Monday, 29 June 2009
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Come back Ivan ... much is forgiven !
I have had an interesting weekend of educational banter that has caused me to go back, in the end, to my educational roots. I have never, and I believe, will never be an institutionalist and so have never believed that schools were good places for education.
Their strength used to be that they were populated by dedicated, inspirational people who were urgent to make a difference to and for the young people who crossed their paths on a year by year basis. If only I felt that was the case today. It is not to say that I don't believe in the dedication of the people it is just that the pathway has changed and somehow the route has got lost amongst the trees.
So I went back and reread, just to revitalise, the works of my mentor Ivan Illich and I am pleased to say that my ideals are still alive and well. Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them.
They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work. Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavour are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.
Their strength used to be that they were populated by dedicated, inspirational people who were urgent to make a difference to and for the young people who crossed their paths on a year by year basis. If only I felt that was the case today. It is not to say that I don't believe in the dedication of the people it is just that the pathway has changed and somehow the route has got lost amongst the trees.
So I went back and reread, just to revitalise, the works of my mentor Ivan Illich and I am pleased to say that my ideals are still alive and well. Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them.
They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work. Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavour are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.
Ivan Illich Deschooling Society (1973: 9)
In the coming age of Web 2.0 technology this escalated to nature of the ownership of education and the vexed question of 'push' or 'pull' with regard to real learning. I think that teaching is potentially overrated and it stupefies creativity in sport, work and life ........... the truly greats are and were individuals defining their own truths in their own way and our education systems appear to do nothing at all but institutionalise and take of all of the exciting peaks and troughs in peoples' learning pathways and make them into plateaus. It is not just about being good ........ it is about developing the 'goodness' ............ teaching can play a part but education is different.
We should not be taking so much of the lead as educators we should be opening doors and drawing maps ..... the ownership and control needs to shift to the learners and it is up to us to ensure that as it does they, each and everyone, is in a state to take on the power that this ownership endows. I see this approach as one towards personalisation.
Not the institutional idea of personalisation : Personalisation in education, though, means pupils get what they need; not what they want.
It is not the pupil’s decision, but someone else’s. You can read about the institutional inconsistencies here but ..... mine (and I hope Ivan would have agreed with me!)
To see where all this might be going in the modern idiom read Ewan McIntosh's blog post about the MET Schools.
Exciting times ...
No teacher left behind ...
Every teacher matters ...
What is it that you haven't found yet ... click here if you dare ... it will/might/should/has the potential to ... change your life
Every teacher matters ...
What is it that you haven't found yet ... click here if you dare ... it will/might/should/has the potential to ... change your life
Anything can happen ... will it?
Ken Robinson in his wonderful TED presentation on the nature of Creativity delivered firstly in Monterey in 2006 (and elsewhere since) makes a clear statement about education for creativity. He also says that we can't predict what the future holds ... just think about the last 9 months in the world economy?
From consumers to co-operative participants
Don Ledingham asks in his blog - Perhaps the time is right to explore alternative delivery models for education where we shift our thinking from people being users or consumers, to being participants? and I know I agree.
Is this what you want? Is this what you think? How will you sell it to your stake holders?
For too long education and learning has been ‘done to’ people. It is quite clear that we cannot go on this way. Ownership is everything - it is the thing that makes the difference. Teachers are inspirers and must be given the opportunities necessary to inspire. We are going further and further away from what is needed and, as Don says, our current system - as it has evolved - has been dominated by the tenets of centralised control . We have created dependency on it. Is it because education is a politically driven institution or is it that we simply haven’t allowed it to evolve enough?
The steps forward are not simple … but they do need taking … and the answers will not fit easily into the present climate. I just wonder if the current economic downturn will have taught us anything about what is important.
Is this what you want? Is this what you think? How will you sell it to your stake holders?
For too long education and learning has been ‘done to’ people. It is quite clear that we cannot go on this way. Ownership is everything - it is the thing that makes the difference. Teachers are inspirers and must be given the opportunities necessary to inspire. We are going further and further away from what is needed and, as Don says, our current system - as it has evolved - has been dominated by the tenets of centralised control . We have created dependency on it. Is it because education is a politically driven institution or is it that we simply haven’t allowed it to evolve enough?
The steps forward are not simple … but they do need taking … and the answers will not fit easily into the present climate. I just wonder if the current economic downturn will have taught us anything about what is important.
So what happens now?
The progression from Web 1.0 through Web 2.0 and onwards is exponential.
From docs to blogs, pods, wikis and beyond, children, students and learners of all types are using the growing power at their fingertips to develop their ideas in exciting, stimulating and creative ways.
They are collaborating, creating, digesting, reworking, demanding, focusing, inventing and re-inventing! The 'read/write' aspects that excited us with passion last year have sprinted forward giving new meanings to both parts… read and write.
Each day we find institutions besieged by the advances made, which they seemingly have little or no control over and today‘s person wants control! What price is a three to five year development plan when change is so fast?
I didn't guess that the Government post Rose (?) would ditch/remove/make non-compulsory etc etc the strategies or frameworks did you?
How do we match this in a world where earthquakes and the global 'crunch' have the capacity to change peoples' lives forever? How do we manage all of the information we now have? What effect does it have on us and ours? Who are the owners? Who are the buyers and who the sellers? …
So what happens now … let‘s explore the opportunities and take the risk of finding out
From docs to blogs, pods, wikis and beyond, children, students and learners of all types are using the growing power at their fingertips to develop their ideas in exciting, stimulating and creative ways.
They are collaborating, creating, digesting, reworking, demanding, focusing, inventing and re-inventing! The 'read/write' aspects that excited us with passion last year have sprinted forward giving new meanings to both parts… read and write.
Each day we find institutions besieged by the advances made, which they seemingly have little or no control over and today‘s person wants control! What price is a three to five year development plan when change is so fast?
I didn't guess that the Government post Rose (?) would ditch/remove/make non-compulsory etc etc the strategies or frameworks did you?
How do we match this in a world where earthquakes and the global 'crunch' have the capacity to change peoples' lives forever? How do we manage all of the information we now have? What effect does it have on us and ours? Who are the owners? Who are the buyers and who the sellers? …
So what happens now … let‘s explore the opportunities and take the risk of finding out
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