Inspired by Steve Wheeler: Pink Floyd – ‘teacher leave that child alone’. The difference between education and schooling. .

 

Watch Pink Floyd's video
 

‘We don’t want no education’, sang Pink Floyd but it would more accurate to have said ‘we don’t want no schooling’, because education and schooling are not always the same thing. And schooling wouldn’t have fitted into the tune so well.

Schooling



Steve Wheeler

‘Education’, writes Steve Wheeler in one of his blogs, ‘experienced in its pure form is liberating, mind expanding, and essential’ and continues, ‘often schooling fails to do that for children. School is about uniformity, standardisation and synchronisation of behaviour. Schooling is the industrial process children are put through by the state to ensure they become compliant to authority, inculcated into the skills of reading, writing and numeracy and systematically instructed ( and then tested) about the world about them. They are batch processed by age, their behaviour managed, their performance scrutinized, and there is little time for self-expression. One size has to fit all.’ This he continues is more indoctrination rather than ‘drawing out or to lead from within’ meaning that comes from the Latin word 'educere'.

What does this mean for teachers? Wheeler writes, 'you can either instruct from the front, or you can take a backseat and create opportunities for your students to learn for themselves.’ This is choice teachers make and, over a period of time it has

consequences. Wheeler quotes Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, ‘each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered for himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely’.

‘To draw out a child from within themselves, we must first accept that the child has something within them to give. Each has skills, abilities, knowledge, hopes, aspirations and individual personalities that can be nurtured, allowed to blossom, encouraged. Teachers who ignore this will not only fail to ‘draw out’ those individual attributes, they will deprive children from a wonderful spectrum of opportunities to learn for themselves.’

Whether children learn for themselves, or are instructed, depends on each teacher’s personal philosophy on education. Most teachers Wheeler writes ‘probably take the middle ground’ and continues ‘if they are honest they default to the instructional mode when they need to control behaviour, or to “get through” the content of the lesson.’

Only teachers who believe in the creativity within each learner will provide students with the space ‘to express themselves, explore and play, ask the “what if “questions and learn in their own style and at their own pace’. Wheeler believes a state education system cannot provide the flexibility for this kind of education to be realised and believes ‘the best we can hope for within the present system will be agile enough to interpret the curriculum that is imposed upon them in ways that offer children enough latitude to learn for themselves’.

So it seems children don’t need our schooling but they do need education – the drawing out and amplifying of their talents and gifts. In New Zealand we have had pioneer creative teachers who have done just this – the most recognised being Elwyn Richardson. And there are still teachers doing their best to continue this tradition – if only the technocrats and politicians would leave those teachers alone!

Elwyn Richardson

In her book Young Lives at Stake, written in the late 60s,Charity James wrote that ‘teachers are the hired assassins of students’ talents’. James’s book present ideas to complete transform secondary education so as to develop the talents and gifts of all students not just the academic. So far no country has yet to transform their schools to achieve this. Peter Drucker business philosopher has written that the first country to do this will win the 21^st C.

New Zealand could be such a country but not under the reactionary National Standards policies of the current government.  Ironically the current government, in its determination for schools to comply to such standards in literacy and numeracy is taking attention of the creativity implicit in the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum and, as well, will result in schools narrowing their curriculum and teaching to the standards to ensure they are being seen to succeed.

A more recent Educationalist Sir Ken Robinson has expressed, through his TED Video talks and books, a need to transform education – to shift them from Industrial age relics to 21^st C to  learning organisations based on creativity and the development of students’ talents. ‘Creativity ‘, he writes, ‘is as important as literacy and numeracy’. Sir Ken is not alone, educationalists from around the world are expressing the same need for transformation. Guy Claxton, echoing Sir Ken, has written in one of his books that ‘learnacy is as important as literacy and numeracy’.

For all this schools ignore the power of interest in learning and persist with schooling (the transference/transmission of knowledge) rather than education (drawing out what is within). The latter is not anti-knowledge but sees knowledge as a verb – a ‘doing word’- where students gain knowledge in the act of learning – preferably driven by personal interest. Learning in such an environment is personalised in contrast of the current emphasis on standardisation.

