The Blue School

The Blue School in Lower Manhattan was established by members of the Blue Sky Company -a company involved in helping organisations develop creative ideas.They wanted to establish a school that celebrated the creativity and ideas of children - they wanted to establish a school they would have liked to have gone to - a dream school for their own children.

They wanted school committed to keeping alive the sense of wonder, play and joy of young children. The school currently caters for children from 2 to 6. The ideas will not be new to creative teachers, particularly those that 'teach' younger children but their emphasis on making student inquiry central is a challenge to us all in these day of making literacy and numeracy achievement central

If you are interested visit their site. Their site explains their language and mathematics programmes as well as all other learning areas. All good reassuring stuff.

The latest from the Blue School is shared in their most recent newsletter.

In recent months all those involved in the school have been been involved in discussions and workshops to develop a curriculum model that they feel best represents the Vision,Values and philosophy of their school. These workshops have included input from creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson and advisers from the Emlia Reggio Schools of Milan.

The mission ( vision) of the school is:

'To cultivate the creative, joyful and compassionate inquires who use the courageous and innovative thinking to build a harmonious and sustainable world.'

The curriculum model has at its centre that students, teachers and parents should be inquirers.

The school believes that learning occurs naturally through the exploration of meaningful provocations that are initiated and supported by the interests and experiences of the children and their teachers. 'Research' , they state, 'supports the belief that children learn best when they engage in meaningful activities that build on these threads of inquiry'.


The school also believes in the 'whole child approach'. An approach that values the children's social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs. They believe that 'each child develops across and within the inquiry threads and that every child learns in a unique and individualised way'.It is important for teachers to identify where each child is in order to meet his or her needs and then to scaffold learning in a way to meet educational and life goals.

The inquiry threads, or lenses, are similar to the key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum and early childhood's Te Whariki. They are:

Hero: the lense of perseverance, commitment and leadership
Trickster: the lense of provocation, innovation and play.
Artist: the lense of imagination, instinct and expression.
Innocent: the lense of emotional awareness and mindfulness.
Group Member: the lense of collaboration and commitment
Scientist: the lense of curiosity, experimentation and analysis.

Blue School believes in an integrated, emergent child-centred curriculum. The school has curriculum essence statements for the usual range of learning areas including language and mathematics. They all represent a creative approach to learning
.

Curricular 'threads' emerge from the interests of the children and call upon curriculum areas as required as well as meeting grade level agreed benchmarks.

The child centred curriculum focuses on meeting the identified developmental individual needs of the children and learning styles. The teachers are seen as facilitators of learning and the children as active constructors/participants of their own learning. The curriculum 'emerges' from the interests, past knowledge, and experiences of the children and teachers. The schools see the immediate natural and man made environment as an important source of learning and value the use of the senses and curiosity when involved in field trips and creative expression on return.

Motivation is a key component of learning and, as such, the school needs to identify the different learning styles used by each child. All leaning is contextual and makes use of the 'inquiry threads' and the learning areas as appropriate. While all learners are exposed to all learning areas and inquiry threads it is likely , the school writes, 'that they will be each be comfortable and successful with one or two specific lenses.

Teachers at the school build up developmental profiles that drive curricular content, teaching strategies, assessment and differentiating of instruction.

The teachers use these profiles in conjunction with each grades developmental benchmarks to engage in dynamic or ongoing authentic assessment's. This information is linked with curriculum challenges to individualize, design and implement the curriculum that will support and scaffold learning for all the children to meet both individual and grade level goals.

The key thing is that inquiry is at the core of Blue School. By placing inquiry at the centre a flexible and integrated curriculum emerges and teacher are able to personalize or individualize learning for each child.

It is this lesson New Zealand teachers need to gain courage from as they are resist politically inspired reactionary programmes.

Protecting students as creative inquirers is far more important than a narrow focus on literacy and numeracy that our current government is imposing.

Real in depth learning

Too much teacher time and energy ( a teachers two most valuable commodities) are being distracted by the imposition of national standards. So when you visit a school and see real quality learning it is a reminder of what creative teaching and learning is really about - not endless assessments and data crunching.

At Moturoa School, in New Plymouth, native plant are a feature of the school grounds most grown by students themselves over the years. Not only do they propagate a range of native plants, including some species rare in Taranaki, they also study them in class and have made use them as the basis of extensive mural making.

The school is lucky to be able to draw on expertise for both the propagation and artistic expression.For the latter they have the help of an ex art adviser and such expertise makes areal difference.

It is a shame that the early range of advisers - in art, science, music, physical education etc are to be replaced by literacy and numeracy advisers who will, no doubt, be peddling, and imposing, academically devised 'best practice' ideas. Conformity and standardisation, it seems, is to replace creative teachers insight and professional judgement.

At Moturoa the students first collected samples of the plants they wanted to include in their mural. Chosen plants were closely observed and good ideas selected for possible inclusion in the final mural.

Plants could well have been studied scientifically as well in class and this could have well involved pertinent literary and mathematical experiences. The best learning is based around real authentic studies.

After observational drawing decisions and choices needed to be made about placement on the mural.

Observational drawing is a vital skill for all learners as it helps children really see by slowing down the pace and allowing adult helpers to interact so as to provide assistance as necessary. Students who have been help to see closely by making use of their senses, looking for patterns, lines, textures, shapes also develop extensive verbal and written vocabularies.

It is a shame such close observation is not a feature of more classrooms. As students observe their minds can be encouraged to think of questions to research and poetic idea noted to later transform into their own poetry As well the observational ideas are available as the basis for imaginative expression.

When the idea are sorted out the painting begins.The mural are completed with a a range of acrylic house paints mixed to get a range of colours. This painting involves experimentation, perseverance,choice and decision making - all vital competencies for future learning.

The whole process is a wonderful example of the creative process in action.

It is all about doing something really well. The feelings children get in the process are beyond measurement but will stay with them for life. The finished murals are regarded by the artists with great pride and admired by school visitors.

The process can be applied to any animal or plant study, or any study at all, and need not result in a mural - often simply a class display around a chosen theme is enough

Great work!

Education in New Zealand Corrupted!

There have aways been individuals that have stood up against those who would take society in the wrong direction. Socrates is one such example. Due to the fact he questioned those in authority he was sentenced to death if he would not change his mind. Socrates would rather die than comply and, in those times, he was expected to kill himself, which he did. Today, in education, creative educationalists are in the same position although we need to fight rather than die. Kelvin Smythe is one individual who is apposing those in the Ministry who are corrupting the ideals of education . I am with him. Rather than taking digitalis he continues to write in opposition. So do I. Read his full article on his site.

With the distribution of the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum it looked as if we were at last leaving the technocratic nonsense of the previous decades. Then, just as it was looking good, the new government brings in the spectre of National Standards and, predictably, the Ministry and their contracted advisers all change their tune. Politics trumps integrity. We are now heading back to the past for solutions. As Kelvin writes, our system has been 'captured' and is in the process of being corrupted. Power has now been given to politicians, bureaucrats, and number bound academics, supported by the School Trustees Association and even some misguided principals acting like Judas sheep.

In all this the 'voice' of teachers and children are being ignored. And the fact that school failure is largely the result socio -economic causes is happily ignored by such people as John Hattie; schools are seen as the cause and the solution. And we wait to see Hattie's national assessment agenda unfold. The living example of Orwellian 'doublethink' is John Hattie . He appears to be both a critic and supporter of them. Hattie's concern, Kelvin writes, is not with national standards but that they are not his national standards.' Hattie, Kelvin continues, 'runs with the hares to hunt with the hounds'.

