things. The ones that stuck the most to me were Bob Dylan, Matt Groening, Paul McCartney, and Ridley Scott. I think these stories were presented in a great way that highlighted the purpose of each chapter.
One of the few criticisms I can point out is that some of these stories suffer from survivorship bias, but I doubt that is what Robinson intended. Because overall, this is a great read that left me a lot to think of, and helped me focus on my own elements, and the best ways to reach them. R.I.P. Ken Robinson, the world will always remember what he did for education through his ideas, books, and speeches.
Final Score: 78/100
For more reviews and other cool content follow me on:
kbelcher1992's review against another edition
3.0
There were some interesting tidbits in here but this seems like a great book to read a summary about. Overall probably still worth reading if you've already hit other big self-improvement books.