Jerome Bruner

My belief is that if schools focussed on education rather than schooling then we wouldn’t have the so called ‘achievement gap’ that politicians blame schools for. The reality is that these ‘failing’ children suffer an ‘opportunity gap’ – and narrowing the curriculum to literacy and numeracy is part of the problem. Rather teachers, according to educationalist Jerome Bruner, should ‘practice the canny art of intellectual temptation’ – curiosity will do the rest. Bruner also stated the obvious that ‘students get better at what they are good at’. Since learning is the default mode for humans this should be no problem.

Educational Readings- Obama: political courage? the neglected power of interest, Dean Fink and John Dewey

By Allan Alach

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

This week’s homework!

Political Cowardice Is Political Courage

Highly recommended article for all who live in GERM infected countries.

‘To be blunt, there isn’t a single courageous thing about the Obama education agenda and policies; in fact, the education policy of the Obama administration is built on and increases the exact commitments to standards, high-stakes testing, and punitive accountability measures begun in the early 1980s.’

http://bit.ly/Hk1b88

The GREAT Teachers & Principals Act will (not) fix our teachers

While written for and about the USA, this article has relevance all over.

‘In this current model, there are few incentives to attract the best and brightest into the field: long hours, high stress, little pay, and no respect.  On top of this, teachers are expected to pay for supplies out of their own pockets and to pay for and attend required professional development activities on their own time.  Why would someone who is at the top of their graduating high school class and has many career options become a teacher?’

http://bit.ly/1h78twp

Why the best literacy approaches are not reaching the classroom (via Michael Fawcett)

‘But Australia’s scores in international literacy tests aren’t dropping because the students who sit those tests don’t know their sounds. They are performing poorly because they cannot comprehend what they are reading. They have poor vocabularies and cannot follow sentences that employ more complex language structures. They cannot read between the lines.’

http://bit.ly/1e1yJ9o

Of course you don’t need qualified teachers in free schools. Or qualified brain surgeons, for that matter (via Michael Fawcett)

‘As the use of unqualified teachers in free schools has proved such a success, surely the Government must extend this method to other workplaces, such as

unqualified pilots?

operating theatres and nuclear submarines. The Royal Navy could use the same argument as Michael Gove, insisting there are plenty of excellent candidates who could command a nuclear sub, having fired torpedoes on Modern Warfare 2, but they’re put off by the red tape of having to prove they’re “qualified”, leaving our coast unprotected.’

http://ind.pn/1iCaPif

Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone!

Another article by Steve Wheeler, Associate Professor of learning technology in the Plymouth Institute of Education at Plymouth University. If you get a chance to attend a presentation by Steve, take it!

"We don't need your education"

‘To draw out a child from within themselves, we must first accept that the child has something within them to give. Every child has something unique to offer. Each has skills, abilities, knowledge, hopes, aspirations and individual personalities that can be nurtured, allowed to blossom, encouraged. Teachers who ignore this will not only fail to 'draw out' those individual attributes, they will also deprive children from a wonderful spectrum of opportunities to learn for themselves.’

http://bit.ly/16vN4Gi

The Power Of Interest

Another excellent article by Annie Murphy Paul.

‘In recent years researchers have begun to build a science of interest, investigating what interest is, how interest develops, what makes things interesting, and how we can cultivate interest in ourselves and others. They are finding that interest can help us think more clearly, understand more deeply, and remember more accurately. Interest has the power to transform struggling performers, and to lift high achievers to a new plane.’

http://bit.ly/1dGN1JF

Are gimmicks and trends getting in the way of teaching?

Anything that distracts teachers and school leaders from improving teaching and learning are cumbersome tools that only weigh us down, argues Alex Quigley

‘We can readily complicate our lessons by bunging them full of objectives, starters, potent plenaries, progress points, assessment for learning gimmicks, token literacy and numeracy – the list goes on and on.’

http://bit.ly/1b7zM0U

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

What Is Inquiry?

‘Inquiry is a study into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea. It is the authentic, real work that that someone in the community might tackle. It is the type of work that those working in the disciplines actually undertake to create or build knowledge. Therefore, inquiry involves serious engagement and investigation and the active creation and testing of new knowledge.’

http://bit.ly/1atmX63

Dean Fink on Personalizing Schools.

A flashback to an article Bruce wrote in 2005.

