Sir Ken Robinson defines creativity as “the process of having original ideas
that create value”. He reiterates that it is a process and not a
random act of inspiration, and that it needs to prove its worth. He points out that creativity is not the opposite to formality – instead a
mixture of discipline and space to innovate are required. Robinson contends that
“creativity is as important as literacy and should be treated as
such.” Our schools are currently designed, like he said, in a
hierarchy, in which specific skills, namely math and languages, are
valued over others.
Sir Robinson mentioned a couple reasons why
having this hierarchy is ridiculous:
The purpose of education shouldn't be to get into college.
Believe in high standards does not mean education has to be standardized.
We don't need to reform education -- we need to transform it.
Creativity is a part of not apart from intelligence.
We don't grow in to creativity, we get educated out of it. One of the reasons why an academic hierarchy is ultimately futile is because people cannot accurately assign value to skills that may or may not be valuable in 30, 20, or even 10 years. If we cannot accurately assess what skills children will need for the future- how can we place a value or emphasis on any particular skill now? Sir Robinson further ridiculed the stress we place on children to be right and not make mistakes. Children, and people in general, need to be willing to make mistakes in order to create an innovation. In fact, some of the most well-known products (penicillin, coca-cola, etc) are the results of what was initially a 'mistake.' This all-out rejection of mistakes stifles creativity, perhaps, more than any one factor in our schools and in society.
By finding new ways to praise children’s efforts and ideas, and less ways to assess them on their mistakes, we will embrace the initiative to rethink the fundamental ways we educate children in the context of their endlessly, vast capabilities.
There are several points in Arne's Duncan's speech of which I dissent, however the overarching purpose: a plead to realize the urgency through which educational reformation must take place, is immediately and timelessly relevant.
“By almost any standard,” Duncan told a Columbia University audience of students, teachers, and faculty, “many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom.” While this statement is unequivocally true, Duncan's failure to state what specific component is 'mediocre' renders the potential effectiveness of the statement itself-at best mediocre. The abstractness of this earlier, 'mediocrity' claim is indicative of the circumlocutory speech that merely calls for, rather than offers a solution. Duncan does, however, reference what he considers 'pristine' models of schools of education. The shared characteristic that contributes to each of these programs' effectiveness is the central emphasis of a practicum or field experience.
To this end, I consider myself blessed to be a part of an equally propitious program- Mississippi Teacher Corps. Being able to immediately introduce the practical components of 'Advanced Methods in English' to my seventh grade class only two days after receiving instruction, both actualizes coursework and prevents instruction from becoming at all theoretical. Taking this course in preparation, rather than in conjunction with teaching would not have rendered the same lucrative advantage.
In especially the 21st century, teacher roles and responsibilities are ever-more demanding. At a time when teachers are required to not only instruct, but moreover be TST coordinators, committee coordinators, parent-teacher coordinators, behavior incentive activity coordinators, academic and behavior interventionists, as well as psychologists and/or (at times) social workers, not to mention literacy and exceptional education specialists - preparation today needs to require students to teach while receiving training. Preparation should include training in how to differentiate instruction and how to provide advisory services to students. The best training in this type of individualized education is not conceptual, but rather requires the teacher to regularly implement and actualize differentiated instructional practices with each of their students.
Critics of teacher preparation programs say that current teacher-training programs are too heavily steeped in theory and not useful in the classroom. They say that those who teach in schools of education are clueless about how to reach children with dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, Asperger’s syndrome or other learning challenges. To this end, Duncan understands that the only way to evaluate a teacher-training program is to look at how the teachers perform once in the classroom; the only way to do that is to measure how the students are doing.
With so much scrutiny aimed at measuring student performance from kindergarten to high school, many education schools never get around to asking the high-stakes questions about how well teachers are doing in their profession, where they received their training, how much they learned, and what can be improved. Until we start scrutinizing this part of the process, and look at who is teaching the teachers, we’ll never empower students to reach their academic potential and create a workforce that is globally competitive.
though i think arne duncan's speech on "teacher colleges" was pretty well-crafted, i don't know if i truly still understand the concept of a teacher's college. before i get into explaining why perhaps the most important thing could be to fund these institutions, i think i need to see if i actually believe in what they are aimed at doing.
I agree on the whole with most everything Duncan has to say. I remember saying a lot of those things several years ago during my Rotary interview. Teaching as a profession has been too long like working in a fast food joint-- a low-paying job that's easy to get, that too often turns the preparation of wholesome sustenance into a slipshod assembly-line process...and more times than not ends up with too many of the people one would least want handling something important doing exactly that.
I do not know Pete, but his speech was so incredibly witty and honest, even while hitting on the big important questions, that I thoroughly enjoyed listening.
