A resurgence of Creativity.
I wrote this blogpost last year but never actually posted it.
At the start of this year we started doing flow inquiries with students. Flow inquiries are an inquiry into whatever they want to learn about. Many of the students at this point replied to our idea with "I dunno what I want to learn about." or "I dont really want to learn anything." or "I just won't do a flow inquiry and will just do what you tell me to do."
Slowly over the year, these reluctant students watched others in the classroom become engaged in their flow inquiries and started to experiment with their own ideas.
Now two of the most disengaged students that we had at the start of the year are making the most creative things in the classroom. They are having a resurgence of passion into their learning. A resurgence of creativity that has really come into it's own, and students are starting to take control of their own learning again.
The traditional school system that they've been in for the last 10 years has bashed down their own individualism. It has bashed down who they are, and has tried to fit them into a box that employs reading, writing, maths, and then maybe does an inquiry into a topic that studies the world around them, if there's time. We have now approached these students and said "you can do whatever you like" and they have had no ideas. They haven't been able to learn "whatever they like" for so long, so now that we ask them to choose something they have no idea what to do.
So many of our students are now leaving school who have no idea who they are, they have no idea what their talents or passions are.
These students are year 10s, and were some of the most disengaged students I have ever known. Now they have pushed through to the other side and are flying.
One's doing band, he wants to go to EIT and learn music because he loves his guitar. He has found that passion again that he was never able to do at school.
The other one has stumbled across spray art in graffiti style. He wants to make a mural for the school now and he has had to call up people in town and ask for spray cans and get the right nozzles and then he's had to go into town with a teacher aide and actually purchase them, which for him is phenomenal. He has never been this engaged in school.
We are in the third last day for this year, where a lot of other schools are winding down, this guy went into town this week so that he could get some spray cans in order to finish his mural in two days. He's really pushing for it, that's all he's working on all day.
This is what school should be doing.
Getting learners to find out who they are. Experimenting with a wide range of different things. Find out what their passions are. Find out what they want to do. Find out what they could do. Find out who they can change in the world. What they can change. What they can create. What they can innovate.
That's what school should be doing.
We need to be worried about getting kids to understand who they are, what their passions are and where they could go in their lives.
What their potential is.
At the start of this year we started doing flow inquiries with students. Flow inquiries are an inquiry into whatever they want to learn about. Many of the students at this point replied to our idea with "I dunno what I want to learn about." or "I dont really want to learn anything." or "I just won't do a flow inquiry and will just do what you tell me to do."
Slowly over the year, these reluctant students watched others in the classroom become engaged in their flow inquiries and started to experiment with their own ideas.
Now two of the most disengaged students that we had at the start of the year are making the most creative things in the classroom. They are having a resurgence of passion into their learning. A resurgence of creativity that has really come into it's own, and students are starting to take control of their own learning again.
The traditional school system that they've been in for the last 10 years has bashed down their own individualism. It has bashed down who they are, and has tried to fit them into a box that employs reading, writing, maths, and then maybe does an inquiry into a topic that studies the world around them, if there's time. We have now approached these students and said "you can do whatever you like" and they have had no ideas. They haven't been able to learn "whatever they like" for so long, so now that we ask them to choose something they have no idea what to do.
So many of our students are now leaving school who have no idea who they are, they have no idea what their talents or passions are.
These students are year 10s, and were some of the most disengaged students I have ever known. Now they have pushed through to the other side and are flying.
One's doing band, he wants to go to EIT and learn music because he loves his guitar. He has found that passion again that he was never able to do at school.
The other one has stumbled across spray art in graffiti style. He wants to make a mural for the school now and he has had to call up people in town and ask for spray cans and get the right nozzles and then he's had to go into town with a teacher aide and actually purchase them, which for him is phenomenal. He has never been this engaged in school.
We are in the third last day for this year, where a lot of other schools are winding down, this guy went into town this week so that he could get some spray cans in order to finish his mural in two days. He's really pushing for it, that's all he's working on all day.
This is what school should be doing.
Getting learners to find out who they are. Experimenting with a wide range of different things. Find out what their passions are. Find out what they want to do. Find out what they could do. Find out who they can change in the world. What they can change. What they can create. What they can innovate.
That's what school should be doing.
We need to be worried about getting kids to understand who they are, what their passions are and where they could go in their lives.
What their potential is.
Comments
Post a Comment