‘Fink concludes that the time and the times are right for heads to focus on personalized learning because ‘it promises to do what education is supposed to do, enhance deep learning for all students.’ I wonder when our politicians will pick up the ‘personalized learning’ phrase. I prefer it to the latest ‘eduspeak’, ‘learning competencies’, which our Ministry technocrats seem to be enamored with!’

http://bit.ly/1aonL6r

Experience and Education - John Dewey 1938

Another flashback to an article Bruce wrote in 2009.

Hey Chris Hipkins, read this.....

‘Such a lot of the ideas expressed today have their genesis in the ideas of John Dewey.That Dewey's ideas have yet to be fully realised says something for the power of conservatism in education. 'Experience in Education' is Dewey's most concise statement of his ideas written after criticism his theories received. In this book Dewey argues that neither 'traditional ' nor 'progressive ' ideas are adequate and he outlines a deeper point of view building on the best of both. The following are ideas he expresses in his book.’

http://bit.ly/17J12HR

Max Rashbrooke :N Z A Paradise Lost –now a land only fit for the rich. Inequality in NZ



What has happened to a fair go for all?

Recently I attended a meeting to hear Max Rashbrooke talk about the findings from the book he edited called ‘Inequality A New Zealand Crisis’ published 2013.

There are those who  suggest that the inequality gap will become a key election issue in 2014. The divide between the richest and poorest New Zealander has widened alarmingly over recent decades- faster than in most other developed countries. The effects of this inequality, the contributors to the book write, will affect us all.

God’s own country –  once supposedly the best place to bring up kids in the world, seems no longer to be the case. A country originally founded to escape the worst of the class structure of England seems to have given up on the idea of giving a fair go to all citizens. The view of many well off people now is that the poor are the authors of their own misfortune and only need to set about and pull up their socks and all will be well; there seems little empathy for those in difficult situations.

'Greed is good!"

Is this divided disconnected world of rich and poor to be our future? Is there an alternative?

The contributors in Rashbrooke’s book share a common concern about the societal risks posed by the growing severe income disparity and with a desire for the issue to be properly debated.

Since the 1980s the number of poor has doubled. No matter how one defines poverty it is obvious that there a growing number suffering stressful lives just to survive from day to day. In contrast the top 1 per cent owns three times as much wealth as the poorest 50 per cent. The rich are growing richer.

 Any free country will have differences in income but in New Zealand the gap is reaching a tipping point. Poverty is deepening for a growing number of citizens.  Child poverty is reaching between 170,000 and 270,000, somewhere between 1 in 5 of our young.

Our current Minister of Education is busy blaming our schools for 1 in 5 children failing without drawing an obvious relationship to 1 in 5 children living in poverty!. The answer to school failure all too often lie outside the school gates. One report places New Zealand’s child health and wellbeing as 28^th out of 30 developed countries. Add in issues of poor housing, high prison rates (where New Zealand has one of the highest rates in the Western World) and unemployment particularly of young Maori and Pacifica and the problem is hard to ignore. One in five Maori and Pacific households live in poverty. Around 800,000 New Zealanders live below the poverty line as determined by the amount of disposable income after taxes paid and benefits and tax credits added.



Schools are failing 1 in 5

While many well off New Zealanders tend to ignore the problem the contributors to Rashbrooke’s book make the point that poverty is not just a problem for the poor. In more equal societies people have a greater chance to advance than in unequal societies – there are greater equality of opportunities available to encourage creativity and innovation.

In our school environment it is not an achievement gap that is the problem it is more an opportunity gap – too many young children, through no fault of their own, enter school lacking opportunities to give them a good start. These opportunities need to be provided before children reach school combined with schools developing more personalised approaches that value theexperiences and voice of their students. Unfortunately, as students move through the system, as a result of ability grouping, streaming and a focus onacademic education, many children fail to realise their potential.

NZ leading in all the wrong areas

The current government’s answer is to place faith on economic growth but while obviously important it is not sufficient. Those in the lowest 10 per cent of incomes are no richer than they were in 1987 – incomes for many has fallen while the rich have become richer. There is substantial research which suggests high levels of income inequality can stifle economic growth.

Inequality matters. 

