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Now in England if you wanted to you could set up a Free School set up a Ken Robinson
Free School, parents would flock to it but what would that actually, what would the school
be like if you could design your own Free School if you did design your own Free School
what would the experience daily be like for a child.
Well I'm not planning to that's the first thing. But I'd be happy for other people to
do it. Well the thing is people settle for false dichotomies very often, they think you
know I'm arcing for creativity and therefore not schools and knowledge and I justify anybody
to find anything I've ever written or said which corresponds to that right of view I've
never said that I mean the report for the Government was called All Our Futures Creativity
Culture and Education
It is a fantastic report
Thank you we were really proud of it we worked very *** it and the whole premise is,
firstly creativity isn't something that happens in the abstract to be creative you have to
do something the difference between imagination and creativity, imagination is where it all
comes from its the great kind of well spring of human achievement its the ability to bring
to mind things that aren't present but creativity is beyond that because you'll be imaginative
all day long and never do anything to be creative you have to do something and it can be anything
it can be mathematics it can be music, it can be design it can be engineering we're
in a building that was conceived by people and brought into being through a combination
of art design engineering technology and a huge amount of practical skills that make
this thing possible and to be creative is not just sitting round having vaporous thoughts
its doing things and to be creative you have to be in control of materials you have to
be able to work the wood you know work the clay you have to know the mathematics or enough
of it to get this started, you have to be able to at least begin to make a move with
the instrument.
Done before don't you because if somebody gave you knitting needles and some wool and
you never knew about knitting it would take a long time to invent what human history invented
but to learn it really fast and then go further
Yeah that's how it works, the process of having original ideas of value, so when you say what
would my school be like firstly it would have a very broad combination. It would be creativity
in everything it would be all across the curriculum and the curriculum would be at least, I speak
about the gen, cos I don't like the idea of subjects myself but the arts the sciences
including mathematics the humanities and fiscal education would all be equally presented but
with permeable barriers between them.
I wouldn't have kids learning in discreet age groups move into different groups according
to what they were doing at what stage they're at, there's no reason on earth why we keep
kids segregated by age we don't do that outside of education outside schools we don't keep
all the A Grades in a separate building and not to speak to eleven year olds in case something
happens.
I'd have a very flexible schedule, there's a school in New York, I'm sure you know it
that Michael Bloomberg set up called The School Of One that doesn't mean there's just one
kid in the school I mean its really not a very popular school, they're working on school
of two now. But it means that each kid in the school has his own timetable,
They assess them at the end of the day don't they and then they give them a new programme
the following day
That's right so they turn ready for work and say what's for today rather than its Tuesday
it must be this, so they can pace learning at their own rate.
There would be strong support for the creative development of teachers because teaching at
its best is properly seen as a creative profession and children learn anyway but the conceit
of formal education is we can help them do it and that's an art form all of its own.
I think back to the teachers I had which I'm sure you do, great ones you had and doesn't
mean you liked them all but something about them, something in their tone and their attitude
their passion for what they did. So I would see it as a really powerful learning
community where there wasn't just teachers delivering stuff to kids I don't like the
whole idea of delivery anyway in the sense of delivering the curriculum sounds like a
branch of Fed Ex. I just saw a fantastic school recently in Lennox the School of History in
Lennox in LAX Airport it looks like a bomb shelter outside its concrete mad, inside its
like Aladdin's Cave and there's kids work on the wall, parents' work on the wall, teachers
work they have, workshops involved for parents and kids so a community of that sort.
I actually think we're on the brink of some really big breakthroughs in schooling and
your work will be a key element in that re-adventure.