Standardisation is now the name of the game and ERO surveillance provides the fear necessary for schools to comply. Uniformity is to be valued over creativity. All professional development will come from officially approved sources - George Orwell's Big Brother is now in place. Forget the 'nanny state! The only 'advisory' help in the future will be approved and trained literacy and numeracy advisers armed with their 'cherry picked best practices' - reinforced of course by ERO with their checklists echoing government requirements. ERO will rule by capitalizing on principal insecurity. Kelvin suggests it needs to be renamed as the Uniformity Office, or the Imposition Office, or the No Alternative Office. Schools will be controlled by how how well they measure and account for a narrow slice of learning.It will be control first learning second. Schools can do whatever they like as long as it agrees with ERO; The ultimate Orwellian scenario. 'Schools' Kelvin says, 'have to believe in in what the education review office believes in, but also know that what the education review office believes in is mainly baloney'.

The National Standards will have devastating effect on the new curriculum but the Ministry seems to think they're compatible - after all their salaries are at stake. Kelvin , quoting George Orwell's '1984', writes that the Ministry is now involved in 'doublethink'. National Standards will 'stifle initiative, variety and creativity', writes Kelvin.

'Ministry best practice' Kelvin writes, 'means an imagination free teaching zone, skills means abilities stripped of the cognitive and the affective'. 'Competency based learning, performance based education, next step learning, mastery learning, criterion referenced education , feedback ( up, forward, sideways to the left now to the right)and benchmarking, to name few few - means have we gone crazy? and the qualitative academics of certainty are in control.' Hattie's 'visible learning' means only learning that can be measured, learning that can be divided up as exact next steps learning; learning that is like pieces of a jigsaw to be put together by the teacher. Learning that eschews the affective because it can't be measured; learning that is presented as efficient and modern'.

This is the jargon of scientific management thinking found wanting in the business world.The more valuable insights of creative teachers,past and present, is simply ignored. The best professional development is informal - teachers simply sharing good ideas. Kelvin writes that the source of big lies comes from the Orwellian 'academic quantitatives of certainty and their near fraudulent research ' which is replacing reality and teacher knowledge.

At a time when we ought to be acting creativity, valuing imagination, the divergent, and the exchanging of ideas, we are heading back to simplistic failed solutions of uniformity and bureaucratic control. Education is being corrupted. Space for alternative views are simply dismissed as mischievous by our Minister. George Orwell was right, if a bit early, in his prediction of state controlled thinking. In this big brother world ( the 'super nanny state') holistic eduction barely gets a look in.

It is not all bad news, writes Kelvin, there will always be people to challenge misguided official ideology - but they will not find it easy. Creative teachers, Kelvin writes, need to 'retain the idea that there is a better way. Hold on to the idea that you are only doing some things you do because you have to.'

The attitude of the minister and her bureaucrats, Kelvin writes is, 'derogatory, condescending, resentful and sometimes hostile. Teachers and principals are seen as obstructive to , and obstructive of, their evidence-based plans and certainties.' And of course their downplaying of socio economic issues impacting on schooling which 'lets the government off the hook' by making school 'scapegoats'.

Kelvin believes that things will get worse ( possibly caused by a combination of economic, social, moral, spiritual and environmental issues) as the full standards agenda unfolds. New ideas will be required and teachers and schools need to be ready.

As education is taken down the fragmented pathways devised by quantitative academics and control orientated bureaucrats, the narrow approach to learning that will result will become, Kelvin writes, 'increasingly unsatisfying for both teachers and students'.

Holistic creative and integrated education ideals will be needed. An education premised on developing the diverse talents of all students - a 'personalised' rather than a 'standardized' education. A education where the keeping alive the desire to learn will matter more than endlessly measuring and graphing literacy and numeracy achievements.

As the gap between the rich and the poor widens so will the school achievement gap. Poverty has a flow on effect on education. Current 'scientific management', academic 'expert' approaches, and the measurement based review office ( all left over from the failing industrial era) will eventually make things worse.

This is the corruption Kelvin writes about.

It is a corruption Kelvin continues, 'we are increasingly constrained from challenging or diverging from through fear, power disadvantage', or being too busy to notice. National standards are another diversion keeping teachers from facing the real challenges. Literacy and numeracy requirements have already distorted, or corrupted, and have become ends in themselves - the sole ways of measuring school success.

Those who still believe in creative education need to work away to keep the spirit of true education alive. Schools need to focus on making the best of the new curriculum. Most of all teachers need ,Kelvin concludes, to 'retain control of our professional lives'.
The challenge is to be ready, when the time is right, with well considered ideas.

Until then schools. 'need to do their best to slow down the decline by opposing the characteristics of 'scientific' management by exposing the myth of the academic expert, proposing alternative ways,and campaigning for a fairer society.

Best to read Kevin's full article.

I am 100% behind Kelvin -where do you stand?

Leave the learning to the kids!

Education is too important for adults to take so seriously - such seriousness kills the creative spirit that is every child's evolutionary inheritance. Schools , like doctors should at least do no harm! Progress depends on first imagining possibilities.

As Einstein said,'Imagination is more important than knowledge for knowledge is limited whereas imagination embraces the entire world stimulating progress giving birth to evolution'.He also said it was a miracle that children's' sense of wonder was not crushed by modern schooling.


School are increasingly looking like organisations dedicated to the standardisation of children.Teachers have been infected over the past decades with a range of pseudo scientific management processes to ensure all students learn - what their teachers intend them to learn. Standardisation and formulaic teaching is the name of the game.Creativity and imagination are not really valued -and this will worsen with the introduction of the National Standards. And who know where the standards will take us!

The spirit of creative teaching is being lost. Once such creativity, by both teachers and students, was a feature of many New Zealand classrooms.

We need to value childhood for what it offers us - to remind us of what many of us have lost. Being childlike is a valuable trait. Free of imposed conceptions young learner are able to see clearly for themselves and in the process create their own unique minds.

What they get up to may seem irrational to our adult 'trained' minds but children's imagination is what the world needs. It needs to be protected and valued not shaped by teacher's intentions, success criteria, endless testing, so called best practice, heavy handed feedback, feed forward and next steps teaching. All left over thinking from failed industrial age thinking. The future demand creativity in every sphere and particularly in teaching. Teachers, it seems, are now the most over controlled professions of all.

We need to encourage wishful thinking in our children, encourage them to have ago , try things out , enjoy their 'mistakes' as information for their next time. After all this is how Google works with it's staff. But what would they know - have they done their mega research on old ideas?

Young children are idealists ; they like dreaming of new possibilities. These attributes are the best predictors of future success not the narrowing down of intelligence by imposed standards no matter how sensible to academic adults they seem. We need students who can ask good questions and who can engage in good discussions.

All the wisdom does not reside at the Ministry or in university education departments - teachers can learn more by just watching their students, and by providing the necessary conditions and providing encouragement - this is a creative art in itself. In such an environment( as at Google) a engaging curriculum 'emerges' with teachers and learner learning together.

All too often schooling restricts children learning capabilities and narrows their view of what could be. And all too often a fear of trying new things becomes the norm - and a fear of experimentation. Children soon learn to sink down to the level of teachers expectations measuring themselves by the wrong criteria.

Creative teacher believe that all kids want to learn and see their role as providing supportive and challenging learning environments -once again as at Google.

By being too heavy handed we are under-estimating children's ability.We need to stand back and involve ourselves lightly. We need to observe and listen to notice appropriate times to assist. Socrates is still a state of the art teacher!

If we could truly develop creative schools then we would have a better chance of developing adults that are open to new ideas, able to make the world a better place. We have plenty evidence of what alienated and uncreative school failures can do.

