Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognised leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He is challenging the world to rethink education not as an institution based on the industrial revolution, but as a creative environment of nurture and development for our children and young people. I resonate with the idea that instead of educating our children into creativity, we can be capable of educating them out of it. An ironic aspect of our school system is that children quite often enter it full of creativity and imagination, and come out with a numbed sense of who and how they are to be in the world.
One way of looking at this can be illustrated by thinking about the ICT curriculum where pupils who are passionate about computers and technology typically have to sit through lesson after lesson about word processing, creating spreadsheets (and, on a good day, possibly even a poster). What about encouraging them to learn about programming and creating smartphone apps? I can think of several eight year olds who would be up for that challenge.
Sir Ken argues that if we are scared of getting it wrong then we will never come up with anything original. I think we have a responsibility in schools to give children the capacity to be creative in their development, to help them make mistakes and through that, to teach them a valuable life skill – to have a go. This is not just about teaching and working in schools in creative ways, but helping to fashion a curriculum that allows their creativity to be given space to flourish.
A caveat is needed at this point. I want to commend the thousands of teachers around the UK who do something truly amazing – and that is devote themselves to the children in their classes day in day out. I respect the many hours of hard work put in by teaching and support staff, the hours seen and unseen. I am in awe of the sacrifices made by those who give themselves to the teaching profession and I applaud the creativity I have seen in many classrooms around the UK. I think these stories need to be shared, and great practice needs to be passed on.
Five years ago we came up with the idea of connecting and sharing inspiration and resources for work in schools through a project called schoolswork.co.uk. It is an online platform full of resources, ideas and online guides, and at the heart is the desire to see the Church engage more frequently with schools, to do it creatively and to improve the quality of that input. We think the children in our schools are worth it! I want to encourage Christians to consider the impact they could have in their local school, whether that is about developing the teaching of RE, running a prayer space or working one to one with a child. We are called to be salt and light in the world of education and there are currently more opportunities than ever before to see this outworked in creative ways. Where are you going to start?
You’ll find a feature packed with creative ideas to help Christians and churches to engage in primary schools in the latest issue of Childrenswork magazine.
