We are way past mid-winter; new shoots are growing; gardeners are thinking about tending their gardens. Coming back from the mid-winter break, we're all in different ways turning our attention to new growth. For educators and settings attending to new development in 2016, here is a distillation from Ken Robinson's excellent and cogent 'Creative Schools':
" Richard Gerver (Head Teacher of the Year 2005) : the basics I'm talking about are the biological gifts we're born with that thrust us into the world as incredible learning organisms. We are born with all the skills – all the basics – we need. Babies and very young children are incredibly intuitive, naturally creative, and deeply curious.'
People will achieve miracles if they are motivated by a driving vision and sense of purpose. That vision has to connect with them personally. I can't imagine that many children wake up in the morning wondering what they can do to raise their state's reading standards. But countless children do want to read and write and calculate for their own purposes and to sing and dance and explore and experiment. Countless teachers and parents want to support them.
There is not a simple line from vision to change. It is a constant process of action, improvisation, evaluation, and reorientation in light of experience and circumstances.
As Gandhi said, if you want to change the world, you must be the change you want to see. "
Ken's book is a cogent call for change. He's setting the ground for what and why, and how: the chart above is from Tim Brighouse.
Looking forward to our change discussions and consultancies in 2016, we've added to our resource papers an extract from Ken's closing chapter. We think it is an excellent and encouraging grounding for all those engaged on the quest of creating decent education: it is here for you to download.
Happy new year, and rewarding re-orientations!
Robin Duckett
