Ken Robinson – Millennial Matriarchs

In the run up to Teacher’s Day which is celebrated in India on 5 September every year, there will be numerous pieces about outstanding teachers, teachers who have changed the lives of students, and other inspiring stories.

Sadly, even as we felicitate and celebrate teachers such as these, there are also disturbing reports about teachers who, perhaps, could leave life-long scars on the children that they have the opportunity to mould and nurture. These belong to the mass of average teachers who are “teachers” in name but not in deed. What do they make of their job, which is really speaking a means of livelihood, and even that, which is insecure?

Take this piece, titled Confessions of a Teacher.

I am a teacher. I saw an article entitled ‘Teacher’s Confessions’ and thought, why not pen down my own confessions?

I have been in teaching for years now. As a requirement to becoming a teacher, I had at that time, to study the science and principles of education. I have not learnt much more, since then.

I go to public libraries but rarely touch teaching related journals. A glance at the librarian’s issue book will show several books against my name, but none related to education.

I am certainly in the habit of reading. In the early years I was busy studying the textbooks and related material. But the textbooks don’t change often. I now need only to glance at the books. My reading list now includes dailies and monthlies and some assorted fiction.

After school hours I rarely discuss education-related topics. My discussion includes topics such as someone’s dismissal or promotion, forms and examinations, higher authorities or fellow teachers, booksellers, and so on.

During recess time, my colleagues gather for a cup of tea. We talk of many things. But never do we talk about how to teach, teaching aids, or students.

The school timings are fixed. The curriculum is set. The school bell heralds the passage of time, and students are prepared for the examinations. The systems are in place. I go to school. Teach the lessons for the day. I carry out my tasks and keep the order – partly by force, partly by wit, partly through my image, and largely through the set disciplinary systems of the school.

I don’t get into the depths of any subject. There is no time; just enough to complete what will be part of the exams. Students will take longer, and explanations will have to be made to the authorities.

I know the students by name, or those that know their lessons, and those that do not. I do not know anything about their family, their friends, their own personalities. We are not close. I know their minds, but not their hearts.

I see who comes first, and who is last. I do not know about their physical strengths and weaknesses. Those who finish their work and bring it to me, are clever; those I like. The rest are duds; I do not like them. Between us there is no affection. How can there be trust? They are afraid of me; and I exert my authority over them.

Once I leave the school, I scarcely think of them, save perhaps, one who might have been greatly disrespectful. Each to our own homes. Perhaps, as I lie down the thought may cross my mind that as the exams near, I will have to speed up the revision, for which I’d use the recess.

I haven’t seen the home of the children. Nor have I shown them my home. I do not have such a relationship with them.

I dream that I will be promoted till some day I become headmaster. I will complete my term of service, retire and enjoy my pension. I hope to save a little before I am too old. That is why I have to take tuitions.

I wish that I am well thought of in my community, that I can educate my children so that they get good jobs, and I can marry them off before I enjoy old age.

It is for this that I wish to work. Today the profession of teaching is, for me, an activity, a job. In all this, the ideals of education, the changing principles and practices of teaching, the desire to bring new changes in the field – all this is not in one, where will they come from?

I would like to explain clearly what my position is today. My state is like this; I presume my fellow teachers are in a similar situation.

If we think that this is a familiar scenario, it may come as a surprise that this was written in 1932 (nearly a hundred years ago). The author is Gijubhai Badheka an eminent educator who helped to introduce Montessori education methods to India. Disturbed by the dark educational system of that time, he embarked on his journey into the realms of education, and left behind a rich legacy of work and writing.

More about Gijubhai and his work on www.gijubhaibadheka.in.

Several generations later, the dilemmas about what makes a ‘good teacher’ continue to engage educators.

A hundred years after Gijubhai wrote some of his seminal works on education, Sir Ken Robinson one of the eminent contemporary thinkers on education propounded a critique of the school system. His TED talk Do Schools Kill Creativity? is one of the most watched talks. He urged schools to transform teaching and learning to an experience personalized for every student involved.

His words resonate closely with Gijubhai’s angst about the state of education, and his dream for a transformative educational system

Role of the Teacher

The problem is that over time, all kinds of things have gotten in the way of it – testing regimes, league tables, unions’ bargaining rights, building codes, professional identities, the concerns of various pressure groups, ideology of various political parties. It’s very easy for people to spend all day discussing education without mentioning the students at all. But all of this is a complete waste of everybody’s time if we forget that our role is to help students to learn. Therefore, the question is: what should they learn and how do we best do that?

