Inspiring video clip link
I have just received this message from a playcentre friend of mine. She recommended the video clip below, and, having heard it, so do I.
While our education system is moving slightly away from the narrow approach of the 1987 reforms, we still need to keep hearing messages like this to inspire us to give children the benefit of a 'holistic' education (that's 'early childhood speak' !) rather than a limited 'left brain' education.
She writes:
Kia ora koutou.
I attended a seminar last week with the teaching staff of the northern zone schools - Churton Park to Chartwell - as part of the cluster's focus on the topic of 'Thinking' and the new curriculum.
The facilitator was Mark Treadwell and I found his presentation particularly stimulating.
A couple of points made during the morning made me reflect (once again) on the great things Playcentre is doing, and reinforced my conviction that it is on exactly the right track in providing the BEST for our under fives.
1. The greatest skill we can give/teach children is oral communication: communication and in particular, oral communication.
Mark presented statistics on workforce make-up, showing the immense changes i.e. 19th century largest percentage of workforce employed in manufacturing, industrial and agricultural sectors, the decrease of these through 20th century and increase in service sector, then 21st century with large service sector again and rapid growth of creative industry sector. Bottom line - 21st century children need to be creative thinkers with outstanding oral communication skills.
2. An additional challenge facing teachers today is children arriving at school with reduced language and sometimes social capability. This is considered a result of "the natural language pathways for pre-schoolers being eroded" by parents not being available (ie both parents in paid work), children spending increased time in childcare, and therefore not experiencing the traditional parent-child social and language exchanges.
We also watched a video clip of Sir Ken Robinson - see below - who looks at the origins of our system of education, and its limitations and goes on to extol the value of creativity and the importance of fostering it in our children.
'Hope you enjoy it.
Kia kaha Playcentre!
'Hope to see you all soon.
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