Unequal societies produce dysfunctional results. The authors of the book ‘The Spirit Level’ (2010)  make a compelling case that countries with higher levels of income inequality perform worse than more equal countries such as the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries. New Zealand, for example, has five times the teenage pregnancies as Sweden.

Inequality also breaks down social cohesion which has consequences for democracy alienating the voices and concerns of those excluded from power with the result that a great number see little point in voting.

Inequality also results in weakened economic growth by depriving society of the contributions of a wider workforce and their associated spending power of those out of work or on incomes that barely allow them to survive. In contrast those with power argue instead for policies that further their own self-interest. More equal countries crack down on such unfairness.

The book makes it clear we are all worse off for having wide income gaps in New Zealand

There was a time when New Zealand was said to be leading the world in creating a modern inclusive democracy.

As a result the difficult economic times of the 70s the Labour Government introduced radical changes – a market forces economy  was introduced following the lead of the Thatcher government and the Reagan administration. An emphasis on market forces, deregulation, private enterprise (including privatisation of government assets) with its promise of wealth trickling down to workers became the new ideology.

Trickle down in reality became more trickle up and as a result the rich got richer and the poor poorer leading to the situation we now face in New Zealand; self-interest has trumped the common good. Once again this is in contrast to such countries as Denmark which developed a fully open economy while at the same time reducing inequality. The more egalitarian societies of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands have generally grown as fast or faster than the more unequal societies of the US, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand.

Once we were proud to be an egalitarian society – a fair society for all.

Unfortunately too many of the middle classes have internalised the neo liberal market forces ideology of the past decades  and see little real alternative and prefer to focus on the political party that protects whatever gains they have made even if the common good ( and our environment) is eroded. They have become self obsessed conservatives unable to see the impending crisis  ahead resulting from inequality.

What is required is for a new ideology, based on creating theconditions  to develop the talents of all rather than leaving it to the vagaries of market forces with its emphasis on financial ends

Governments make a difference – one way or the other. The time is right for some new thinking; it is not the time to return to the past state control but to pioneer new ideas to the benefit of all – and our ever fragile environment. Thinking based around opportunity, fairness and creativity.



Sir Paul Callaghan

When it comes to providing opportunity, once conditions of poverty has been faced up to , education is the key. An education that looksto the future rather than replicating the past.  An education premised on developing the gifts and capabilities of all learners; a system that engages all.

 The late Sir Paul Callaghan argued, ‘If we care for our environment and create a just, equitable and creative society then we can attract the best in the world.’

Time for all to revive the ideals of democracy in our country  to celebrate and recognise the voices of all. Our country, our diverse people, and our unique environment, are too important to leave to the self-interest of the market, the rich and the corporations.

Only if we all work towards ensuring everyone gets a fair go will we work towards Paradise Regained.

Educational Readings -Steve Jobs, Diane Ravitch, John Hattie, Michael Gove

By Allan Alach

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

This week’s homework!

What Do International Test Score Comparisons Mean?

Excellent article by Diane Ravitch that has immense significance all over, seeing as GERMers use PISA scores to justify school reform.

‘International test scores do not predict the economic future. Once a nation is above a basic threshold of literacy, the numbers reflect how good that nation is at test-taking. They are meaningless as economic predictors.’

http://bit.ly/1ih03Og

Steve Jobs: Liberal Arts Essential for Innovation

‘We need to revolutionize education to encourage creativity and need to teach our kids to play, take a chance and create.  By not teaching our children liberal arts we will hinder their capacity to innovate.’

http://bit.ly/1ih0kAK

The Pedagogy of Freedom (via Michael Fawcett)

‘The pedagogy promoted by Hirsch often becomes reduced to a transmission model of teaching which instills a culture of conformity and passive absorption of knowledge. It creates ‘cheerful robots’ devoid of critical thought, questioning and the desire to challenge the assumptions, practices, and outcomes taken for granted in dominant culture and in conventional education.’

http://bit.ly/16EOOtH

Teacher quality, Wiggins and Hattie: More doing the wrong things the right ways

Runs with the hares hunts with the hounds!

Another article debunking St John Hattie and his like minded compatriots.

‘Hattie’s influence in New Zealand, in fact, prompted this:

The political and media stir caused by professor John Hattie’s research on student achievement has prompted a group of academics to look closely at his work.

