Creative teaching - the only alternative to school failure; Sir Ken Robinson leads the way - but who is actually following.

'Creativity is just as important as literacy and numeracy'

 Tell that to the Ministry of Education and the Government.

Share with other creative schools or teachers and Board of Trustee members

First TED talk - over 9 million downloads

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Second TED Talk

http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

Talk with graphics - excellent

 http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

The Government is right in believing schools should do a lot better. No student should leave school feeling a failure. The trouble is their approach is wrong, and ironically, with its desire for all students to be assessed against National Standards, is creating ‘winners and losers’ environment and in the process narrowing the curriculum and encourages teaching to the tests.

Sir Ken Robinson call this standardisation a fast food approach; an  approach that has its genesis in the past industrial age.

As thoughts are returning to beginning a new term it is worthwhile taking the time to listen to the wise, and often entertaining, ideas of Sir Ken.  It would also be a good idea to pass the links on to other teachers to Board of Trustee members.

Sir Ken, in his second TED Talk, says we are facing crisis as worrying as the climate change crisis – the crisis of not realising the talents of all students. Developing the unique talents of all students is an urgent challenge.

Most teachers are aware of Sir Ken’s comment that ‘creativity is as important as literacy and numeracy’. Creativity is all about developing people who love what they do –students who have not lost through formal school their innate desire to learn.

The problem, according to Sir Ken, is that education disconnects students from their talents  and , worse still, assesses students  only in literacy and numeracy – made even more destructive by the publishing of league tables.

What is required, Sir Ken believes, is not evolution but a real educational revolution –‘we need to transform current education into something else.’We need ‘educational transformation’.

To do this we need to challenge things we take for granted- things people think can’t be done in any other way. For me the blind spot in education is the clinging on to the idea of ability grouping, sorting, setting and streaming  issues tackled by the book ‘Learning Without Limits'. Literacy and numeracy targets and league tables will result in the problem of either poor or inflated self-images.

Sir Ken quotes Abraham Lincoln (1862) who said, ‘the dogmas of the past are inadequate to the stormy present… we must rise to the occasion. As our case in new we must think anew and act anew, we must disenthrall ourselves of ideas we take for granted. The way things are. Ideas that may have suited a previous century ‘but our minds are still hypnotised by them and we have to disenthrall ourselves of some of them.’

‘The trouble is, Sir Ken continues, ‘it is difficult to know what you take for granted because we take them for granted’. This applies to my thoughts about the use of ability grouping that determines forever how  students see themselves.

Sir Ken believes we are enthralled by (take for granted) linearity – that learning must go through predetermined tracks (think National Standards). Education, he believes, ought to be seen as more organic- rather like visiting an exhibition at an art gallery than learning from a book from start to finish.

Sir Ken says, ‘we create our lives symbiotically as we explore our circumstances through our talents’. We need, he says, to reconstitute ability through our diverse talents

The other big issues we fail to appreciate is conformity (once again think of National Standards). School system he says are being increasingly designed as fast food organisations for the mind. Everything is increasingly being standardised, predictable, fragmented.

I would add secondary school have long feature linearity of learning and conformity of students. Now it is being pushed on primary schools.

What we need instead, says Sir Ken,’ is for schools to customise Learning to the individual circumstances of individual students. We have sold ourselves into a fast food model of education and it is impoverishing our spiritual capacity just as fast food depletes our physical bodes.’

‘School have to recognise human identity is extremely diverse – children have a range of potential aptitudes’ to identify and amplify. ‘All learning is about passion - what excites our energy- about doing something you love – that you are good at.’

The reason why so many students opt out of education is because education doesn’t feed their spirit – it doesn’t feed the energy of their passion’. The current focus on numeracy and literacy, no matter how well intentioned, will not solve school failure.

Sir Ken believes we have to change our metaphors. We have to go from an industrial model to an agricultural one. From a manufacturing model based on linearity, conformity and ‘batching’ people (one again with ability grouping) to a model based on agriculture.

‘We have to recognise’, Sir Ken continues,’ that humans flourish not in a mechanistic process but rather in an organic one. It is impossible to predict the outcomes of human development – all we can do, as with a framer, is to create the conditions under which all students will flourish’.

‘Education can never be about cloning’ (  by I would add through imposed best practices, targets and National Standards) ‘it is about customisation and about personalisation; education to suit the circumstances of your students’.

‘This is the answer to the future. We need to develop a new system with appropriate support’ ( in New Zealand the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum’) ‘to help all schools develop appropriate systems based on a personalised curriculum taking advantage of thecreativity of teachers’.

We have an opportunity to revolutionize education but to achieve this we will have to change from an industrial model ( I would add also add to escape from the current corporateefficiency model) to an agricultural model where each school can flourish.

Sir Ken concluded his talk with a quote from a W B Yeats poem about a lover only able to offer not great cloaks  but only ‘my dreams  .I have spread my dreams at your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.’

‘Every day in every way our students spread their dreams at our feet and we too should tread softly’.