Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Leadership is not COMMAND and CONTROL ....

I've talked before about Sir Ken Robinson, particularly on our Facebook Page. Sir Ken has written and presented extensively about education. If you haven't heard him speak before, you must watch Do schools kill creativity? and Changing education paradigms.

The themes of these two presentation above feature in this next presentation (below). Because I know these two presentations so well, I kind of zoned out a bit, but at 15 minutes, I snapped to attention.

Listen for the Death Valley metaphor ....


There are three types of people in the world - those who are immovable, those who are movable, and people who move.

I've captured the text below for you.... 
There are conditions under which people thrive. And conditions under which they don't. We are after all, organic creatures. And the culture of the school is absolutely essential. Culture is an organic term isn't it? 
Not far from where I live is a place called Death Valley.  Death Valley is the hottest, driest place in America and nothing grows there. Nothing grows there, because it doesn't rain. Hence Death Valley. In the winter of 2004, it rained in Death Valley. Seven inches of rain fell over a very short period. And in the sprint of 2005 there was a phenomenon, the whole floor of Death Valley was carpeted in flowers, for a while.  
What is proved is this - that Death Valley isn't dead. It's dormant. What's right beneath the surface are these seeds of possibility waiting for the right conditions to come about. And with organic systems, if the conditions are right, life is inevitable. It happens all the time. 
--- the real role of leadership is not command and control, it's climate control.



2 comments:

  1. Good post. Creativity is a long drawn out process at times. Schools are so evidence and assessment driven that creativity is often quashed. Technology and social media in my opinion has had a negative impact on creative juice in the classroom. Some kids are stumped when they are asked to do something 'design' process like that involves ideating and analysing the best idea. I like how in ASOT they talk about 'getting kids to test their hypothesis' whenever you can. Even holding the old school media like crayons or brushes can stump some students.

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    1. There's definitely something in the "old-school media". Perhaps it's a connection to a kinaesthetic experience. That's why I like drawing as a regular activity - like a 30 days of drawing project. Drawing is the most human (and universal ??) of expressions. But technology does offer lots of opportunities for creativity. Minecraft is an excellent tool - for creativity as well as creative collaboration. Users can collaborate on a global scale. I think "technology" is *different* to the "old-school" stuff, but is just as valuable in fostering amazing creative output and thinking. I think school systems will eventually introduce coding as part of the curriculum. Will be interesting to see the types of creative activities that spring from that.

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