For a new creative age we need new ideas-and only creative schools and teacher can achieve this. We need students who know how to explore and how to think about issues that they see as important. In the future successful people will be those who use their minds well - who know how to ask the pertinent questions for a living. Those with a well developed sense of imagination will have the currency to thrive in the future.

Being creative is all about being comfortable with the unknown -and this is the essence of both science and the arts. The future is search for the best questions not past best practice answers.

As country we need to develop a cutural disposition to encourage innovative thinking and risk taking.

The Ministry of Education ironically taking us back to the failed certainties of the past -and too many schools seem set to follow.

Now if they were children they would see clearly the the Emperor has no clothes.

Are you listening Mrs Tolley?

Thank you Iain Taylor for this guest blog. The below are Iain's notes for his thank you speech to the Minister after her presentation to the Auckland Principals Association. Iain is well known for his point of view and is currently principal of Manurewa Intermediate School.




Thank you Minister for having the courage and tenacity to address the APPA… as you can see from the numbers here today what you had to say was keenly awaited…and thank you also for ‘putting to rest’, we hope, our fears of national league tables.

You will already have heard around the country I am sure that it is not national standards we fear at all - we already use a wide range of assessments which are standardized. We already know where a child’s performance sits compared to their peers of similar age or stage and teachers already use a range of measures to inform judgments on where a child fits. What we fear is what will happen to that information.

I am sure I speak for all principals here today, but perhaps particularly for lower decile schools it is “value added” that is far more important and valid than reaching a set achievement standard.We all know kids arrive at school with a wide range of strengths and of course weaknesses, all the result of differing personalities, differing home backgrounds and experiences, and a host of immeasurable factors that make our kids who they are.

The revised NZ curriculum I believe is fantastic. We really hope testing in the broadest sense does not signal a narrowing of its intent whereby schools only focus on literacy and numeracy.

A broad education is most important.An education which recognises the huge array of children’s strengths and successes and builds on those.

We want our curriculum to actively combine challenging life type experiences with academic rigour and creative opportunity in the personal education of every student. But a curriculum of this ambitious nature cannot be confined to the classroom alone with a focus solely on literacy and numeracy and all that, sometimes, ‘irrelevant testing stuff’.

The distinction of core curricular and extracurricular components is invalid in my opinion. In order to develop students across a spectrum of intelligences we cannot merely focus on literacy and numeracy, we must still do all the other interesting things. We need to integrate experiences on the sports fields, in outdoor education, using technology, through service projects, in scientific experimentation and down at the stream and the beach and in the bush, in the art room, and in musical and dramatic performances.

It is has always been the strength of the NZ school system that an active, challenging curriculum provides students with the opportunity to develop all their intelligences and these then strengthen each other leading to well balanced, perceptive individuals who have the confidence to take risks, to think outside the box and to take action to improve the lives of themselves and others. We all expect our students to be fully and constructively involved in a range of activities on offer in our schools and testing could well put a stop to many of these relevant and motivating experiences that our kids are doing every day, in every Auckland primary school.

The message we want to constantly convey to every Auckland student is to grasp every opportunity available in their school. The worst thing that can happen is for students to leave our schools saying “I wish I had tried that” and we don’t want that to be the case! National testing and any national comparisons or league table scenario could create that sort of environment.

Once again Minister Tolley thank you for your time and interest.

No reira,
tena koutou,
tena koutou,
tena koutou katoa

Iain Taylor
President
Auckland Primary Principals Association

Game bird study - Duckshooting season.

I am sick and tired of visiting schools and hearing principals tell me it is all about: assessment, success criteria, teachers' intentions, WALTS, best practice ( really fixed practice) feedback, feed forward, next steps teaching and now National Standards. All part of the same failing scientific management ideology of control and conformity. Worse still, all but a few creative schools have been sucked into all this 20th Century thinking. It seems to be repeated as some state imposed mantra of success, an educational rain dance, when the real problem is motivation or engagement - keeping the desire to learn alive. This is what teachers' should be keeping to the forefront of their minds. Duck shooting is on us - what is it all about? Why shoot ducks?

As teacher and principal I was always on the lookout for ideas to share with students, or teachers, to inspire learning because when learners are engaged then authentic literacy and numeracy have to be involved - and of course scientific and social science thinking and the creative arts.

All I see these days are teacher planned term long units across the school. So much for children's voice, autonomy, choice and potential. Drawn out boredom. Actually all I usually see is most of the day being spent on literacy and numeracy - bring back the language blocks or language experience!

Back to the ducks. A great mini study, a teachable moment -we used to call them one day wonders. The duck shooting season opens Friday 1st May.

What are students' first questions and prior ideas.

Why do we have a game bird shooting season?
What are game birds? Research species; groups or individuals could study one in particular.
What species are called game birds?
Where are the ducks,and other species, to be found?
What are the life cycles, habitats of such birds?
What are the shooting rules? What happens if the rules are broken? Who enforces the law?
What is the police advice about using guns?
What kind of guns are used.
When do shooter hunt? What is a duck shooting dog? What are decoys or maimais?
Has shooting anything to do with conservation and sustainability?

Students could undertake observational drawing of birds ( from photos) and use these drawings as visual research to draw, paint, crayon, some expressive scenes.

While drawing new questions might come to mind and also thoughts to be refined into poems.

A lot of potential learning from a few ducks!

Far more fun than repeating all those hollow technocratic educational catch phrases.

My advice - keep you mind open to anything that might inspire learning .

Forget about all your planned units -an 'emergent' curriculum is the curriculum of the 21stC -and it is the way we all learn.

Our focus ought to be on widening our (and our students) areas of interest. John Dewey trumps John Hattie and the other ivory tower academics, all those formulaic literacy and numeracy contracts, the 20th century obsession with measurement, and the Ministry technocrats.

A take on the current politically inspired changes. A modern myth

Measurement mad technocrats, ivory tower academics, and limited vision politicians have far too much influence in education - time we all woke up! A satirical view from my friend Mac from Auckland.

A Bunch of Nasty Statistics

A small tear in the time space continuum had seen the beginning of a new era in the land of Edu Ka Shun. Patrician Anatoly had been replaced and in schools all around the land there had been great anticipation as to the direction that the incoming Patrician would take.

The first action taken by the new patrician had been the calling together of all the Bureau Rats with an explanation demanded of them about the state of education and the expectations of student outcomes on a national basis. The new Patrician had caused much whispering and incredulous looks when holding up a publication that all but a few had forgotten about over the preceding years. This publication it seemed was one the new Patrician intended to ensure was implemented in schools as he felt its intent was such that it would provide students across the country with the basis of a life long education based on the acquisition of thinking skills and using approaches that favoured and supported creative learning opportunities. The older Bureau Rats of course remembered this document - the revised NZC- and the time of its intended implementation namely around the same time as Patrician Anatoly had taken the reigns of power.

Initially it had seemed the revised NZC was to be the saviour for Edu Ka Shun, which for many years had been tied up with approaches based on educational minutiae and an expectation that all learning was linear in its outcomes. The new approach that favoured inquiry and allowing students to set and pursue their learning goals was welcomed as a means of allowing creative and thoughtful teachers the ability to provide programmes of work that were student centred and interesting. However, the expectation had not become the reality.

