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Comment by Ahmed I Hassan on October 14, 2014 at 4:55

A way forward for me would be an all inclusive approach. Children who are misunderstood are deprived when it comes to doing artistic things ect getting a main role in a school play or a school assembly. Yet I see them as some of the most talented children when it comes to speaking in front of a crowd. I'm not saying that the children who are always well behaved should miss out. What I am saying is the ship needs to be balanced. I think schools need to get the most out of children. They can do this by simply observing and then acting upon it. If a child is constantly joking about it doesn't mean that he's naughty. He's probably craving for attention and wanting to feel a part of something. So why not make that child a part of the school.

Comment by Devinda De Silva on October 13, 2014 at 4:07

Thanks Merel and Dan, some interesting thoughts.

I think it might be useful to let you know what our starting point was. Have a look at a report by Dai Smith, you can download it from here. Its worth a read, one of its main principals is that 'creativity' becomes a core part of the curriculum, which might go some way to addressing both your points. We're hoping that we can mix this kind of thinking with the work that NTW does, to develop our own approach to education.

As far as leadership goes, i agree, all good leaders should teach people to lead themselves, or at least see their own potential. Its a style that we've always promoted through TEAM and other strands of NTW.

Comment by Dan Lloyd (Flameholder) on October 9, 2014 at 4:36

Merel's comment intrigues me a lot. My opinion is education in general should be open source, like the way it is in the way we use the internet today. In the last six years I've learned so much about the way the world works through the free flow of information on the internet, the way you educate yourself using it is so intuitive - you get curious about something and you find the answer, it's that simple. It's the antidote to rote learning, which I think drains much more than it inspires.

Ultimately, we just need to educate ourselves when necessary. Do we need to rethink education? We already have education. What I think this subject is alluding to is the problems in traditional education which, once again, are compounded by the thankless task of trying to operate within capitalism. The kind of education that seeks to produce a person to perform a job in the economy (actually an anti-economy) rather than to produce critical free thinkers.

I'm wary of the use of the word leaders too, if someone thinks of themselves as a leader I think the first thing they should be doing is stripping themselves of the title by teaching other people to lead themselves. But not to get into disagreements too much, I think the answer to educational progress while we still have internet freedom is to protect the spirit of its open source educational model. I've seen countless times how it works like a dream, because it enables open cross-communication and when people can really freely talk things out with no time constraints I think the solutions we seek are always found.

Comment by Merel Prescott on October 9, 2014 at 0:45

As a qualified teacher and mother of 3, one of whom I chose to home educate from age 11, I can only say our education system is rotten to the core.  It teaches children to not be able to think for themselves.  I'm really glad you're doing this and would love to have an input :)

 

Comment by Devinda De Silva on October 6, 2014 at 4:07

The manifesto came from our first meeting in September where a group of us got together for an afternoon in NTW HQ. 

There'll be more meetings, but if you have any thoughts feel free to comment.

Comment by Dan Lloyd (Flameholder) on October 6, 2014 at 3:40

Very interesting; is this meant to be discussed on here or is it going to be an event?

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