BFTP: Fathers, children and The Element
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 02:20PM A Saturday Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post, February 21, 2009 It's probably a little soon to be re-running this one, but Sir Ken was a speaker at our state tech conference earlier this week and his delightful and important keynote made me think of this review. Read the book!
When people close to you discourage you from taking a particular path, they usually believe they are doing it for your own good. – Sir Ken Robinson in The Element
Many educators are already aware of Sir Ken Robinson through his TED talks, especially "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" If you've enjoyed his presentations, his new book The Element is well worth reading. And even if you haven’t heard him speak, read it anyway.
With sly humor and readable prose, Robinson describes through revealing interviews people who have been successful in the arts, sports, education, and business and how they have found in their "Element." This wide variety of fascinating people, many who have overcome great odds, all have found a way to make their livelihood from a passion or enriched their lives through it. Identifying one’s Element may be as easy as asking, “If left to my own devices - I didn’t have to worry about making a living or what others thought of me – what am I most drawn to doing?” (Does napping count?)
Robinson describes The Element as the “meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion.” He sets the stage by arguing that there are nearly as many “intelligences” as there are individuals and that standardized tests, and thus success in school, only measure a narrow range of them. He believes we should not asking if people are intelligent, but how they are intelligent. The Element flourishes when one finds his “tribe” of others with similar passions “who tend to drive each other to explore the real extent of their talents.” One often needs to overcome the obstacles of both a personal, social and cultural nature. People who find their Element are often considered lucky, but tend to make their own luck through attitude. Mentors and teachers are important to most of the interviewees. – people who see “something in us we don’t see in ourselves."
Happily one does not need to be young to find one’s passion and one does not need to pursue it full time. (I think this is why we see many happy retired teachers who have not retired at all, but have pursued other interesting careers.) In fact, Robinson concludes that for writers maturity can be an advantage given that our “insights and sensitivities deepen with age.” Take that, you young techno-Turks.
Robinson criticizes our factory model of education, writing:
But too many graduate or leave early, unsure of their real talents and not knowing what direction to take next. Too many feel that what they are good at isn’t valued by schools.
and cites the U.S.’s growing drop out rate as proof. He argues that schools do not need to be reformed – but transformed – by personalizing education so that it will build achievement on the individual talents of each child.
The part of Robinson's book that struck a real chord with me talked about how parents can either help or block their children finding their Element. Permit me a personal reflection...
As a teacher, I quickly realized that children who developed a passion for something early in life seemed the happiest. Whether it was an interest in horses or music or science fiction or sports or cartooning or whatever, somehow these lucky kids sort of knew who they were and spent less time thrashing about looking for identity. This is why I found the role of librarian so appealing. No matter what the interest, I could help students engage in it more deeply. If I could match the research project with a personal interest, the work was always better. It’s also why I liked directing plays and coaching speech students far better than classroom teaching - many coaches of any activity feel the same way.
For those of you who are parents, you know that one of the most difficult things to accept is that what makes your children happy may not be the same thing that makes you happy. While my daughter always seemed to be on the familiar academic track that was my own route to career and fulfillment, I did worry about my son.
Brady was not a reader. Did not find school of interest. Had an obsession with video gaming and movie making instead of reading and writing which his old man thought of more value and worth. So my suggestion that he look at a career in speech therapy went pretty much unheeded and he went to technical college to learn the art of film making. He is now working in Wellington, New Zealand, just to be close to Peter Jackson's WETA studios. Perhaps he will be an orc in the Hobbit movie being made. Or the next Peter Jackson.
I worry. I suppose that is a dad's job. There seem to be a lot of starving artists in the world. But I
helped Brady acquire both his video making equipment while in high school and his schooling in how to use it. My pragmatic rationale was that if he gets tired of being hungry, he can always go back to college to become a speech therapist. And should he become a rich and famous film director, a high quality nursing home might be in my future.
As I think back, I am sure I caused my own father a good deal of anxiety as well. He was a farmer and crop duster who had an oldest son who lacked any mechanical ability or interest in farming. (Actually I was just disinterested in the physical labor part of it.) I still wonder if he felt the same concern when I went off to college driving a $50 1954 Rambler station wagon with no brakes and a new wife that I felt as I watched my son head to NZ with a couple buddies and a suitcase full of video games. What goes around, comes around.
In a response to my last post in which I mentioned I was reading The Element, Charlie Roy reported that his school will be putting it on his faculty's summer reading list. Good idea. Every teacher (and parent) should be aware of and open to how she can develop the true passions in her students and even serve as mentors. There could worse legacies than knowing one has helped another human being find his Element .
Oh, have I found my Element? I am writing this just for the just plain fun of it.
Reader Comments (5)
@ Doug
The faculty rather enjoyed this summer read selection. Thanks for sharing the story about your son. I really like this line of yours: "For those of you who are parents, you know that one of the most difficult things to accept is that what makes your children happy may not be the same thing that makes you happy" I'm learning this one with my twin sons this year. One is playing basketball one is not. I enjoyed athletics and they were important to me as a student... but not that important. I don't want to be that guy that tries to live vicariously through the experiences of his child.
Thanks for the post, Doug. Got to check out his book. I can honestly say I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, although I dabble in many things library, tech, and education. I've never been able to say who I am and where my passions lie, although the educational world does bring me some joy (i.e. students and little else). I'm know going for a third Masters to learn more web and tech stuff. Maybe his book will shed some light in a long term way.
I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Ken a few weeks ago following his plenary on creativity at the New Jersey Education Association Convention, as it happens, shortly before going in to deliver my own presentation. I was presenting on digital alternatives to animal dissection, focusing on why we need to let our students inform us as to what they need, and why we need to accept change in our teaching practice based on who these young people actually are, kids very different than we were at their age.
What really struck me about Sir Ken was not only the clarity of his vision, but in how he lived it in his person. There were people in the small group discussion with him, youngsters, really, who asked him very elementary questions, and he moved toward their needs with deep compassion and understanding, truly addressing their learning need of the moment. I realized that this was the secret to seizing the teaching moment. Compassion. His was the model I needed as I faced snarly New Jersey biology teachers who were precious about their dissection practices. They didn't need confrontation, they needed reminding that the students they served were human beings with needs utterly different than their own, and these snarly teachers also desperately needed affirmation that their motives were honorable even while they found themselves groping for sound teaching practice in a rapidly changing world.
Sir Ken was the man who introduced the Dalai Lama at the Vancouver Peace Summit in 2009, and I wondered why he had been chosen for that honor. After meeting him, I had my answer... creativity, learning, and outright species survival is rooted firmly in compassion, and were all of us to start there (politicians, educators, parents), our education problems would disappear.
Hi Charlie,
I've always been amazed at how well some kids turn out - despite their parents. But I''l be you are a great dad.
Thanks for the comment,
Doug
Hi Bob,
Enjoy the book. I am positive it will provide some insight. I don't recommend/review very many books though I read a lot of them. This one hit me since it spoke to my own family, I think.
Doug
Hi Bill,
A great tribute. It's nice to hear that someone you admire actually walks the walk.
Doug
What a great quote. It is very true that others are trying to see what is best for you, but it doesn't always work out for the best. This article is a powerful insight!