That Used to Be Us_ How America Fell Behind in thted and How We Can Come Back - Friedman, Thomas L. & Mandelbaum, Michael [84]
That being the case, she said, starting with the four-year-olds in pre-K, the Nueva School encourages all students to find those things that pull them from within, through a combination of classroom fundamentals and project-based learning. Everything starts with a solid grounding in the fundamentals, says Rosenberg, echoing Marc Tucker. “Creativity only comes from a genuine understanding of a discipline,” she said. “We try to provide a solid foundation of core concepts and skills and then encourage students to play with ideas which they develop a passion for. But you cannot play with ideas if you don’t have the core understanding.”
For instance, says Rosenberg, a class might be studying ancient Egypt. They first study all the fundamental information in depth, and then each student is encouraged to explore whatever aspect of that society intrigues him or her—science, the Pyramids, economy, culture—through collaborative project-based research.
“As a teacher, you have to let go a little,” said Rosenberg. You don’t know exactly what a student might want to explore. Therefore, “you have to know that the kids are going to ask questions that the teacher doesn’t have the answers to and that teacher has to be willing to say, ‘I don’t know, let’s find out who does,’” said Rosenberg. “It is about directing them and teaching them how to ask the questions and how to navigate that world … Part of that also involves creating a classroom environment where students feel free to pursue any idea without fear of ridicule, so that kids don’t feel they have to conform.”
Which leads to Nueva’s overall teaching philosophy: “Yes, and.” Explains Rosenberg: “When a student proposes a project idea, our teachers are encouraged to say, ‘Yes, and … would you consider taking it this direction?’” The idea is not just to accept any idea but always to begin by building on something coming from inside that student and then trying to guide it in a productive direction. But it has to start with saying “Yes” to student-generated ideas, whenever possible.
Self-motivation is vital now for other reasons as well. In a hyper-connected world where innovation takes place ever more rapidly, what a person knows today will be outdated tomorrow. In such a world one of the most important life skills will be the ability and desire to be a lifelong learner. If average is over, then school is never over. Some people are born with the curiosity and drive to keep learning long after they have left school. Others need to have it inspired in them, and that often comes from having had at least one great teacher who got them excited about a subject or embraced their own excitement with “Yes, and.” Wherever it comes from, everyone is going to need it because a better education today is one that prepares a student to understand a book that has not yet been written, to master a job that has not yet been created, or to conceive a product that does not yet exist. That is what students in their working lives will have to do, repeatedly.
“Trust,” “ownership,” and “self-propulsion” are important words when it comes to bringing out people’s extras, and Rosenberg uses them a lot. “All great teachers feel like they are working for themselves,” she said. And so do all inspired students. The more trust you bring into a classroom—the more administrators can trust principals, principals can trust teachers, and teachers can trust students—the more each one of them, more often than not, becomes self-propelled, doing more than anyone would ever think of demanding from them.
So yes, it is possible to teach creativity, not only with a radical new curriculum but with some very traditional