In a short space of time Patrician Anatoly had launched a bunch of Nasty Statistics on schools throughout the country and as these settled new outcomes began to become evident. The Pointy Hats, who remained well removed from classrooms, continued to provide an on going source of Nasty Statistics and these regularly invaded schools by means of media statements and publications from the Bureau Rats. Consequently, and in spite of various opposition from concerned parents and school leaders, the Nasty Statistics and their sidekicks the League Tables had subsumed the revised NZC. So a great despondency settled on the land of Edu Ka Shun as schools evaluated, assessed, graphed, reported, assessed some more and reported some more as was expected by the Pointy Hats and the Short Term Acolytes who provided the Patrician with the necessary “public support” for the continuing infiltration of Nasty Statistics.

It would be true to state however that there had been pockets of dissent and defiance in some places throughout this time because a group named the Creative Pedagogues had continued to ply their trade and enable students to be involved in a range of curriculum areas that included The Arts. These Creative Pedagogues while recognising the importance of Reading, Writing and Maths had also continued to expose students to the full range of curriculum through programmes that in fact mirrored the expectations of the revised NZC. They had been encouraged in their endeavours by the writings and statements emanating from Bryce Hambones and his able lieutenant Nug Backstop. It was speculated that these statements and their creators, originated from a hidden location in the shadow of Mt Taranaki however this was never substantiated. Suffice it to say that the statements gave much support to those embattled Creative Pedagogues and it is speculated that without this support many may well have begun to question their beliefs and could well have withered and vanished in the overwhelming mass of Nasty Statistics that had become the norm. Even as the dreaded Performance Pay lapped the shores of the land, in the wake of the attacks by the Nasty Statistics and the scourge of the League Tables, these Creative Pedagogues continued to recognise the talents of students even to the extent of providing for Dance and Drama, and Art and Music on a regular basis. Thankfully, the Pointy Hats had not yet found a way of launching their Nasty Statistics at these and the Patrician saw no merit in doing so while schools remained up to their ears in documentation already.

Much incisive, investigative writing published by Bevin Scythe, of Awa Waikato, also contributed to the challenges that were made from time to time against the reported comments made by Patrician Anatoly. Scythe’s comments served to provide the basis whereby leaders of schools could examine their own school's assessment practices and counter in some way the on-going attacks by the Nasty Statistics. This became even more important in those schools where the Nasty Statistics and the ever-present League Tables highlighted the gaps caused in no small part by the economic conditions prevailing in school communities. Consequently, and thankfully, Scythe’s stance also did a great deal to ensure the practice of labelling students with an L on their forehead remained in place for only a short period of time. This practice, which applied generally in places where the Nasty Statistics were most prevalent, was only used for those who had not measured up to the Pointy Hats expectations in terms of their learning and as it was done with felt tip pen it was not seen as a cause for on going concern. Scythe’s writings constantly challenged those of the Pointy Hats, with their simplistic approaches to learning, and provided a more realistic and student based philosophical approach.

Yet the accepted view, continually reiterated through the media and from the Short Term Acolytes, was that Edu Ka Shun was on the right track and improvements were just around the corner. It is disappointing that this stance was also the one often adopted by the Philosophically Challenged brigade who sought to enhance their own status by recourse to published comment that supported the bleakness that the Nasty Statistics wrought even though this stance ran counter to the mainstream view of educationalists around the world. Inevitably though change would happen.

It was now some years later and as earlier noted the new Patrician was ready to change the face of Edu Ka Shun. Yet it was not quite as simple as that as the Patrician needed some research to show the Bureau Rats that the long-term answer was in fact the revised NZC. He therefore instructed senior members of the Erroneous Reporting Officials to prepare reports that in fact showed the advantages of his new approach and if no sound evidence was available they were to use Executive Summaries or other such obscuration to enable positive press statements to be made. To highlight the importance of this reporting the new Patrician reminded the Erroneous Reporting Officials that a spell in the classroom for all of them was a distinct possibility and this certainly had the desired effect on the resulting research outcomes. By now too the Bureau Rats had fallen into line and were regularly agreeing with the new Patrician and so the future for Edu Ka Shun land looked bright.

It needs to be remembered however that changes elsewhere seem inevitably to impact on Edu Ka Shun and just when teachers seem settled and meeting the expected outcomes of the current Patrician……….


With thanks to the contribution made by the writings of Terry Pratchett who noted in his book “Moving Pictures”:

'You get just one chance. You live for maybe seventy years and if you're lucky you get one chance. Think of all the natural skiers who are born in deserts, Think of all the genius blacksmiths who were born hundreds of years before anyone invented the horse. All the skills that are never used. All the wasted chances.'

Our kids deserve every chance let’s not waste any on disproved ideologies.

Inquiring into Anzac Day

After exploring, students 'prior ideas' and questions about ANZAC Day, class discussions, and researching articles and pictures, students drafted out, and wrote up, their own thoughts. The challenge included appropriately illustrating the topic. A range of skills ( 'literacies') need to be in place to complete such a task.


Alert teachers ( we need more of them) are always on the lookout for inspirational ideas to introduce to their class - ANZAC Day is one such opportunity.

ANZAC Day is an ideal way to develop inquiry skills to your children while at the same time developing some important ideas about what it is to be New Zealander.

Such a study could be introduced before ANZAC Day and concluded after Anzac Day is over.


The 'new' New Zealand Curriculum asks schools to develop: 'Students who are competent thinkers and problem solvers (who) actively seek, use and create knowledge.They reflect on their own learning, draw on personal knowledge and intuition, ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions.'


To do this it is important for students to be motivated by 'real life', meaningful challenges from across the curriculum that make use of whatever Learning Areas( disciplines) are required.

It would seem obvious that literacy ( and where possible numeracy) programmes should be integrated with current class studies. Students need, the curriculum says, to be able to , 'critically interrogate texts', and to, 'receive, process and present ideas or information'.

Students need both to 'make meaning' of ideas or information as well as 'creating their own meanings' from such information.

A close read of many current student research presentations would show that this is not being achieved. There is little of the tentative , 'I think', 'it could be', 'this suggests'; phrases that show students own 'voice', rather than 'cutting and pasting'.

Students need to be taught stages in research writing following their investigations.

They need to be able to focus their research on a few key questions, and to take notes about ideas they feel relevant to their queries. They also need to be shown a organisational format to assist them present their ideas - essentially, their study question, possibly their current thinking or 'prior ideas',their research, and data and finally conclusions and references.

What are your students prior ideas about what ANZAC Day stands for?
How could they find out more about the day?
How could they express what they have found out.

Teachers need to gather ANZAC resources to share or display in the class.

They also need to be taught a range of design and presentation formats suitable for the students ages. If a booklet is to be produced of their findings, each page needs to be thought through carefully, including any illustrations and graphical data.

Such design skills are best taught by means of student exercise books which offers a means for each students to observe their growth, both in presentation and content.

That teaching such information gathering and interpreting skills are important is reflected by a recent Nationwide survey that showed that the current workforce is lacking in such skills. The lack of interpretive literacy and numeracy skills suggest a greater emphasis on the applied use of them in the school system. And the earlier the better.

Literacy and numeracy are integral to ensuring students are their own users, seekers, and creators' and to create schools as 'communities of inquiry'; tapping the intellectually curiosity of students.

And developing exciting student studies is the key to achieving this. The 'new' curriculum wisely suggests that students need to do 'fewer thing well' so as to develop this, all to often missing,in-depth thinking.

Autumn - a chance to develop inquiry skills

Many schools seem to have got into the habit of collaboratively planning one major ( often school wide) study a term. While this may have some advantages it often means that the idea of introducing small seasonal studies, or current events like volcano eruptions, are overlooked.

Autumn is too good not to take advantage of.


All too often the results of Autumn studies seen in many classes ( usually Junior rooms) are superficial, to say the least, but this need not be the case.