He articulated a feeling that I have been experiencing lately very well. Though I do not feel that I have been blessed with any noteworthy talents are aptitudes, I have found that in my life my success (or lack of) has been directly attributable to the amount of passionate work that I have been willing to invest toward a goal. Pete acknowledges the reality of teaching in an experience most of us can relate to.... sometimes you work really really hard.... and it all just blows up in your face. Sometimes I find it very difficult and discouraging to have such a deep desire to be of real benefit and value to these kids ..knowing they deserve so much better... only to find that many of the forces working against them are completely out of my control.
I guess for me right now success cannot be so clearly defined by immidiate academic outcome, but by my willingness to get up every morning early and stay up every night late trying to create meaningful experiences and lessons for my students. I hope that the simple fact right now that I do have nights where I can't sleep... with my mind too full of worries for my students.... no longer in general terms but in terms of names and faces and individual weaknesses.
I hope that if I keep my heart in the right place, and continue to plan my lessons as if it might be the one day that someone is listening..... that perhaps my being here can be of some value to someone other than myself. It was great to here some of my own feelings articulated in such a witty and honest way, by someone with more experience and insight than myself.
Teacher Preparation: Reforming the Uncertain Profession—Remarks of Secretary Arne Duncan at Teachers College, Columbia University
Can we honestly hope that the same government who created the unconstitutional centrally planned monolithic failure of a program, "No Child Left Behind", will be the leader in generating the kind of innovative creativity that will be required to solve the major problems facing the American education system? You might as well place me in charge of the Mississippi Teacher Corps Aerobics, Yoga, Spinning and Wieght Loss Initiative.
Though I generally agreed with Secretary Duncan's definition of the problems facing the American education system now and into the future, I was left with little hope that he was prepared to articulate any concise working solution to any of these major problems.... Even the most eloquent articulaton of the problem becomes only a more dissapointing failure when not connected to a driving workable comprehensive plan for addressing these problems. And sadly, there seems to be a general consensus that the vast majority of schools of education across the country are not yet even fully engaged in the defining of the problem.
I fear that the only force strong enough to encourage actual change in our current system on a national scale is abject necessity. This is not do downplay the reality that we are already enduring an educational crisis, only to insert my belief that our current situation does not yet register in the general American Psyche as one requiring immediate attention. Though our current system is full of ugly injustices and will ultimately create deep long term negative socioeconomic effects, individuals do not feel any major immediate personal discomfort with our failure.
As long as the general public does not recognize and take a healthy ownership of this crisis, I fear that there is no governmental plan or program that can have any significant long lasting national impact. Schools were never intended to answer to distant Federal Bureaucrats,... but to communities and parents.
As a side note from my typical incoherent ramblings.... I found this quote to be personally motiviating from the speech:
In our new era of accountability, it is not enough for a teacher to say, "I taught it—but the students didn't learn it." As Linda Darling-Hammond has pointed out, that is akin to saying "the operation was a success but the patient died."
In response to: this speech.
I am really happy I chose an alternate-route program. I can’t help but think how horrible it would be to spend four years learning what we learned in a couple classes over the summer. I have learned to teach the way I learn best: being thrown into something and having to play guess and check until I get it right. I still haven’t gotten it right, but I don’t feel like the things I’ve gotten wrong are things I could have picked up in a classroom setting where I wasn’t at the front of the room.
This speech claims that education programs aren’t adequately preparing their students for real-world teaching positions. A society where the most needy students are taught by either the worst or most un-prepared teachers is only perpetuating our country’s public education problems, and it is embarrassing and pathetic. A realization of this as a national concern is a crucial step that many have not taken. The idea of education as “the civil rights issue of our generation” is why I became so passionate about teaching in a critical need district. The status of public education is a problem that a) no one knows about, and b) no one is fixing. I would forever feel guilty if I was given the opportunity to make a change and passed it up.
That being said, I can’t help but question my own performance as a teacher. I am doing the best I can, but what I have seen is that the students in our schools don’t need first-year teachers that barely know what they’re doing, despite the enthusiasm and creativity that the baby boomer generation teachers may lack, they need the best of the best to come in here and lead a major reformation in our small schools. These students need more than they are given; I think this everyday.
At the same time, this speech evokes a sense of urgency and a sense of possibility; this is step one. Step two–action, a bit more difficult, but it can happen. Despite how deep in the mud so many of our communities are, people like us recognizing the problem and working toward a solution is a step in the right direction. I may not be great now, but I want to be.
...once again, mixed feelings toward EVERTHING down here. This has been a reoccurring theme. (see below post)
On another note, I like the quote this speech ended on: "A teacher affects eternity—he can never tell where his influence stops."
I think I will post this on my desk.
In response to: this!
I have days where I feel really good about teaching. I feel like I’m good at it, I feel like my kids have learned something, and I feel like I’m making the impact I came down here to make. This feeling is usually on a Monday or a Tuesday.
Early in the week I’m always fully-planned: I have the most energy, my lessons are the most creative, and the kids aren’t too tired of the week yet. By Friday, I don’t know why I’m here. By Friday, my class has failed the quiz I have just given them and made me feel that I wasted my whole week because they didn’t learn anything. By Friday, I don't want to be at school and I count down the minutes more than my kids do; I feel useless. It happens every week.
