The Shakespeare of Innovation

In the current wholesale revision of the curriculum for primary and secondary schools in England, I don’t see any mention of Thomas Edison. Really he should be at the centre of education for our children, the Shakespeare of technological innovation, embodying as he does:

Breakthrough ideas

Envisioning the future
Systematic creative problem-solving
Sticking at it through thick and thin
Making it happen
Working in project teams
Providing inspirational leadership
Marketing himself and his work
Protecting intellectual property
Raising capital
Selling to key customers
Managing success and learning from failure

Many of these aspects were pioneered by Edison himself.

This is a piece I wrote on him a while back. In so many ways he was, as I wrote, the father of innovation management:

http://www.perdiemprojects.com/Resources/Per%20Diem%20Article-Thomas%20Edi.pdf

Down with homework

Have you noticed there is a backlash in play against excessive homework?

One example is in Finland.  Amongst the mixture of changes that Finland made to its educational system – changes that took it to top the league table internationally – many primary schools no longer have homework.

I wonder whether a severe reduction in secondary schools might also yield positive results. I hear somewhat scary stories about the amount of demanded at the secondary school my daughter will go to, all being well, next year.

In those distant times when I grappled with homework, unable to cope, I recall so clearly the time when a temporary Latin master announced that we were being given far too much to do. So he asked us to translate into English just five sentences. “Half the marks will be awarded for style,” he announced.

Deep joy. An assignment I relished.

Down with homework (except when it’s brief and marks are awarded for style).

 

Learning by shouting out

You may have seen that a recent study of primary school children by Durham University shows clearly that pupils who shout out in class do better, academically, learning faster than those who seem better-behaved.

And yet so many teachers (and parents) still regard this sort of behaviour as disruptive and rude, censuring pupils accordingly.

My belief is that a major side-effect of the repressive way teachers react is that children start to suppress their own creativity.

On the subject of enthusiasm, the great American choreographer, Martha Graham, hit the nail on the head: “Great dancers are not great because of their technique. They are great because of their passion.”

The real question is: how to encourage and support impulsiveness in children and re-awaken it in adults?

Daydreaming and Creativity

It seems extraordinary that, when training people in creative thinking, I should need to spend such a large amount of time just getting them to listen to themselves.

For it is in our own thoughts and feelings that new thinking, new ideas, are born.

The problem usually stems from our educational pasts. At school it has always been consistently demanded that we pay attention to the teacher. There, “concentrating” means listening to him or her, not to oneself.

Yet so often what happens is that the teacher has said something interesting that stimulates us to go off on a fascinating internal journey, exploring the implications of what has been said. Yet, to the teacher, this can so easily be interpreted and censured as just not paying attention, “daydreaming”.

But how exciting and valuable daydreaming can be.

As the French poet, Arthur Rimbaud, put it (in a famous letter to Paul Demeny in 1871): “I witness the flowering of my thought: I gaze at it, I listen to it: I set my bow moving: the symphony stirs into life in the depths, or comes leaping on to the stage.”

[J'assiste à l'éclosion de ma pensée : je la regarde, je l'écoute : je lance un coup d'archet : la symphonie fait son remuement dans les profondeurs, ou vient d'un bond sur la scène.]

The two stages of childhood

Discussing my seven year old and her process of growing up with my colleague at City University, Kristine Karlsen:

“There are two stages to child development,” said Kristine. “First we teach them to walk and talk. Then we teach them to sit down and be quiet.”

This seems to me the pithiest and most devastating of summations. It tells us so much about why children emerge into adulthood with their creative faculties diminished. And why too often we need to have that side of us re-awakened later in life.

I have been thinking a lot recently about the lack of creativity in our British education system and I have some ideas about it.

But what do you think?

Educational standards “woeful”

Perhaps the most successful leader of a major British company, Tesco’s Sir Terry Leahy has criticised educational standards in the country. “Woefully low,” was how he summarised the situation, adding: “We depend on high standards in our schools as today’s schoolchildren are tomorrow’s team.”

Singled out as an underlying cause by Leahy was “reams of instructions to teachers, who then get distracted from the task at hand: teaching children.” Bureaucracy certainly seems to have increased exponentially over recent years.

His main area of concern is focused on basic numeracy and communication skills. I often hear similar comments from colleagues at City University – but with the rider that there are also serious issues with school-leavers in the areas of creativity and problem-solving skills.

I wonder what the answer is? And is this a worldwide phenomenon?

My own experience in Asia (India, Singapore etc) would indicate that they are the ones we might be learning from these days.