If there are deciduous trees in, or near, the school grounds what a brilliant opportunity to develop a small integrated study.

The study could be prefaced with the provocation, 'Why do some trees lose their leaves?' Such questions introduce an inquiry approach to the students.

A good idea is to listen to the students' answers to the question and for these to be recorded and displayed as, 'Our prior, or first, ideas'.

The teacher could start the thinking process off by bringing along a few leaves to show to the class followed by a walk to visit trees in the school ground or nearby park. This is a chance to get the students to develop skills of sensory awareness - skills all too often lost in today's busy world.

Get the students to throw leaves around, to kick them with their feet, to select a range of leaves, or to collect leaves in different stages of colouring ( a good idea is to use a digital camera to collect stages of change). Children could be asked to write a few thoughts about what they can see, hear and what they are wondering about - these thoughts can be tidied up back in class and new questions to research added to the display. On idea is to do a three line poem: one thought about leaves on the tree; one thought about a leaf falling; and one thought about the leaves on the ground. After refining these thoughts make up a simple haiku.

Back in class students could do detailed observational drawings -this will be more impressive if students are instructed to look carefully for patterns and to draw what they see with care - continually looking back to the leaf they are drawing to collect accurate visual data. If drawn in black ink they can be coloured in and added to the wall display. While drawing student's can be asked what thought have come to mind.

At this stage students could head to reference books or to the computer to research what it is that makes some trees lose their leaves and why. Their answers could be added to the display. Innovative teachers could get their students to digitally record the stages of leaf colouration. Another idea is to count the number of leaves in a defined strip from the base of the trunk to several metres away from the tree and graph the results.

During literacy time poems could be introduced and selected lines used for handwriting. How to write up report or thoughts could be drafted during this time.

Students could also choose a particular tree to study - perhaps one in their own garden or street. Interesting vocabulary could be added to the display.

Teachers usually have range of creative ideas to call upon but one idea is for students to draw /paint/crayon 'magic' Autumn leaves to make a composite Autumn tree for the class wall.

If teachers were to really study Autumn leaves with such an intensity then the results would be anything but superficial.

We all love seeing the colour of Autumn - it is a sign of the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter.

Creativity or standardisation - the choice we face.

It seem a given that schooling is a good thing but is it? Schooling has both the power to open learners to new horizons or restrict them to past thinking; the reactionary ‘new’ national standards are case in point.

From Homer Simpson: ‘How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides anytime I learn something new it pushes old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that course on home winemaking and I forgot how to drive.’

Let’s hope that the exciting new New Zealand Curriculum isn’t sidelined by an unhealthy emphasis on National’s standards which are more political than educational. An emphasis on standardized ‘best practice’ teaching (which morph into ‘fixed practice’) has been growing since Tomorrows Schools and, as a result, an emphasis literacy and numeracy has crowded out other equally important learning areas. There is all too often a terrible sameness in many classes I visit. Who really wants to see classrooms full of ‘standardized’ charts, language and paintings? Too many schools have overdone ‘teaching intentions’, ‘success criteria, ‘scaffolding’, and ‘feedback’ to the detriment of creativity. National standards are the last straw in this managerial approach to teaching.

We desperately need a return to the creative teaching best exemplified by the writing of Elwyn Richardson in his wonderful book ‘In the Early World’. The teachers I have admired over the decades always believed that it is vitally important to establish classrooms where students’ experiences, voice, questions, and points of view are valued, celebrated, and expanded by thoughtful teaching.

My advice is not to be hoodwinked by the standards but to focus on developing classroom as creative learning communities that value the reality of the students. We need to escape from current trends towards standardization and move to a more personalized approach. In a creative future all students need to have their gifts and talents developed and their desire to learn kept alive and well.

Thankfully there are still teachers in our schools with valuable insights to share about how to develop creativity. The challenge for us is to find such teachers and develop informal networks to share their ideas. In the past teachers could look to the advisory services but this is no longer the case; in the future schools will be swarming with ‘best practice’ literacy and numeracy advisers.

Now is the time to focus on what is known about establishing success orientated learning environments. The politicians like to talk about ‘achievement tails’ ( created by their collective inaction about facing up to the well research effects of poverty) and offer simplistic solutions no matter that they have failed when applied in other countries. Those who understand how people learn know better.

David Perkins, along with others, suggests that the key is for students to be involved in realistic whole tasks and to learn appropriate skills (such as literacy and numeracy) in context. Creative teachers have always known this but all too often schooling is fragmented, particularly as students move through the system.

Eliot Eisner, Howard Gardner and Sir Ken Robinson all believe in creativity and that students need to interpret and express their ideas by tapping a range of talents, or intelligences. Creative teachers have always appreciated such individual differences and reject a standardized ‘one size fits all’ approach

From people like Art Costa and Guy Claxton we gain insight into the importance of developing positive ‘habits of mind’ or ‘learning power’ – the ‘key competencies’ of our sidelined New Zealand Curriculum. Once again this is nothing new for creative teachers who have always understood the importance of developing positive attitudes.

There is a vital need to return to the neglected research of the 1980s Waikato University ‘Learning In Science Project’ (along with the more recent research of Graeme Nuttal). Both illustrate the importance of valuing students’ prior ideas and skills in any area of learning. Personal constructivism is the essence of creativity.

And we need to look to Kelvin Smythe who has long believed in the power of creative teachers rather than technocratic solutions. Smythe writes about the importance of developing in students a ‘feeling for’ whatever they are learning; when students become so involved they are transformed in the process. This is about learning by doing fewer things well. Mihaly Csikskentmihalyi calls this ‘flow’; hard to measure but vitally important to experience for failing learners.

Daniel Pink’s latest book, ‘A whole New Mind: Drive’, subtitled ‘the surprising truth about what motivates us’, is truly exciting. He writes that for too long school have relied on an extrinsic ‘carrot and stick approach’ (or ‘name and blame’). The three things, he writes, that motivate us all are: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Real learning is achieved when the joy of learning is its own reward We need to help our students ‘direct their own lives’, to ‘learn and create new things’ and to continually ‘better themselves’ and his challenge to us is apply this to education. Students need clear purposes, immediate feedback and challenges well matched to their abilities Creative teachers, like Elwyn Richardson, have long appreciated the power of personal purpose.

Pink writes to develop creativity teachers need to focus on introducing their students to interesting, challenging and absorbing tasks that, by deepening learning and by doing ones best, are reward in themselves. An obsession with goals ( implicit in our governments standards) and extrinsic rewards are problematic to Pink as they narrow focus, reduce risk taking, encourage dependency, replace intrinsic motivation, and crush creativity.

Quoting Deci and Ryan (experts on intrinsic motivation) Pink writes that, ‘If there is anything fundamental about our nature it’s the capacity for interest. Some things facilitate it. Some things undermine it.’ It is this inner drive to follow interests that must be protected all costs. As Jerome Bruner wisely wrote many years ago, ‘teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation.’

What creates failure is something as simple as what Pink calls lack of ‘grit’ – the ability to persist and not give up. Young children, he says, are born curious and self directed but all too this is lost because formal schooling has ‘flipped their default setting’. Students need to learn to make choices over what they do and how they do it .We are all born to be players not pawns and we all resent compliance.

Pink writes enthusiastically about the research of psychology professor Carol Dweck who believes that the ability to learn or fail is in our heads. What we think shapes what we learn, or fail to learn. If kids believe they are born ‘smart’ (or ‘dumb’) learning is difficult. Smart people don’t like new learning that involves risk and ‘dumb’ kids just don’t even try. In contrast, if students see learning (working towards mastery) as a result of their continual effort, they find learning easier and take setbacks in their stride.

