At this year's CUE conference in in Palm Springs I had the great fortune of being introduced to the work of the Thornburg Institute. The ideas presented in several of the sessions were music to my ears. Literally in the one presented by Ferdi Serim who played the flute to us during paired discussion.
The following video illustrates the thinking of the institute and the message that is so vital in this time of change. Students can't be freed to be creative if the teacher isn't first. We have to change our pedagogical model of education, not just add a new set of standards.
Our current content-based curriculum model is dead wrong. The focus is on delivering the answer to children. This is a creativity killer! As David Thornburg says in the video, "We are in a situation right now where we are providing students with the opportunity to learn things that are not going to help them in their capacity to learn more on their own in the future."
Teachers, stop ticking down the list of standards taught! It is time to engage students in the creative process and let them discover the answers to questions. Those who do not own the journey cannot see how to chart the way through the next one! It is our job to help students navigate, not drag them to the destination.
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