The authors were particularly concerned that politicians might use Hattie’s work to justify ill-informed policy decisions.

Hattie’s work [1] is poised to support in NZ and the U.S. increasing class size and implementing merit pay, for example—both of which are not supported by large bodies of research. Wiggins and Hattie are trapped, then, in the measurable and the visible—paralyzed by a world in which we focus on control.’

http://bit.ly/193YxxQ

Letter to Parents about Testing

‘Parents, teachers and administrators are increasingly concerned about the testing that is taking place -- and how the testing is being used -- in New York State. Below, please find a copy of a letter expressing the concerns of many principals. The letter is written to parents by principals. We hope you can support the letter by signing your name to it. To sign the letter, please follow this link: Support the Testing Letter’

http://bit.ly/17oUI8c

What Schools Can Do to Help Boys Succeed

Being a boy can be a serious liability in today’s classroom. As a group, boys are noisy, rowdy and hard to manage. Many are messy, disorganized and won’t sit still. Young male rambunctiousness, according to a recent study, leads teachers to underestimate schools their intellectual and academic abilities. “Girl behavior is the gold standard in ,” says psychologist Michael Thompson. “Boys are treated like defective girls.

http://ti.me/1isgsQ3

Here’s three articles with an English theme, all attacking the ‘free school’ (aka charter schools aka partnership schools in New Zealand) ideology.

Nick Clegg turns on Michael Gove over his 'ideological' school reforms

‘Liberal Democrat leader says that all state teachers should be qualified, in rebuff to Tory education policy.’

Michael Gove - who needs him?

The tide is slowly turning in Britain….

http://bit.ly/16D1xNv

“Must Try Harder:” Free School Report

Seems that English ‘free’ schools (are a failing concept…. are you surprised?

‘Then, of course, came the fall-out: an old-school slanging match in the Commons, pleas from across the spectrum to allow the new policy to “bed in”, and the observation that what data we have indicate that the best free schools are indeed as good as or better than the best state schools… but that the failing free schools are worse. Thus far, student outcomes in both systems are similar, which mirrors findings in the far more detailed and comprehensive studies of US charter schools.’

http://bit.ly/17kXzz8

Labour criticises government's 'false' data on free schools

‘Shadow education minister says Lord Nash misled parliament with claim free schools outperform others in state sector.’

Are you surprised?

http://bit.ly/16BBT10

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

TED Talk: All It Takes Is 10 Mindful Minutes

‘When is the last time you did absolutely nothing for 10 whole minutes? Not texting, talking or even thinking? Mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe describes the transformative power of doing just that: Refreshing your mind for 10 minutes a day, simply by being mindful and experiencing the present moment. (No need for incense or sitting in uncomfortable positions.’

http://bit.ly/1inaLmt

The Blue School

A blog article that Bruce wrote back in 2010, about a school in New York.

‘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.’

http://leading-learning.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/blue-school.html

What do good learners do?

An article written by Bruce in 2005, that references Postman’s and Weingartner’s book ‘Teaching as a Subversive Activity’ that provides an excellent outline of a good learner.

‘What we need to do as teachers is to create an environment in our schools and classrooms that such behaviors can flourish. Obviously this cannot happen in school with fragmented teaching and subjects. We are talking about an environment in which the full spectrum of learning behaviors – both attitudes and skills – being employed all the time; from problem to problem, from kindergarten to graduate school.’

http://bit.ly/17qShCj

Bringing Authenticity to the Classroom

‘Authenticity—that is the name of the game! It's the powerful force that makes teaching relevant for students. Students aren't being impossible; they are being practical. Why would they want to learn something they will never have use for? Using authentic, real-world connections or scenarios demonstrates the need for students to learn the content or skill. ‘

http://bit.ly/17vQv0k

Howard Gardner on creativity – are schools encouraging creativity? The challenge of creativity.

Gardner writes in his book ‘Five Minds for the Future’ that he is often asked about how to nurture creativity. He quotes corporate visionary John Seely Brown who quipped that in the world of tomorrow people will say “I create therefore I am”. Brown was of course adapting French mathematician Rene Descartes 1637 statement “I think therefore I am” but it is an important difference.