Developing positive mindsets in our students would be preferable to wasting time and energy implementing doubtful standards.

Principals ought to keep these well researched ideas about teaching and learning in mind and focus on creating ‘flow friendly environments’ ; motivating environments for both teachers and students to achieve autonomy, personal mastery and a sense of purpose. Unlike Homer Simpson we must not let the distraction of ‘new’ standards cause us to forget what education for a creative age is all about.

Motivation - the drive to learn.

Daniel Pink’s latest book, ‘A whole New Mind: Drive’, subtitled ‘the surprising truth about what motivates us’, is truly exciting.

He writes that for too long school have relied on an extrinsic ‘carrot and stick approach’ (or ‘name and blame’). The three things, he writes, that motivate us all are: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Real learning is achieved when the joy of learning is its own reward We need to help our students ‘direct their own lives’, to ‘learn and create new things’ and to continually ‘better themselves’ and his challenge to us is apply this to education.

Students need clear purposes, immediate feedback and challenges well matched to their abilities. Creative teachers, like Elwyn Richardson, have long appreciated the power of personal purpose.

Pink writes to develop creativity teachers need to focus on introducing their students to interesting, challenging and absorbing tasks that, by deepening learning and by doing ones best, are reward in themselves. An obsession with goals ( implicit in our governments standards) and extrinsic rewards are problematic to Pink as they narrow focus, reduce risk taking, encourage dependency, replace intrinsic motivation, and crush creativity.

Quoting Deci and Ryan (experts on intrinsic motivation) Pink writes that, ‘If there is anything fundamental about our nature it’s the capacity for interest. Some things facilitate it. Some things undermine it.’ It is this inner drive to follow interests that must be protected all costs. As Jerome Bruner wisely wrote many years ago, ‘teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation.’

What creates failure is something as simple as what Pink calls lack of ‘grit’ – the ability to persist and not give up. Young children, he says, are born curious and self directed but all too this is lost because formal schooling has ‘flipped their default setting’. Students need to learn to make choices over what they do and how they do it .We are all born to be players not pawns and we all resent compliance.

Pink writes enthusiastically about the research of psychology professor Carol Dweck who believes that the ability to learn or fail is in our heads. What we think shapes what we learn, or fail to learn. If kids believe they are born ‘smart’ (or ‘dumb’) learning is difficult. Smart people don’t like new learning that involves risk and ‘dumb’ kids just don’t even try. In contrast, if students see learning (working towards mastery) as a result of their continual effort, they find learning easier and take setbacks in their stride.

Principals ought to keep these well researched ideas about teaching and learning in mind and focus on creating friendly motivating environments for both teachers and students to achieve autonomy, personal mastery and a sense of purpose.

We must not let the distraction of ‘new’ standards cause us to forget what education for a creative age is all about. Developing positive mindsets in our students would be preferable to wasting time and energy implementing doubtful standards. Personalisation of learning by developing every students' passions , gifts and talents , rather than standardisation and conformity, are the future.

Daniel Pink's book is a must for all those schools and teachers who value creativity .It is an ideal antidote to the current imposition of conforming educational standards

Highly recommended.

Wrong 'default' position?

A lot of people students still know lived their formative years in the 1940s and such individuals would make a great primary source to research to note similarities and differences between then and now. Such topics make authentic, or rich, research studies for children in upper primary and middle schools and would to help such students get a 'feeling for ' life in such times as well as reinforcing inquiry mindsets.

When visiting primary and middle school classes it is not hard to see the 'default position' of most teachers.Literacy and numeracy times take up the 'prime time' during the day - study topics and the creative arts are all too often a 'tack on'.

This is the opposite to my own position and the creative teachers I have worked with over the years. For 'us' the current study topic played a central role and provided the 'energy' for much of the rest of the day - particularly the language block ( now called by the narrower term the literacy block).

If I were to ever be a teacher again ( not very likely as it all looks too hard to me) I would place inquiry central to almost all learning and make use of a language arts or experience based approach to develop students deep understanding. Language time needs to be integrated with the afternoon inquiry programme. I know this happens but it is the emphasis that worries me; the lack of emphasis on the study content in literacy time.

Maybe it is times to give up literacy and numeracy almost ruling supreme.


I was pleased to read recently of how a research based organisation that had outlined how their innovative strategies could be applied to learning ( ironic because this was once the case for many teachers).

The 'default' position to achieve this would be to place student creativity at centre and see literacy and numeracy as means to achieve in depth learning - a change of emphasis; a 're framing' of literacy.

The problem solving research model suggested was:

1 Start with project brief - the set of challenges and questions that give the class a framework to begin and some benchmarks by which they can measure progress. The final results , class, group, and individual, become authentic assessments of the learning that has been achieved. At this stage it is important to gauge the current understandings ( 'prior knowledge')and skills the students have. Some of the outcomes will also include aspects of creative language and the arts.


2 Ask 'How might we..?' Well crafted inquiry questions will drive the process. If answers can be provided by 'google' they're the wrong questions! By requiring such things as similarities and contrasts such superficial learning can be avoided. It is at this stage the language arts time can be used to introduce content and to teach necessary inquiry and expressive skills. A range of resources that contribute to the study needs to be gathered as primary resources to sift and sort through requiring real information gathering skills. The classroom walls can begin to show the inquiry process and be added to as ideas are developed. Displays can be set up to motivate thinking.

3 Form research teams. All good projects require both individual and team effort. Such teams in business are typically small, focused and interdisciplinary. Groups will be working to research different aspects and requires considerable teacher input to see tasks chosen are focused and suitable.

4 To begin teams might start with brainstorming to develop ideas to follow up. To work well rules need to be in place - defer judgement, encourage wild ideas, stay focused on the topic and , most important of all, build on the ideas of others. Such brainstorming and idea clarification make ideal language time tasks.

5 Embrace the mess. Nothing in real life works out as planned.New ideas and directions will emerge and may need to be followed up. This 'emergence' is at the heart of real research. Design thinkers learn how to embrace the mess - such research is a creative process not one of following pre-set plans. Students need to be helped to see the patterns and relationships as they present themselves and a creative teacher is great asset to assist students draw things together.

6 'Go with the flow and learn to let go'. As the project unfolds ideas will come together to produce finished pieces of research, art , language or whatever media students have settled on. There are range of media available for students to present their idea to each other (and to their parents and the wider community). The classroom walls need to show progress, completed artifacts and work in progress. Keeping all the 'stuff' visible is important to assist students see patterns and possibilities. It also gives students opportunities to see and talk about each others work.

Many teachers currently use aspects of such an inquiry model but to work well it needs to be the 'default mode for' all teachers. Learning is an 'emergent' activity and not one that can be planned in advance as is all too often the case.

It is how some of us used to work in the past.

Big ideas about school leadership

At a early New Zealand Principal's Conference I heard Australian educator Hedley Beare say the an ideal 'leader' principal would be a customised Indiana Jones - ready and able to take risks and happily cut through red tape but aways on the side of righteousness.

Such 'leadership' is not part of the DNA of many principals who prefer to play it safe and comply with imposed regulations. I see schools going along , to get along, with National Standards.

Recently I read on the Internet list of ten big ideas of school leadership written by a Middle School Principal of the Year.They seemed to make sense to me So I have picked them over to share with whoever reads this.

1 The focus of 'your' school must be on the success of kids 100% of the time. All too often, it seems, we try to fit kids into our expectations and in the process ignore the ideas, questions, points of view, and talents the students bring with them. And we see any conflict with students as a problem rather then as a means to work out a mutual better solutions.

