Now the school has successfully passed the audit we now begin the process of planning for the next five years. While we can plan for building etc the hardest is trying to predict what our students will need. Hence, the last few remaining newsletters will present what the latest education literature is saying outside in the big wide wide world of education.
In the preface to the 2011 revised edition of his book ‘Out of Our Minds’, Sir Ken Robinson observes that ‘The more complex the world becomes, the more creative we need to be to meet its challenges’, and this is becoming increasingly clear in education and the workplace. People now need to be creative to be successful, but while the idea of success has changed, the education system has not always adjusted its methods or goals to meet it.
In his book ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?’, educational thought leader Yong Zhao warns, “National standards and the national curriculum, enforced by high-stakes testing, can at best teach students what is prescribed… As a result, students talented in other areas never have the opportunity to discover those talents. Students with broader interests are discouraged, not rewarded. The system results in a population with similar skills in a narrow spectrum of talents. Especially in today’s society, innovation and creativity are needed in many areas, some yet undiscovered.