Gardner says his audiences expect him to fully endorse creativity but creativity in human history was ‘neither sought after nor rewarded’.  Human societies are naturally conservative – and schools particularly so. Humans strive to maintain their current position and in schools this mitigates against educational innovation and interdisciplinary leaps

Many people we regard as great thinkers had in their day a difficult time with their ideas –  Galilee Galileo comes to mind but at least he wasn’t burnt at the stake but had to officially recant his ideas. People like Bach and Vincent van Gogh, Freud and Darwin were not at first appreciated.

So creative individuals are seen by society as a mixed blessing; creative teachers, past and present will attest to this. Creative individuals are all too often discouraged or ignored by those in power but Seely Brown is right, to thrive in the future organisations and individuals will have to be creative or be left behind. A number of big corporations have paid the price for not being creative and this will apply to schools as students find what is provided irrelevant and instead turn to gaining their learning from other sources.

By definition all life is creative and schools ought to be the best place to develop the creativity of all their students but this is currently not the case. Creativity, according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihali, occurs when- and only when – is recognised by the organisation as valuable and adds to the success of the organisation. In schools unfortunately the press is for consistency, conformity or compliance, with the imposition of National Standards, the situation can only get worse for creative teachers. A ‘one size fits all’ approach is not a healthy environment for creative thinking. In such environment creativity is replaced by advice from ‘official experts’.

What is it that contributes to creativity?  According to Gardner 'the creator stands out in terms of temperament, personality and stance.  She is perennially dissatisfied with current work, current questions, current answers. She strikes out in unfamiliar directions and enjoys – or at least accepts – being different from the pack.’  Such an individual doesn’t worry if things don’t work out to plan and is always focussed on finding out – mistakes are a mean to the end.

To be successful creative individuals need a thick skin. Many creative people drop out of school as they do not ‘like marching to someone else’s tune (and in turn disliked their idiosyncratic marching patterns)’. And this obviously applies to teachers who need to be on the lookout for more creative schools to work in.

So creativity is not an easy option. Only a person who is willing to pick herself up and “try and try again” is likely to forge creative achievements….. A prototypical creator rarely rests on her laurels; instead, she proceeds along new untested path, fully ready to risk failure again and again in return for the opportunity to make another different mark.’ Creativity involves lots of hassles but eventual success is addictive.

Such thinking is problematic for schools. If school place too much emphasis on mastery of basic learning requirements (as asked for by a National Standards approach) this will operate against the need for students (and teachers) to be creative.

‘The mind of the five year old represents, in one sense, the height of creative powers’; they are playful, curious and intrigued by whatever experiences they encounter, they perpetually ask questions and persist in exploring topics that that attract them. ‘Accordingly’, continues Gardner, ‘the challenge to the educator is to keep alive the mind and sensibility of the young child. Artists and scientists have always known this.’

Schools, Gardner writes, need to ‘encourage – a regime that featured exploration, challenging problems, and the tolerance, if not active encouragement, of productive mistakes.’ This however is a long way from the superficial creativity many schools talk about – real creativity requires the honing of discipline to result in genuine creativity.

Even in an era of increasing standardisation creativity can still be encouraged by encouraging different solutions to problems, by exposing students to creative individuals, by providing rich experiences for students to explore and by recognising and amplifying gifts and talents that arise through such activities. At this point Gardner’s eight or so ‘multiple intelligences’ come to mind.

As students’ progress through school critical faculties need to be honed but at all costs the fundamentally creative approach to learning of the young needs to be retained.

Gardner writes that ‘if creativity does not infiltrate the DNA of an organisation, it is unlikely to be passed on to the next generation.’ Successful organisation  need to ‘fill their leadership team with individuals who are proven creators’ and that this leadership team needs to work closely with “ early adapters and ingenuous users’….’tapping their ideas’ ….and ‘giving lots of slack to those who think out of the box’. However he warns ‘that at a deep level that creativity is a chancy undertaking that can never be guaranteed – only fostered or thwarted.’ Something for leaders to think about!

Maybe leaders need to see themselves as synthesisers ( another of Gardner’s ‘five minds’)  to balance the creative individuals ‘uncertainty, surprise, continual challenge, and disequilibrium’ with ‘order , equilibrium and closure’. But he says ‘that  for the foreseeable future, those societies that know how to nurture and sustain creativity….are more likely to thrive than those that discourage creativity or those who are restricted to copying what genuine innovators have already achieved and what their successors are likely to surpass tomorrow.’

