Lynne's teachers wrote home in the 1930's claiming she may have a learning disorder. As a young girl of 8, she was disrupting classmates, because she was having trouble staying still and concentrating. The doctor, after reviewing everything Gillian's mother said, turns on some music and immediately Gillian is on her feet dancing. They decide there is nothing wrong with her, and the doctor says, "Take her to a dance school" (Does School Kill Creativity). She later graduated from the Royal Ballet School, started the Gillian Lynne Dance Company, and has masterminded successful productions not limited to Cats. Robinson enabled us to emotionally connect with the story as most people have seen the widespread diagnoses or known someone with ADHD. He also shows us, logically, the negative effect of not considering a student's creative potential. It is important to remember that a doctor was required to understand Gillian's actions, while her teacher believed her creativity was a learning disorder. Furthermore, Sir Robinson quotes Picasso as saying, "all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up" (Does School Kill Creativity). He infers we are born with creativity and that there is an issue with children retaining that creativity throughout life. I am left to consider the course Gillian or Pablo's life may have taken had they not been introduced to the arts and the implicit detrimental effects on our culture.
When Robinson moved to the US he realized that, "every education system on Earth has the same hierarchy of subjects" (Does School Kill Creativity). The hierarchy of public education puts a lot of emphasis on math and science and much less on arts and humanities. I expect education systems around the world to differ greatly depending on what needs and wants are specific to the area, but Robinson says, "the most useful subjects for work are at the top", and, "at the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom the arts" (Does School Kill Creativity).