2 Leaders need to create a vision,write it down,and start implementing it. It is important not to put your vision in drawer and forget about it and hope for the best. Every decision must be aligned against the vision and beliefs that underpin it. The whole school community is watching when you make a decision so consistency, by referencing decisions against the vision, is important.

3 It's the people stupid. The secret of managing is to keep the people who hate you away from those who are undecided. Hire people who support your vision, who are prepared to learn and who like kids.

4 Keep the paddles in the water. When navigating dangerous rapids in raft the only way to succeed is for everyone in the boat to sit on the edge and paddle really hard even though everyone would rather sit in the centre where it is safer. In times of school crisis everybody must be involved.

5 Find time to think and worry during the day. You are never always going to have a good days so it is OK to stare at the wall, reflect on the vision, and think about how to make necessary changes. Value input from other but ask those who provide it to provide possible solutions as well.

6 Take responsibility for the good and bad. The solutions to problems are almost always right in front of you; the genius of the school lies within the school. Imposed solutions have their consequences. Don't give away your responsibility.

7 You have ultimate responsibility. Have very clear expectations derived from the school vision and beliefs and then make sure people have the knowledge, resources, and time to accomplish expectations. Autonomy is the goal but actions need to be within the bounds of the vision.

8 Have bias for yes. The only progress you ever make in life involves risk.Ideas that teachers and others may suggest may seem a little crazy but try to makes such requests into a yes. Use the vision as a self reference and encourage others to do so.

9 Consensus is over rated. Twenty percent of the people will be against anything. When you realize this you avoid compromising what really should be done because you stop watering things down.If you always reach consensus you are being led by the 20%

10 Large changes need to be done quickly. If you wait too long to make changes to a school culture you have already sanctioned mediocre behaviour because you are allowing it.That is when change is hard. Define with the staff the behaviours required by the vision and belief and hold people accountable to them.

Seems like good advice if principals want to be real leaders!

A lesson from the UK re Standards

Our Government is determined to going ahead with imposing of National Standards against the advice of teachers and reacted New Zealand educators. Only John Hattie is with them (I think) .His organisation is setting itself up to provide ( distort) the future direction for education in New Zealand with its obsession on 'objective' testing.

The technocrats, fragmenting and measuring learning bits, are wining over those with a holistic progressive educational beliefs.

In the meantime the standards experiments are being shown to fail in the UK and the US while the most successful country, Finland, wins the literacy and numeracy race without them.They have put their faith on trusting a well educated teaching profession! Ironically New Zealand is well ahead of of the UK and the US.

I received the following message to one of my recent blogs and thought it worth sharing.

'I have been reading and using parts of your blog for a couple of years and it has inspired me to change how I teach.

However, when I read of what is happening in New Zealand I despair.

Here in the UK the system of standards, top down curricula, league tables has failed.The profession - at the grass roots, teachers and heads - have lost confidence in the government but appears to have no influence on policy makers.

In New Zealand you should be very sceptical of this political dogmatism. It will paint your system into a corner over the next decades.Politicians should have nothing to do with curricula, standards and testing - this should be purely a professional matter.

Strike!
Campaign!
Protest!'

A lesson for Mrs Tolley?

Education is all about changing your mind when facing new evidence. Mrs Tolley ( NZ's shrill Minister of Education) by this definition fails relying on simplistic sound bites to answer all critics. She would , however, do well to read about Diane Ravitch's astonishing about face before it is too late and we all head down the American failed way to a standardised McDonald's approach to learning.


Diane Ravitch has long been a passionate advocate of injecting greater competition and accountability into the US education system but she realized, three years ago, that her ideas had evolved to a point that she had changed her mind. In her latest book 'The Death of the Great American School System; How Testing and Choice are undermining Education' she makes it clear she no longer supports market orientated reform strategies in education and the current national testing regime.

Diane Ravitch may not be well known in New Zealand but she gained a formidable influence in the Republican -dominated 1980s becoming assistant secretary of education in the 90s and since then has become a much sought after policy analyst and research scholar. In the nearly 20 books she had previously written she has weighed in against progressive education focusing on free market solutions to educational problems.

Her turnaround has become the buzz of school policy circles; lets hope it can be heard as far away as our beehive!

Ravitch, who once supported requirements for testing in maths and reading, now writes that this emphasis has squeezed out other vital subjects and has encouraged teachers to narrow their curriculum by teaching to the tests. This emphasis , she now believes , is undermining public education.


This is ironic because no one has done more in the past than Ms Ravitch to drive home the messages of accountability and testing. She now knows the testing agenda has not raised student achievement and now sees that testing has became not just a way to measure student learning, but an end in itself.

'Accountability', she writes, ' was not raising standards but dumbing down the schools'. 'Accountability has turned to test cramming and bean counting, often limited to reading and maths'. She told a convention of school superintendents that the accountability programmes were ' ill conceived, compared with those nations with the best performing schools. Nations like Finland and Japan..we are on the wrong track'.

Mrs Ravitch traces the start of the deterioration from the effort to introduce top down balanced literacy approaches to reading - it became a formula that was replicated in increasingly heavy handed ways. When such an approach was tied to accountability ( 'league tables') she began her turnaround and her criticism of such a narrower approach. A scenario that is being replicated in New Zealand - and one that has already failed in the UK.

She writes, 'School reform is like a freight train, and I am out on the tracks saying, you're going the wrong way!'

How can we ignore such a revelation in New Zealand?

Along the way she also skewers much of President Obama's agenda for improving the nations schools with the president's keenness to introduced national standards ( an improved version on No Child Left Behind testing) and the growing emphasis on using test school data to guide educational decision making. Standards based reform is a 'formula for incoherence and obfuscation'. It is she says, 'A high jacking of public education'. 'You can't have a rich and full education by teaching only basic skills'.

It is not often that one of the fields most influential thinkers publicly reverses themselves. But it does show that Ms Ravitch has the courage to do so .She now believes that a collaboration and trust model would work better than a market and competitiveness model. She now appreciates that the previous competitive model was a threat to the traditional public neighbourhood schools and democracy itself. We need reform that supports the professional wisdom of teachers. One of the worst ideas Mrs Ravitch now believes is to make our schools work like a business' That trend, she says, 'threatens to destroy public education' - 'Who will stand up to the tycoons and politicians and tell them so'?

Mrs Tolley,and her Ministry apologists, cannot write off Mrs Ravitch's new position as 'mischievous' as she has sidelined those who have dared criticize her within New Zealand

Ravitch's epiphany needs to be taken seriously before it is too late in New Zealand.

Is Mrs Tolley up to it?I fear not but we have been warned


Post script: an extract from Diane Ravitch's blog 6th March 2010.

' My hope for the book is that it will provoke a counteroffensive against misguided policies.These misguided policies...have the support of the most powerful people in our society, including our best known pundits and editorialists'.

'I do not agree that our schools are overrun with terrible teachers.Part of the goal of my book is to discredit the current knee jerk reaction of editorials and public officials, who blame teachers for everything that goes wrong with the schools. Blaming the teachers lets everyone else off the hook: families, the media, the popular culture, policy makers, and the students themselves. The overwhelming majority of our nation's teachers are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances with not enough support from society, parents, the media.'

Wish there was the moral courage for some Ministry people I used to admire to speak with such honesty - but then they would lose their jobs.

Weighing the Pig -an exercise in national Standards testing

Another fable from my guest presenter Mac. It is obvious that the idea of each school working out each kid's standard will be become a nightmare of data collecting and inter school moderation and that, sooner or later, a national test system will be imposed. And then on to league tables...


