Ken Robinson
I didn't realise he had trained as a Drama teacher- in the heyday of Dorothy Heathcote and process drama. Now I see why his philosophy has always appealed to me, it "feels right". I have watched his talks before and I can find a lot to agree with. I have lots of post it notes in the book, such as
Education should enable students to understand and appreciate their own cultures and to respect the diversity of others. pg 48
- I myself went to a very mono-cultural high school, partly due to the era but also because it was private/integrated on religious grounds. A dominant culture of Irish Catholicism had little space for Italian Catholics, Maori culture was history and girls from the Islands played volleyball. I think such educational archipelagos still exist in Christchurch. Uniformity is dull.
The challenge is to put the ideas in practise in our context. A year 9 girl said to me at the end of 2017, "Do you think it's racist to say there are too many asians here miss?" In 10 Drama a loud Pasifika boy labeled someone else gay, when I challenged him he said, "but there are no gay people in here miss", only to have several girls assert that there were. The filipino students in my form class rarely talk with others [except at camp]. Start of year- students need to build relationships with each other as well as with staff.
Performing Arts/ Sports - great places to mix up students, but therefore challenging, no sitting in a corner with earplugs and a computer.
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