Letters to a friend part 5

Hi Michael
Interesting.
Yes, I would say more than just a 'subliminal presence' in the painting video; seemed well orchestrated (and not just the music... boom boom!)
Your 80s dream school sounds similar to those based on Steiner principles?
Love the unschooling & Lehla's blog. What a wonderful way to teach & learn about The World. Learning is doing & all the more meaningful & relevant because of it.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Melanie

Michael's reply
Hi Melanie,
Similar yes in a practical way, but our dream was that the Education System would replicate our model and make it a universal learning concept. How naive we were.
And now, as a result of sheer power of the information flow, it seems that the old ways can only crumble in the medium to long term. Parents and their children will just vote with their ipads.
And unschooling will be the driving concept, because their will be a need for centralised organisation.
It is happening slowly through the sheer energy and commitment of a minority.
I have witnessed unschooling projects where children share research topics with kids of other nations;
and sometimes in real time too. It is not linear or chronological and I know that some teachers find it frightening to behold. Kids love it and develop a love for learning.
Which is what it's all about, don't you think? The fostering of a love and passion for learning, for life.

Michael

Check out Michael's Starstone retreats in Italy at the beautiful Casa Faustina in Assisi
Next retreat 'The Creative Mind'

I'm not sure what you'll make of this

Stephen Bray, with whom I shared an exhibition in Turkey last year recently shared his five top tips for creative photographers. In fact he addressed the piece to their spouses, but that's another story.

Not everyone will agree with what he writes. Even I am unsure about some of it, but he does provide food for thought, so I thought I would share the document with you.

Here's the link: http://bit.ly/Top5PhotographyTips

Let me know what you think.

Best wishes,

Michael

The fee for our Bristol workshop is £160, with a reduction for early booking. Contact Colin Tracy UK 01305 889476 or, mobile 07874 910877 for full details.

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pitfalls and creativity pt 4

 Melanie Newstead from Adelaide replies to pt 3 blog

'Very true Michael. However, as a teacher of young children, I have to say that television, ipads & computer games have a lot to answer for!
I often struggle to elicit creativity from my students and much of their play, making, art, construction etc is based on ideas or characters from television or computer games. If I see one more picture of whatshername from Disney's 'Frozen', I'm likely to scream!
There's a lot to be said for my childhood (all those aeons ago...;) when we were told to simply 'go play'. What joy in creating, inventing... games, dances, radio plays etc.
Our modern lives are highly structured and organised, both in family & school settings. Where are the opportunities for precious free and unstructured play time? This is when the creative and inventive minds are nurtured and grow.
Thanks for the post :)

Michael replies...

Hi Melanie,
In the late eighties, there were a bunch of us in London, professors, artists and media folk who, sensing change in the education arena, applied for European funding to launch a project on the creation of a more balanced form of learning. It included the creation of a new type of school; half farm really, where children researched subject matter guided by enablers and organisers. The plan was that children spent half their time inside the lab/classroom and half outside getting involved in practical stuff; mud up to their eyebrows sort of thing. Needless to say, it didn't get funding and The Education Dept just snorted at it. And now of course we have Cloud Learning and Unschooling which have been created thanks to the internet, and schooling seems to be unraveling by its own momentum. But still, even here, there are problems of containment and constraint.
I really do like what you say about 'precious free and unstructured play time, that this is when the creative and inventive minds are nurtured and grow'
Maybe you have seen this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccPoUrLv4wo. and I know what you are going to say. 'Twenty five kids in my class doing this?' And what about the dry cleaning bills and the materials?
But even here there is a feeling of a subliminal adult presence and direction, don't you think?
Nonetheless, creative play is natural to a child and the skilled teacher knows when to infuse rational learning into unstructured play.
(BTW I can't help but notice that the subject of Education was decidedly absent from this election campaign (UK). This astounds me)
My final thought is that things are stirring and changing almost by default and it is well worth a look at the two areas I mentioned above. Cloud Learning , Unschooling 
Also check out Minecraft, wonderful for kids, a way to connect with others aroud the planet
I would love to hear your thoughts,

Michael

Michael runs retreats on Creativity in Assisi, Italy

Pitfalls and creativity pt 3

Arthur Fox writes in reply to my previous blog, that..........

'Children tend to be creative because everything is new to them and they are not pre-wired to connect things in specific patterns.  This frees them up to connect things in whatever pattern comes to them.  Each child is different with different influences resulting in even more diversity of connections and ideas.  As we grow older, we naturally start becomig wired through school, cultural socialization, by what we read and view on TV, etc.  However, this is not the same thing as saying the creativity is beaten out of us.  When something new enters our experiences, we tend to make new connections and ideas again. '

And my reply....

Thanks Arthur for extending the debate on this issue which lies at the very heart of difficulties festering in our education systems. You are quite right when you talk about each (young) child being different with different influences resulting in even more diversity of connections and ideas.

And here I say HOORAY! Because this is a house of treasure that sadly these young children are about to leave as they make the transition from infant and junior schooling to High School and Secondary School

But these wonderful childhood qualities are exactly what industry, commerce, (and even such august institutions as the RSA) are crying out for, and blabbing on about, i.e.creativity (or should I say the lack of) in the adult workforce

I was speaking with a young lady yesterday at lunch and she happened to give me the usual line about not having an ounce of creativity in her, but that she would love to paint etc etc. So I asked ' So what happened then?'

And she paused and pondered for a while and told me that when she was at school she had painted a picture of a blue house she had stayed at on her family holiday. And her art teacher had scolded her for doing so and told her that blue houses didin't exist and that she should be more sensible. And that was the end of her creative dreaming, daring and imagination. I asked 'Were you aged 7 at the time?' and she looked surprised and asked 'How did you know?'

I could give you dozens of such examples but you get the gist. That good teachers who ecourage the flowering of creativity throughout a child's school life; it is they who mould the adult to be curious and forever inflamed with wonder. We need a balance between rational and poetic learning processes and not the misinformed idea that testing and more testing is in any way a solution (to what I wonder?) Better exam results? Is that what education is all about? I think not.

Michael
at starstone
Michael and Anthony Rogers run Creativity Retreats in Assisi, Italy.
Next retreat 'The Creative Mind' in June