Keynote Cheryl McLean
Cheryl McLean paraphrased Robert Kelley's thoughts when she said that creativity suffers when students are in public education, working for marks; taking in information then restating it.This statement struck a cord with me because I sometimes feel confined by curriculum and pressured by standardized testing expectations. I don't always have the freedom I'd like with teaching, or if I do take liberties, I feel like I'm methodically maintaining a balance. Her talk made me recall a TED talk video I had viewed a few years ago, it has over 27 million views and is entitled "How Schools Kill Creativity."
Ken Robinson challenges the way we educate our children. He advocates
a radical rethinking of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and
acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.
Ken
Robinson argues that we don’t get the best out of people because we've been
educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with
restless minds and bodies are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible
consequences. "We are educating
people out of their creativity," Robinson says. I encourage you to check out the video.
Martin & Mike
I had the pleasure of having Martin as a teacher last summer, thus the benefit of having his lecture reinforce his teachings from last year. He said a variety of things that stuck with me, for example, that race means you are either in or out, part of the majority, or part of the minority. Racial minorities are racialized, not necessarily by choice. Racial minorities are judged as soon as they're seen. Martin said that more frustrating than that is that there is no conversation about the judgement. He can't feel validated, no one understands where he is coming from. The word "racialized" was new to me, so I did some searching on it, and found a bog entry from a man named Drew Hart who writes about being racialized for being black. He talks about consciously picking out clothes in the morning, and how he is treated differently based on either wearing a sweater, or wearing a blazer and dress pants. As part of an interracial marriage, he blogs about restaurant customers staring them down, judging silently and how that weighs on them. If you're interested in Drew Harts (pictured beow) entry entitled, "The Hoodie (Revisted and Expanded): Racialized Gaze and Trayvon Martin" check it out here.
I was very moved by Cheryl McLean's keynote as well. In my opinion our school system and curriculum is designed mainly for the students with certain intelligence. But one of the things I did notice was how in elementary school there seems to be much more freedom to play with the outcomes and deliver them in different and more fun ways.
ReplyDeleteI felt that Martin's session was the best of the day. There is just something about the guy that really makes you want to learn. The topic of race and identity was something that I thought about but I guess never really included myself in those thoughts. This session certainly helped me put things into a new perspective.
ReplyDeleteI also found Martin & Mike's lecture very thought provoking. Specifically, I found Martin's living example of ensuring he always has a receipt to validate his purchase in the event he is wrongly accused of stealing rather interesting. When he first shared this reality as part of his presentation I stopped and thought, gee that is rough; after a few seconds however, I thought about Martin's claim of being racialized in this particular situation. I am not convinced that having to carry receipts to verify a purchase is a function of racial judgement. Whenever I leave a store following a purchase or in the event that I re-enter the store for another item, I always hang on to the receipt. I don't hang on to the receipt because I want to return the item, but rather in the event that I am questioned, or accused of stealing. I am of European decent and do the exact same thing as Martin- is this racialization? I am not suggesting for a second that racial judgement does not exist in certain circumstances, but I often wonder if judgement is sometimes constructed?
ReplyDeleteI think it's fair to say that judgement is sometimes constructed- based on one specific experience that Martin may have had, or head about. It is his lived experience though- and he speaks to it best, but I do understand what you're saying and his story does have impact, as it was likely intended to. Perhaps partially told just to make us think :)
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