Much of Pete’s speech is about the impact we make in the classroom, and the fact that we’re making an impact even when we don’t feel like we are. This is something I have had to continuously remind myself in order to not get discouraged in this job. Pete talks about how one of the most challenging aspects of teaching is coming from a background where if you work hard enough you will get want you want, but realizing that there is no formula for getting what you want out of teaching. Sounds like a Friday.
He speaks of the frustrations unique to our situation. One frustration I didn't expect–the ambiguity that comes with everything; specifically measuring my progress. If my kids fail, then I’m not sure whether I failing them for not teaching them well enough, or doing a good job for pushing them. If the students say I’m an “excellent” teacher, even though they don't have "excellent" grades, does it mean that they really think I’m a good teacher or are they confusing “excellent” with “easy” “fun” or “cool?” Is it even a compliment for a kid to tell you you’re in excellent teacher? I almost feel like I'm clueless at how to gauge things. If my principal never talks to me does that mean I'm in the clear or that he doesn't like me? These unexpected concerns are weird things I feel I only have in common with other people in the program.
Pete speaks highly about the high caliber of people that join the teacher corps. My experience has been similar. My class is made up of some of the most diverse yet most impressive people I have known. They are kind, quirky, and have made me love a state that I never thought I could enjoy in the least.
I really like it though. I like the state, I like the school, I like the program and I like the people. These annoying obstacles and the challenge behind everything is the reason I came down here. I am very appreciative to be where I am right now, so I can’t say Pete’s speech was the eye-opener I needed or anything, but it was definitely a nice reminder.
First of all, let me say that I just laughed by butt off… I’m glad I watched that (not so thrilled to blog about it when I could be sleeping…ha… no big deal—I spent all of college learning to procrastinate in time to do so with my blogs. My fault for waiting till now.) Anyway, Pete Nelson, you’re hilarious!
I know where Pete is coming from—I thought I’d accomplished a few things in college…then I met the rest of the MTC class. “I got nothin’.” My MTC class is incredible—as are all the classes that have come before us, for what I can tell…
What really hit home with me was the idea that teaching has to be about more than just immediate results. I am such a results-driven person…I like to see the fruit of my labors as soon as I’m done. I mean, I love research papers. Go ahead, laugh. You search, you find, you write, you have something to show for it; and , if you work hard, have something to be proud of. “Hard work equals success,” to quote Pete.
…But not so much with teaching. You can never tell when what you do will “blow up in your face.” I have worked my fingers to the bone for days that I have wanted to run away from screaming. And then, I’ve come in and felt like that day was a wash before it began—I wasn’t ready, I was tired, etc—only to see kids working, learning and progressing. I can honestly say this has to be the least boring job on earth. There are no two days alike and no day goes by without a notable event—someone, someone will surprise you.
Nevertheless, some days diarrhea does sound better than teaching…except that I don’t have any sick days left… sucks. I have never been sick in my life until I started teaching…what gives??? (Well, I’ve rarely been stressed either and they are all stress-related diseases… ha. I’m dealing… and I have decided to learn to like the pressure. Its going to be a long—but good (because I have decided!)—year.
Kids can be so incredibly cruel. Yet for TK’s story, cruel hardly covers it. I have not encountered anything like what he went through with my students. But wow… TK takes this in stride!
I have a new motto: “Put on your skinny jeans.” I am amazed at this then thirteen year old boy who stood in his room and made a conscious decision to do something that would set him apart—that would state that he will be who he is, no matter what. I think of my students—most are 13 to 15 years old—and wonder who of the ninety or so I teach would have the guts to do that. Maybe the oblivious ones? …I’m not even sure I have any students THAT unconscious. They are amazingly aware of what everyone is thinking or saying about them at any given time, and the ones that act un-phased are the most uncomfortable; I have learned how to spot a front from the threshold of my classroom door. I simply don’t remember be that uncertain in my whole life; yet, I imagine that a good 60% of these kids don’t even know that they have slipped into the quicksand of peer pressure.
I listen a lot when they are doing their group work and I am making my rounds from group to group…I am always blown away by the conversations. Today group three (all girls for lack of the one boy who was absent) was talking incessantly about this young boy who works in the produce section at Wal-Mart. It was interesting to gage who was comfortable with the conversation and who was working to slip in a comment in order to feel included. They are all really boy crazy, but one girl in particular, and, this girl is super bright. I have had a conversation with her before about her tendency to be very vocal about EVERYTHING, hoping that she will take her over self-exertion down a notch… we’ll see how that goes.
On a different note, (or maybe more back to the point) my students are straight-up mean and RUDE to one anther! They tell each other that they are ugly, that their house is a shack, that their shoes are “wack,” or that their hair is nappy… and these are the students that are FRIENDS!! What gives? …Perhaps I will work “tact” into the vocabulary list for next week…
