Creativity and education
November 2011
There are only two things that matter in the 21st century world: one is whether we can live with our planet; the other is whether we can live with each other. On a planet that could one day be home to up to nine billion people, there’s plenty of space...
It’s not just about the money
November 2011
Over the course of successive governments, education in the UK has been debated in terms which, deliberately or not, have reduced it to the realm of the economic and functional. Why should you do well at school? To win a place at a good university. And why should you go...
Freedom, fire and facts
November 2011
W. B. Yeats’s quote about education is well known: ‘Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.’ Richard Layard, in his landmark 2009 report for The Children’s Society, A Good Childhood, turns to Yeats when he writes that schools ‘should expand the powers of...
Forging a new culture of learning for a digital age
November 2011
As the UK’s first City of Culture in 2013, Derry-Londonderry’s vision for 2013 is inspired by the fusion between art and learning pioneered by Derry’s sixth-century founder, St Columba, whose monastic order created the Book of Kells. Derry’s year-long cultural programme will explore the role of creativity within education in...
Arts organisations as sites of learning
November 2011
Arts organizations can advance knowledge because they are alternative sites of learning that can overcome some of the shortfalls inherent in school systems. The arts are non-linear, abstract and qualitative, in contrast to education systems which are linear, literal and quantitative. Society needs to be built upon alternative knowledges, not...
The case for creative learning in hard times
November 2011
In 1981, I was in high school in America, immersed in a curriculum scheme called ‘college prep’. This is roughly equivalent to A-level work in Britain, albeit with less flexibility: back then, if you wanted to be positioned for university consideration, you took courses x, y and z, no questions...
A little more learning by doing
November 2011
As well as being craft entrepreneurs and employers, around a quarter of designer-makers based at Cockpit Arts are part time tutors, technicians and visiting lecturers. This makes the theme of education, creativity and employment a rather hot topic in the Cockpit studio corridors. Opinion is divided on whether current course...
Don't set yourself to formula
November 2011
Imagine being constantly labelled and identified with limiting stereotypes. Well, that was my experience, as it is for many young black males, during most of my youth, which is the time when, like everyone else, I developed my identity and character. It was during this time that I created B.R.A.T...
Singing songs of expectation
November 2011
Creative learning is the most effective catalyst for the vital life-chemistry of ambition, confidence and expectation. Creative learning unlocks expectation. It unlocks heightened expectation for young people of themselves. Even more powerfully, it unlocks the expectation which teachers, parents and carers have of young people. And those heightened expectations are...
The BRIT School – 20 years on
November 2011
The BRIT School is celebrating 20 years of a unique educational and industrial partnership. The only school whose capital funding derived from a pop festival (Knebworth 1889), it represents a partnership between the British music industry in the shape of the BRIT Trust and the Department for Education. From the...
The library as cultural enabler
November 2011
Louis from Lewisham is a cultural volunteer spending his summer energetically inspiring a group of children to follow his interest and engage meaningfully with the arts. He’s developing new skills as an advocate, promoter and mentor whilst also pursuing his own creativity. It’s the second year running he has chosen...
Good enough jobs and good enough workers
November 2011
Many of us who work in education, working with the graduates that will staff the cultural industries, would see it as our role to produce critical practitioners. This means not only having the skills and knowledge required to follow this type of work, but an ability to reflect on that...
Why an arts degree really is worth less than the paper it's written on
November 2011
For the creative industries to thrive, from the first scribblings at playgroup, to the most sophisticated innovations of our Masters students and beyond, we must ensure that all those with the innate talent and potential are able to access careers in our sector and flourish. Whilst there are any number...