All the great education systems and schools know that. It’s why they invest so heavily on the selection of teachers, why they insist on getting people who don’t just have good degrees, or have them at all. They want people who know their material, but they also know that teaching depends upon a whole set of pedagogical skills and a love of the process. It’s more than the transmission of direct content. It’s about having a set of skills focused on facilitating learning. (Sir Ken Robinson)

A teacher’s work is like flowing water. The fulfilment of the work of education is not in teaching one or two subjects… Real education lies in making humans aware about their own unending strengths. (Gijubhai Badheka ‘Note to Teachers’ 1920)

Some food for thought.

–Mamata

Continuing musings on education this week. This time with some thoughts from Sir Ken Robinson, one of the most influential contemporary thinkers on education, and discovering uncanny similarities in his vision with that of Rabindranath Tagore.

British-born teacher, author and speaker Ken Robinson spoke out against what he describes essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity, and ‘batching’ people. As he said: We have sold ourselves into a fast food model of education, and it is impoverishing our spirits and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies.

He viewed large school systems as being rigid and unresponsive, squeezing the creative juices out of children by overemphasizing standardized testing and subjects like mathematics and science over the arts and humanities.

Ken Robinson advocated strongly for schools not only to broaden their curriculums but also to support teachers as creative professionals; and to personalize learning by breaking large classrooms — artificial environments that invite boredom, he said — into small groups.

Over a hundred years after Tagore, he shared Tagore’s vision of a good teacher: Good teachers activate children’s minds instead of helping them to assimilate and collect information, and inspire children through their own self-development.

Ken Robinson made it his life’s mission to highlight the importance of systems and environments that nurtured creativity. In his book Creative Schools he describes how he views creativity.

Imagination is the root of creativity. It is the ability to bring to mind things that aren’t present to our senses.

Creativity is putting your imagination to work. It is applied imagination. Innovation is putting new ideas into practice. There are various myths about creativity. One is that only special people are creative, another is that creativity is only about the arts, a third is that creativity cannot be taught, and a fourth is that it’s all to do with uninhibited “self-expression.”

None of these is true. Creativity draws from many powers that we all have by virtue of being human. Creativity is possible in all areas of human life, in science, the arts, mathematics, technology, cuisine, teaching, politics, business, you name it. And like many human capacities, our creative powers can be cultivated and refined. Doing that involves an increasing mastery of skills, knowledge, and ideas.

Creativity is about fresh thinking. It doesn’t have to be new to the whole of humanity— though that’s always a bonus— but certainly to the person whose work it is. Creativity also involves making critical judgments about whether what you’re working on is any good, be it a theorem, a design, or a poem. Creative work often passes through typical phases. Sometimes what you end up with is not what you had in mind when you started. It’s a dynamic process that often involves making new connections, crossing disciplines, and using metaphors and analogies. Being creative is not just about having off-the-wall ideas and letting your imagination run free. It may involve all of that, but it also involves refining, testing, and focusing what you’re doing. It’s about original thinking on the part of the individual, and it’s also about judging critically whether the work in process is taking the right shape and is worthwhile, at least for the person producing it.

Creativity is not the opposite of discipline and control. On the contrary, creativity in any field may involve deep factual knowledge and high levels of practical skill. Cultivating creativity is one of the most interesting challenges for any teacher. It involves understanding the real dynamics of creative work.

The real driver of creativity is an appetite for discovery and a passion for the work itself. When students are motivated to learn, they naturally acquire the skills they need to get the work done. Their mastery of them grows as their creative ambitions expand. You’ll find evidence of this process in great teaching in every discipline from football to chemistry.

We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it’s an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do, like a farmer, is to create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.

Tagore dreamed the same dream and urged for the same process when he wrote: Do not be preoccupied with method. Leave your instincts to guide you to life. Children differ from one another. One must learn to know them, to navigate among them as one navigates among reefs.

This week as we all remembered the teachers who have, in some way or the other, contributed to making us who we are, words of such visionaries help us to better articulate what it means to be a real teacher.

–Mamata

Tag: Ken Robinson

Teacher? Teacher!

From Tagore to Ken Robinson: Creative Education