It was Wednesday 9.30 a.m. the 5th week of Term 3 and in all classrooms, in all schools throughout Aotearoa, children were preparing to commence their National Standard test in Writing. Teachers were now able to open the sealed instructions and start their children on the test taking care of course not to give any instruction.

Janice read through the instructions and rolled her eyes skyward as she realized what her class would be writing about “What I Did Last Night.” “How absolutely pathetic”, thought Janice, “after all the interesting writing we have completed this year to ask my kids to write about this. Well Johnny will be OK he will just write -‘keeping out of Dad’s way’. Wonder what level that gives him when it’s marked? Nathan will be fine too he will make up a wonderful story about last night, most of it untrue yet very readable. He has the makings of a politician or a real estate salesman!! and the majority of the girls will be fine. Oh well let’s get this over with.”

George was thrilled when he started his class on the writing task. “Great, we’ve been practicing this all year”, he thought to himself,“the class should do well and their results should help the school’s overall scores. I’m sure my class will remember the stuff I’ve shown them for completing a test like this and the boss will be thrilled with the outcomes.”

“You poor kids,” thought Leanne. “All year we have worked on your creative writing, using your wonderful ideas and expressing yourselves in a lively and colorful style and now you are asked to write this boring stuff. Oh well I’m sure you have remembered enough of the work we did on adjectives and such like to be able to handle this task. If only those who implemented this sort of time wasting had come and asked me I could have provided them all the information they needed on the achievements of my class including those for a range of competencies in addition to just Writing.”

Meanwhile in an office far removed from the classrooms of Aotearoa, both physically and philosophically, the Minister with Responsibility for Eliminating Creative Teaching was discussing with her colleague the Minister with Responsibility for Lowering Unemployment the outcomes of the surveys both their departments had just completed. “Its easy for you,” stated the MRECT. “If your results come in worse you just issue a statement that says it’s because there are less jobs and the public accept this. The results of the testing we have done so far show that the achievement tail is still sitting at 5% with another 20% somewhat below expectations and it doesn’t matter how I spin it the outcome has remained the same over the last two terms. I wonder if we introduce two tests a term if this would help? I will go back to the experts in my Ministry and ask them.”

Janice headed off to morning tea sombre, but not distraught, about what she viewed as a farcical waste of a morning in terms of kids’ learning yet by the time she had finished her coffee was thinking about the Maths lesson after play and how she would make it interesting for the class and cheer up herself, and them, by making it a fun time.

George was careful to sit next to the principal at morning tea time and told her how well his class had handled the Writing test. In his usual “eager beaver” manner he was looking forward to getting on to Maths after play and giving the kids the necessary skills to handle the Maths test later in the term. It was no surprise that after play when the principal visited his room the class were all working quietly from the same page in the Math's text book practicing algorithms that could possibly appear in the next National Standard test.

Leanne whistled as she quickly planned the rest of her day. Natalie bringing the baby rabbit to school gave her the ideal motivation to fill the rest of the day with some child-centred activity. Onto the whiteboard she wrote the outline of activities for the class so that they could work at their own pace on research, observational drawing, creative writing, music, dance and other forms of presentation. I’ll catch up with the Maths tomorrow she thought this is too good an opportunity to miss and will give me the chance to work with those who need some additional help- the help my own assessment indicated. She sipped her tea and added her planning notes into her planning folder just in case someone wanted to see why she had not followed her original day’s plan.

Meanwhile in an office far removed.…

Kids from Chaos - our achievement tail?

In education we are often quick to label students with the intention of assisting them but all too often labels end up as an excuse for not helping such students by placing the blame outside of the teaching learning process- deficit theory. One writer has added another group to the list KFC kids( kids from chaos). Kids with no boundaries - like living in spaghetti!


I have always thought that it is the lack of authenticity about our programmes that all too often create the various categories of failing students in our society. Such students do not fit into 'our' preplanned programmes - success being assessed as students going along with what is offered. 'One size fits most of the students' - the rest are sacrificed; standardization only suits standard kids!

Even so called child centred primary classrooms , as friendly as they look, are strongly teacher determined as a result of imposed formulaic 'best practices'.

Students of chaos have their own definition. Like other 'at risk' students kids from chaos suffer but they have some important differences. They are frequently from poor or historically marginalized families but in addition to this they came from where chaos reigns.

In such homes adults are often absent busy working at low paying jobs, unemployed, or simply emotionally struggling to survive. As a result such students miss out on substantive relationships with powerful adults. Their lives are full of turmoil and unpredictability.

Such students struggle academically ( not having acquired the pre-requisite literacy skills schools demand of them) ; they have no experience at self organising skills gained through positive parental routines; as a result they feel alienated from school and all to often fall back on their default behaviours of acting out or withdrawing; they relate to similar peers for approval; rarely experience school success and, when all is added together, have little vision of a positive future and live for the moment.

If teachers reflect back to the needs of students, as outlined by William Glasser and others, some ideas of how to help such students succeed might come to mind. Whatever is decided a personalised approach to learning will be required - one that really values the experience each students brings the learning experience.

Glasser outlines five basic needs that all students need to be able to learn: power, mastery, belonging, safety, and fun. Unfortunately 'kids from chaos' ( KFC) all too often satisfy such needs with behaviours that are counter-productive to school learning.

When students behave inappropriately, as defined by the school, such students are labelled as 'at risk' and begin their career of school failure. From a personalisation perspective it is the schools that fail.

To ensure such children succeed teachers need to appreciate the circumstances that have created 'the areas of concern' and then to do everything they can to hep the KFC students gain the learning attributes that other students already have in place before they even enter school.

These students (all students) need benign routines to help them structure their day and any learning tasks. It helps such students to break down complex tasks into 'bite sized bits' ( 'scaffolding' or modeling learning) and for teachers to interact with them providing specific and immediate feedback.

Any such help needs to value each students 'voice' and point of view. If this is not a focus students can lose their individuality and creativity, a mark of a standardised programme.

The best studies will be those that come form the students own interests and questions (an 'emergent' curriculum) , so that, with appropriate help, students can feel their views are valued. This is important for all students and is the essence of personalised learning.

To gain involvement in class studies, or explorations, students need to be encouraged to make use of all their senses as, through such experiences, missing oral,and language pre-literacy skills can be developed. This is far preferable to remedial work using disconnected phonics approaches.

Such studies are a means to teach KFC students the basic research approaches that underpin discovery learning. With appropriate teacher assistance students will be able to produce work that they are proud of and that will inspire them to do better next time. This also applies to the various expressive activities that 'emerge' as possibilities . Students need to be reattached to the idea that they are their own 'meaning hunters and makers'. Displaying the work they have achieved will further reinforce the idea that they are all creators.


Such a personalised programme, combined with positive teacher assistance and benign routines, will provide the opportunities for KFC students to develop their own set of unique gifts and talents and help then see learning ( and school) as positive experience affirming their sense of self.

Such teaching, important for all students, is particularly vital for KFC students so as to fill the gaps that their chaotic lives have developed.

For me this is a validation of the discovery type programmes that were once a feature of our schools in 60/70s before the imposition of the standardised curriculum of the 80/90s.

We need to return to such powerful pedagogy - a pedagogy that values the 'artistry' of the teacher and the real lives of the students. If we do this we can make classrooms powerful learning environments for all students - but especially for 'at risk' and neglected kids.

It is these kids that will eventually contribute to the so called 'achievement tail' - one created by the impoverished teaching our schools provide, and one that will not be solved by further standardised teaching.

All students need to be helped to develop strong learning identities though such enriched experiences.