I believe that creativity, curiosity, innovation, and imagination are the benchmarks of vision and problem solving.
In an era of building discontent regarding the state of education in North America, questions about how best to solve our educational problems abound. The vast majority of responsible, hard-working and talented teachers would agree that creativity, curiosity, innovation and imagination are words that describe the sort of positive elements they strive to nurture in their classroom environments working with kids, so it strikes me as ironic that we are so quiet whe it comes to nurturing these elements within the broader professional contexts we work within (curriculum, discipline, assessment, professional development, etc.)
Education reform should not be a linear process. On the contrary, reforming education will work best as an organic, concentric process that does not ever reach a state of quiescence. The common center relative to this concentric model of perpetual improvement is the goal to develop people who will be smarter, healthier and more creative than we are. The children we work with are our gifts for the future, and it is so important that we package them carefully. In order to do this effectively, teachers need to mirror the way they contribute to the education reform process with the creative, curious, innovative and imaginative approaches they exemplify in their classrooms.
Teachers are undoubtedly naturally poised to lead the charge at the front of education change. The exempliary skills they display in their classrooms that have become somewhat latent in the broader context of the profession, (a result of years of transactional departmental control over what they do as professionals,) will need to emerge. To solve the problems we're confronted with in our profession, teachers will need to establish collective vision toward the foreseeable preferred future, but they will also need to grasp the concept that we can only see so far into the future; that the target is a moving one that requires a re-tooling process, a constant re-focusing of our perspective regarding how we will package our gifts. A new culture of change invites us.
Stay tuned.
flickr CC image via fotologic
In an era of building discontent regarding the state of education in North America, questions about how best to solve our educational problems abound. The vast majority of responsible, hard-working and talented teachers would agree that creativity, curiosity, innovation and imagination are words that describe the sort of positive elements they strive to nurture in their classroom environments working with kids, so it strikes me as ironic that we are so quiet whe it comes to nurturing these elements within the broader professional contexts we work within (curriculum, discipline, assessment, professional development, etc.)
Education reform should not be a linear process. On the contrary, reforming education will work best as an organic, concentric process that does not ever reach a state of quiescence. The common center relative to this concentric model of perpetual improvement is the goal to develop people who will be smarter, healthier and more creative than we are. The children we work with are our gifts for the future, and it is so important that we package them carefully. In order to do this effectively, teachers need to mirror the way they contribute to the education reform process with the creative, curious, innovative and imaginative approaches they exemplify in their classrooms.
Teachers are undoubtedly naturally poised to lead the charge at the front of education change. The exempliary skills they display in their classrooms that have become somewhat latent in the broader context of the profession, (a result of years of transactional departmental control over what they do as professionals,) will need to emerge. To solve the problems we're confronted with in our profession, teachers will need to establish collective vision toward the foreseeable preferred future, but they will also need to grasp the concept that we can only see so far into the future; that the target is a moving one that requires a re-tooling process, a constant re-focusing of our perspective regarding how we will package our gifts. A new culture of change invites us.
"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating." Henri BergsonCreativity, curiosity, innovation, and imagination will be the benchmarks that ground our evolving vision and solution focused perspective toward the problems (challenges) that confront us.
Stay tuned.
