Saturday, January 10, 2009

Students Chime in on Creative Learning: Maybe a Junior Innovation Corps?

Awhile back I wrote about an idea I had for the new Secretary of Education—creating an Innovation Corps. I thought of several well-known thinkers, innovators, and creators I would ask to be part of the core "dream team," but I left off the most creative people of all: the kids.

The Tate Museum has not made that omission. They asked over 3000 students across the United Kingdom to share their views on what they need to be the creative and succeed in the future. The result was the following:

The Manifesto for a Creative Britain:

1. We want less formality in schools and more creativity in the classroom.

2. Change the curriculum so that our subjects reflect our lives.

3. Create spaces where we can vent our creativity.

4. Let us have opportunities to take risks so that we are not afraid to try new things.

5. We need mentoring help to get us into the creative industries. We don’t know how it works.

6. We need to gain confidence in ourselves.

7. Allow us to learn from each other, to get fresh ideas from cultures other than just our own. We want to mix it up.

8. We need it to be easier to use the internet at school.

9. Invest money in us because we are the future.

10. We are prepared to start at the bottom and make our way up.

11: We want time for out-of-school activities and we want them to count towards our qualifications.

12: Give us the choice between exams or coursework.

See my comments at The Compass Point and join the discussion there. This is definitely a framework I will be revisiting.

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