‘In any event, creativity goes hand in glove with disciplinary thinking. Doing whatever is selected in depth. In the absence of relevant disciplines, it is not possible to be genuinely creative. In the absence of creativity, disciplines can only be used to rehearse the status quo’.

I think it is time for schools to consider the meaning of creativity as Gardner outlines. Few schools today can really claim to be creative today – and as the National Standards agenda unrolls, with its associated narrowing of the curriculum, it is more important than ever to be so.

‘In general’, Gardner writes, ‘we look to leaders, rather than managers, for examples of creativity. The transformational leader creates a compelling narrative about the mission of her organisation….embodies that narrative in her own life, and is able, through persuasion and personal example, to change the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of those whom she seeks to lead.’

Creative leadership!

 Here is to the crazy ones

Read Wayne Morris’s excellent article on creativity in education.

Creative schools

Creativity quotes.

Educational Readings - Russell Brand's video and other subversive stuff

By Allan Alach

 

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

 

This week’s homework!

 

Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

Not purely educational but of great value all the same.

‘I'm going to tell you that libraries are important. I'm going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do. I'm going to make an impassioned plea for people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of these things.’

And:

‘The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them.’

http://bit.ly/1aTYzXn

The Not-So-Hidden Cause Behind the A.D.H.D. Epidemic

Fallout from GERM? Not purely educational but of great value all the same.

‘When Hinshaw compared the rollout of these school policies with incidences of A.D.H.D., he found that when a state passed laws punishing or rewarding schools for their standardized-test scores, A.D.H.D. diagnoses in that state would increase not long afterward. Nationwide, the rates of A.D.H.D. diagnosis increased by 22 percent in the first four years after No Child Left Behind was implemented.’

http://nyti.ms/17yXmTb

Following on….. we really are living in a very sad world.

Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School

“We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.”

http://nyti.ms/19RWQ4F

 

Will NewsCorp Soon Own Your Child's Student Data? Education Technology and the Murdoch-Klein Connection (via Mary Mackay, Amsterdam)

A nearly inevitable end point for the collection of data on children, not just in the USA. Big data is turning into a 21st century nightmare.

‘...the ability to store large amounts of student information and provide tools for analyzing the data–information that will be available not only to educators, but also to education-technology developers who can tailor products to student and school needs. The article also explores the privacy concerns raised by the easy access that large numbers of companies will have to a vast array of information, ranging from academic achievement to disciplinary problems, for potentially tens of millions of students.’

http://bit.ly/1cU1TUA

Free schools: our education system has been dismembered in pursuit of choice

‘Our uneven and unclear education provision now allows well-informed, persistent parents to entrench social advantage.’

An article about how the English education system is being gradually dismembered. Spot the similarities with New Zealand’s developing education agenda.

http://bit.ly/1hdBZy4

This next item isn’t educational but is well worth watching. Amazing eloquence!

Russell Brand interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYcn3PuTTk

 

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

Howard Gardner – developing a disciplined mind

This is a recursive link back to Bruce’s blog and this excellent article.

‘The most important reason to develop disciplined understanding is that

through achievement a desire for more is created. Once one has understood something well an ‘appetite has been whetted for additional and deeper understanding…..having eaten from the tree of understanding, he or she is likely to return their repeatedly for ever more satisfying intellectual nourishment’.’

http://bit.ly/179Xa0j

 

How Soft Skills, Passion and Connection Can Promote Learning, Competence and Employability

‘Jane McGonigal is an ambitious alternate reality game designer who believes gaming has the potential to unlock solutions to world hunger, poverty, and conflicts.’

http://huff.to/16yHRuk

Some Good News About Public Schools

Bashing the public school system, wherever, is a prerequisite to introducing school reform. This must be countered with everything we’ve got.

‘The public school system is not broken. Just like the parents of most 15-year-olds, it is overwhelmed and overworked. It is also underrated and underfunded. But still our school system is pushing the world forward. We are as responsible for our successes as for our failures.’

http://bit.ly/1doOc2Q