Where to now?

Standardization kills creativity. The Leaving Certificate is the leveller for secondary school students here in Ireland. Using it we rigorously examine our students each year in an effort to compare their academic ability. It rarely seeks opinion preferring to extract regurgitated ‘Cliff-Notes’ over original ideas. It affects the morale of not only the students but the teachers too. Ken Robinson says “The problem comes when these tests become more than simply a tool of education and turn into the focus of it”. (Robinson, K. 2009 p. 237). Personally speaking this element of our current education system hugely affects my morale. I find myself telling students to learn Irish essays off by heart because this is what it takes to succeed in the exam. I spend more time preparing for the exam, than I do on actual language skills and this is hugely frustrating. It’s also promoting the demise of the Irish language. What can we do?

“The most powerful method of improving education is to invest in the improvement of teaching and the status of great teachers”. (Robinson, K. 2009 p. 237). Time and again teachers complain about the inadequacies of the system, about how “The Leaving Cert is a test of memory and not of intellect”. But teachers are not the problem. Schools up and down the country are full of fabulous teachers working within an ailing and archaic system. Robinson suggests that we focus on personalization rather than standardization.

We need to discover the individual talents of each child, to create an environment where they want to learn and can discover their true passions. Lessons need to be student-centred and lessons should be what student interest dictates. Students should be able to interact, communicate and collaborate.

Robinson also asserts the notion that “school systems should base their curriculum not on the idea of separate subjects, but on the much more fertile idea of disciplines”. He feels that this would make a more “fluid” and “dynamic” system.

Finally education should be personal taking into account the individual learning styles and talents of each student.

Susan Jeffers 'Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway'

Susan Jeffers wrote a book about how fear was preventing her from taking responsibility for her own life. Fear can infiltrate our lives and inhibit our growth. This kind of fear would be especilly prevalent if we choose to take a less conventional path in life. Susan tells us that one of the things that finally evoked satisfaction in her life was recognising this fear for what it was and by not allowing it to influence her choices. The video below gives an overview of Jeffers' best-selling book.

Finding Your Tribe

Ken Robinson says that for most people who have found their 'Element' i.e. work which combines passion and talent, that connecting with other people who share their talents, feeds their creativity. Robinson refers to others in your field as your "tribe". Robinson introduces us to Helen Pilcher a scientist turned author/comedian. Helen says "Leaving the lab was scary but not as scary as the prospect of staying. My advice, should you be contmplating making that leap, is to make like a lemming and jump." (Robinson, K. 2009 p. 110). Therefore when you haven't found your tribe and you are not inspired by others in your field it's time to get out!

Academic Inflation

 

Who is our current education system for? Who succeeds at it? If we were honest in answering these questions we'd have to admit that the purpose of the current education system is to produce university professors. Is this the pinnacle of all human achievement? Surely it's just a form of life. Ken Robinson tell us that the current education system came into being to meet the needs of industrialism and that the hierarchy of subjects is based on two ideas;

1. The most useful subjects for work are at the top. People are steered away from things at school; things that they like because "You would never get a job doing that!"

2. Academic ability, because universities designed the system in their image.

The consequences are that many highly intelligent, brilliant, creative people think they're not. We have to try to change this. According to UNESCO in the next thirty years more people will be graduating through education than ever before. Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything. Twenty years ago if you had a degree you had a job. But now many people with degrees are unemployed because a job that used to require a BA now requires an MA and so on. This process of academic inflation is indicative of the fact that the whole process of education is shifting beneath our feet. In my view we need to rethink our idea of intelligence.

Whistle while you work!

Behaviour therapy tells us that we are what we do. Our jobs are the implementation of who we are. It makes sense that we all engage in work that gives us meaning. We need to create an environment in our schools in which we nurture each child's individual talents and passions. Often parents steer their children away from their true talents because they think that they have to follow conventional paths in order to be successful. The goal here is to convey the benefits to everybody of connecting properly with our individual talents. I feel very passionately about this, as everyday in school I see students being forced into areas that do not inspire them and worse still do not make the best use of their natural abilities. It would be far more beneficial to see students doing things they love to do and being aware of their own particular talents. Ken Robinson, in his book, The Element, describes people who have achieved the balance between passion and talent, as those who; “have discovered their Element- the place where the things you love to do and the things that you are good at come together”. (Robinson, K. 2009, p.8).

 Our work must inspire us!