The recent news media have been reporting on how students as young as Year 2 are now expected to do SATs revision at home, and how head teachers are suggesting 7 hours a day of exam revision for secondary students over the school breaks. BBC has likened some of the current focus on rote-learning techniques to the harsh world of Dickens and his Hard Times’ superintendent Thomas Gradgrind. The Guardian reports at least weekly on how the ‘perverse’ system is failing students and teachers alike, promoting burnout and leaving students ill-equipped to deal with the requirements of higher education and the workplace, where resilience, team work, creativity and presenting are highly valued.
Despite the doom and gloom of the reports and the realities of the situations for many schools, creativity is at the heart of good teaching and there are so many examples of teachers and schools working to overcome the challenges and provide quality, human- centred education to our young people.
Amongst many of the wonderful initiatives highlighted in this issue is the Free Minds programme that was developed to celebrate imaginative teaching and learning at the City of London Freemen’s School. Headmaster Roland Martin decided to find a way to inspire students to learn for the sake of learning and engage their whole minds. In this programme, starting in the lower Sixth Form, students take five six week courses that are based on a one-hour seminar a week, in addition to their usual selection of A Levels. The Free Minds courses are based on a liberal arts model and do not have tests or grades. Students get the opportunity to experience a general knowledge-based approach and study topics that they choose from a wide range of options. Course offerings include ‘Dickens’ Women’, ‘Misconceptions of Religion’, ‘The Anatomy of a Trial’, ‘Six Great Classical Pieces’.,’Science, Bad Science and Pseudoscience’, and many other choices within the five areas of ‘Foundations’, ‘World’, ‘Language’, ‘Science’ and ‘Arts’.
General knowledge has been shown to be one of the most vital indicators of academic progress and general success in life. In a study featured in a previous issue of Creative Teaching and Learning (A Disturbing Power to Predict), Mike Lake shows how children’s general knowledge at the age of four is an indicator of their willingness to learn as well as of their experiences at home. Students who do poorly on a short general knowledge test at that age need the education system to address the social imbalances so they have the chance to succeed in school. As educational theorist Ed Hirsch noted in his article ‘Why General Knowledge Should be a Goal of
Education in a Democracy’, “Giving everybody more knowledge makes everybody more competent and therefore creates a more just society.” A focus only on specialized knowledge has the effect of furthering the class divide and reinforcing the social hierarchy.
Not only does the Free Minds curriculum support students in developing more general knowledge, finding meaning in their work and connecting their knowledge and capacity to to learn with critical thinking, presentation skills and big-picture connections, but it provides an impetus to inspire and energize teachers as well. Within the Free Minds framework, teachers have the opportunity to challenge themselves and reconnect with the topics and themes that inspired them to become thinkers, scientists, artists and educators. By prioritising the seminar classes over the required classes when assigning teachers’ workloads, the school offers support and a clear framework for teachers to pursue their own creative practice and whole-brain thinking. In addition, the system has a built-in, self directed professional development component: teachers are getting the opportunity to build and develop specific subject knowledge, be innovative in their delivery of the material and test out their techniques with an active and engaged group of students. It is a win for everyone involved.
As you read through the articles of this issue (Creative Teaching & Learning 7.4), you may notice that all the educators engaging with higher level thinking skills and creative approaches have a high level of enthusiasm and energy, which may very well come from their efforts to overcome these challenges.