It’s that time of year again. Administrators are back finalizing the details necessary for schools to start the day after the Labour Day Weekend. Many teachers are balancing a mixture of squeezing in the last few days of holidays with family & friends and getting ready to welcome a new crop of students. Support staff are getting the building, equipment, and supplies ready for the transformation from empty buildings to schools with a myriad of activities occurring from early morning to evening.
I always look for blog posts, articles, and videos to help re-focus and provide some inspiration.
Today I’ve been reflecting on this Ken Robinson TED Talk, “How to escape education’s death valley.” In this video he outlines the 3 crucial principles required for the mind to flourish:
- Human beings are naturally different and diverse
- Curiosity
- Human life is inherently creative
Here are some excerpts which spoke to me:
There is no system in the world or any school in the country that is better than its teachers. Teachers are the lifeblood of the success of schools. But teaching is a creative profession. Teaching, properly conceived, is not a delivery system. You know, you’re not there just to pass on received information. Great teachers do that, but what great teachers also do is mentor, stimulate, provoke, engage. You see, in the end, education is about learning. If there’s no learning going on, there’s no education going on. And people can spend an awful lot of time discussing education without ever discussing learning. The whole point of education is to get people to learn.
….
The role of a teacher is to facilitate learning. That’s it. And part of the problem is, I think, that the dominant culture of education has come to focus on not teaching and learning, but testing. Now, testing is important. Standardized tests have a place. But they should not be the dominant culture of education. They should be diagnostic. They should help.
Have a look: