EDUCATING FOR CREATIVITY

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EDUCATING FOR CREATIVITY

THE TRANSITION YEARS-HOW TO IMPLEMENT TRANSFORMATION

I invite you to come on a journey of shared vision, to a place that empowers the individual to experience a creative transformation. A place where deep learning is valued, gifts and talents are celebrated, and diversity is encouraged. Here we will find a special place, an inclusive community that through freedom and reflection will evolve to become a culture that is a living reality of networked learning, a place where people feel safe and valued. A place where everyone can take risks and feel confident that his or her impulse toward creativity is supported and encouraged.

TO BEGIN WITH WE MUST FIRST IDENTIFY OUR CORE VALUES.
Transformation is driven by core values.
At Shearwater, The Mullumbimby Steiner School we value Creativity, Initiative, Personal Development and Community. Our school handbook begins with the following quote from Goethe, the seventeenth century scientist, poet and humanitarian:-
“What you do, or dream you can do.
Begin it!
Boldness has genius, magic and Power in it.
Begin it now!
Until one is committed, there is a chance to draw back – always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans,
That the moment one commits oneself, then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise not have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed could come his way.”

Inclusiveness is the core value for the future. At Shearwater we often muse that we are only as fast as the slowest person. Here we must acknowledge that everyone has gifts and talents and is an autonomous unit of a creative whole. To use a more imaginative picture we could view a truly creative and diverse community as a waratah. This unique floral emblem is made up of numerous individual stamens, united to form a whole.
Shearwater operates through the power of establishment vested in the nominal role. Here each individual is given a task, which informs their daily work. Within that framework the individual is free to contribute and diversify through his or her own regulation and intensity. Instead of a principal the school operates with a nominated hierarchy that acts in a mentoring and modeling capacity. As Margaret Wheatley attests, participation and validation lead to self-management. “Patterns of relationships form into effective systems of organization. Organization is a naturally occurring phenomenon. The world seeks organization, seeks its own effectiveness, and so do the people in our organizations. A school is a living system.” In this environment the creative drivers, through the expressions of power and freedom, are able to operate and regulate activity.
Shearwater acknowledges the spiritual activity of the traditional aboriginal custodial owners of the land on which the school is situated. The elemental beings with whom we co-exist are also recognized and acknowledged. Veneration for all living things is modeled and encouraged. The physical beauty of the land has been enhanced and complimented by award winning architecturally designed timber buildings. Each class room has been individually tailored to meet the needs of the developing child. Rudolf Steiner spoke of the inter-relatedness of all life on earth. This dynamic fluent interplay between inner and outer, allows us the freedom to unfold our identity. To belong.
Shearwater has incarnated and operates through the Christian principal of community.
In his book ‘Rise of the Creative Community’, Richard Florida talks about the transformation of the individual through identifying their gifts and empowering them. In this way a culture is transformed and a team is created on common ground with shared vision.
Bishop Helda Camera summed up the power of transformation when people align together with these words:
"If we dream alone, it remains merely a dream. But, if we dream together, if we dream collaboratively, it is the beginning of reality."

Action research is research that each of us can do on our own practice, that “we” (any team or family or informal community of practice) can do to improve its practice, or that larger organizations or institutions can conduct on themselves, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving their strategies, practices, and knowledge of the environments within which they practice. In this way we must strive to become action research practitioners by legitimizing each time we make a quality improvement. Applied across the board this practice more than any other is the singularly most significant catalyst for positive change. Applied to a pedagogical organization such as Shearwater, this practice will in turn create a reflective mindset in the students.
To establish a community of excellence a School must encourage and attract teachers and staff who are willing to be involved in a process of continual professional development. The school environment must provide access for adult and community education. Teachers must be mature and professional, apply persistence, and show themselves to be reliable team players.
At Shearwater a genuine spark of initiative and resourcefulness are practically mandatory. We are among a dying breed of schools who despite a climate of litigation and fear, still value outdoor education, including extensive field trips, as a cornerstone in our curriculum. To illustrate the enormous benefit of this practice I would like to share the indication from Rudolf Steiner who said that if the children are met at the correct stages of development with experiences that involve risk management, determination, perseverance and inner fortitude, then students would be able to avoid other exploratory practices which had a negative impact such as drug abuse.
Steiner, not unlike Piaget, linked varying stages of development with differing cognitive levels. Through observation of his own children, Piaget postulated that the growth of knowledge is a progressive construction of logically embedded structures superseding one another. Piaget advocated a process of inclusion of lower less powerful logical means into higher and more powerful ones up to adulthood. As teachers in a school for Rudolf Steiner Education, our moral incumbency, based on a deepened understanding of human development and its spiritual origins, is to bring to the children content and processes most appropriate to their developmental needs so that they are able to unfold in a healthy manner. This process of ‘healthy timetabling’ describes what Vygotsky would refer to as the zone of proximal development.

Teachers and staff are encouraged to be punctual and sociable, remembering that student are continually modeling themselves on their environment. To this end, every teacher will be as good a teacher as the person they are.
A creative community should be a place where each individual feels they belong and wants to be. Collegiality is essential, remembering, we do not operate in a vacuum.
The constructivist model of learning and changing begins with what is concrete reality. A major theme in the theoretical framework of Jerome Bruner is that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge.
The constructivist model provides proximate opportunities, which support social interaction, including teamwork. As Lev Vygotsky research informs us, social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. If we are to enter what Vygotsky described as the Zone Of Proximal Development (ZDP), we must interact as social beings.
All community members must be given access to all technologies. Howard Gardener stressed that all members have multiple intelligences. He believed that we are working with the wrong paradigm when we endeavor to find out how smart people are. Instead Gardener says we should be asking how people are smart. What is their medium for communicating their intelligence?
Finally, in the constructivist model, it is stated that critical reflection on practice is essential. Creativity begins and ends with critical reflection on current practices. Here creativity links ideas and practices in new ways. Creativity needs design to put new ideas and practices into place…. Then our dreams contain magic and power…in the words of Jean Piaget
“The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done - men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.”
The process of change takes time and vision to be effective. Once a team has been established and core values identified that combine inclusive strategies with entrepreneurial action, change can be effected. Exciting possibilities, including models such as Total Quality Management could then be adopted and adapted to suit the organization.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes.
Total Quality provides an umbrella under which everyone in the organization can strive and create greater satisfaction, in the case of a school everyone benefits from enhanced communication, emphasis on integrity and ethics, avenues for leadership, opportunities for teamwork, access to professional development and the all important reflective process of recognition.
A shared vision creates a happy school, which is reflected in the student’s achievements. Cultural activities are enhanced and true morality is present.
In this magical place there are lots of opportunities and activities for everyone. Everyone is valued…everyone feels welcome.
Creativity allows you to grow and change. In a school everyone is affected: students, teachers, staff, community. Steven Downes describes this vision when he says, “I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumbrance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle. Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be. This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence. This is what I aspire toward; this is what I work toward.
William Glasser developed Reality Therapy and Choice Theory -a cause and effect theory that explains human behavior. His ideas, which focus on personal choice, personal responsibility and personal transformation, are designed to motivate people and inspire ideas.
Glasser asserts that people are driven by six basic needs. All of our choices and behaviours are based upon the urgency for SURVIVAL, POWER, LOVE, BELONGING, FREEDOM, and FUN. Glasser asserts that 95% of all discipline problems are misguided efforts of children trying to achieve power.
By understanding the drives for SURVIVAL, POWER, LOVE, BELONGING, FREEDOM, and FUN in people, we become more conscious of the need for our world to be a quality world of our choosing.
In his work Glasser indicated that the two greatest drivers in humans are the seeking of power and freedom. Only when power and freedom are present can a person take risks and create. Only when these are possible can one dare to dream.
Glasser also posits a ‘comparing place’ in which we compare our world of experiences to our ‘control’ or ‘quality world’. The ideal is to marry our experiential world to our ‘quality world’. Essentially Glasser is saying that our thoughts will inform our actions.
I would like to conclude with the words of Rudolf Steiner, one of the creative giants of the 20thC, who bought to light the wisdom of the human condition, upon which the foundation of Shearwater’s education system is based today.

I place myself steadfastly into existence.
With certainty I tread the path of life.
Love I cherish in the core of my being,
Hope I place in all my doing,
Confidence in my thinking.
These Five give me strength.


Rudolf Steiner