For the last three days of Term 1, we ran our annual Year Eleven Study Conference. The theme of this year was 'Movin' on Up' - an M People variation on the usual theme 'Stepping Up', with the connotations of students taking more responsibility for their learning as they move into the senior years of school study. Although the focus was on academics, we integrated our three core programs (academic, co-curricular, student wellbeing) in the conference, with a session run by our Heads of House on positive thinking, and a concluding self-defence activity to drive home a bit of punch to the event. My introduction talk was entitled 'Movin' on Up' and included a 'Six Step Plan' for achieving this. Now, I am not a motivational speaker (the last day of the conference included Glen Gerreyn's Oxygen Factory presentation http://oxygenfactory.com.au/), but it was fun to talk to Year Eleven on this theme. Without going into all the details, my last point was to encourage students to be creative in their responses to both class and assessment activities, and for students to be willing to 'have a go' and not be embarrassed to show their thinking and stretch themselves and take risks in their learning. A number of the individual subject presentations included student input, where Year 12 students shared their insights to the grade below; it's important that the right messages come from a variety of sources. Whether it be a teacher, the principal or director, students, parents, motivational speakers - something will get through, somewhere. And it's not just about 'academic success' or 'goal setting' but (finally) a sort of self-actualisation. This is the end of my opening speech, and I hope it sounds just a little idealistic, as it ought!
Think about school as a place where you can take at least calculated risks. Think about some of the acts from yesterday’s creative arts carnival, people with various hidden talents, bravely on display. Wouldn’t it be great to be in a classroom environment like that, where students were not afraid to stretch themselves and be creative in their thinking, their speaking and writing?
The philosopher Reuben Abel in ‘Man is the Measure’ writes about the innate connection between creativity and the person.
“While alive, the
process of [becoming] is never complete; the potentialities are never
exhausted. The person is no more
certain of his outcome than any who learns, who makes choices, who doubts, who
acts and strives, who grows, who is guided by morality, who has an inner
standpoint, who is creative. When Socrates said,
Know thyself, he did not mean Discover thyself, but Create thyself.”
