Never Stop Learning: A Whole New Mind Review

A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink

Just before our Winter Break, I was hearing a lot about the theories in this book and now I've had the chance to read it cover to cover. The book is written for adults who want to enhance their right-brained skills: skills that Daniel Pink thinks are crucial to success in the workplace in this century. I am most interested in the implications his work has for education and the changes we are still working to make that will help our students in what Pink and others are now calling The Conceptual Age.

There are two big ideas this book brings forth that strike me as crucial for our students. The first is a different assessment of outsourcing than I have heard before. Instead of trying to do better in the areas of left-brained, "knowledge workers" skills that are going to continue to be outsourced, our students need to hone creativity and synthesis and the ability to see the big picture. (Pink, 44.)

At Sony, we assume that all products of our competitors have basically the same technology, price, performance, and features. Design is the only thing that differentiates one product from another in the marketplace.
Norio Ohga

I heard a news report on the failed terrorist attempt at Christmas that brought some of these ideas home to me in a real and relevant way. The commentators and President Obama were saying that all the knowledge and data that was needed to predict the terrorist actions had been gathered by all the agencies that were responsible for this "knowledge worker", left-brained activity. They did their jobs well; however, no one saw the big picture and connected the dots: there was no synthesis and that could have spelled disaster. No matter who ultimately takes responsibility, this scenario describes the changes in thinking necessary for The Conceptual Age and the high level of importance right-brained thinking should play in education today.

Pink describes right-brained oriented six senses that complement our left-brained skills that all people should develop to thrive in this new information-rich world:

1. Not just function but also DESIGN
2. Not just argument but also STORY
3. Not just focus but also SYMPHONY
4. Not just logic but also EMPATHY
5. Not just seriousness but also PLAY
6. Not just accumulation but also MEANING
Pink, 65-67

Overall, creativity and higher level thinking skills are emerging as more important then ever before in today's workplace. Students need the arts, cross curricular understandings and opportunities to synthesize, not just collect information. I highly recommend this book for all educators and for anyone else who wants to enhance the workings of their brain.

Never Stop Trying

I'm not sure about this, but I think I just officially started a blog for my musings! We'll see if I actually share it--------

I sent this message to my site council today regarding a pending decision to add a math class for struggling students which would leave them no other elective options in their schedules:

Hi all,

I didn’t speak up much at the Site Council meeting about my strong feelings on keeping our creativity and performance based electives viable options for all students and a number of members have asked me why I didn’t, so I thought I should be open about my feelings and reasons before we head to break. I didn’t speak up for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I believe in math education and I always feel that we are on tenuous ground when we talk about each others’ curriculum areas. Secondly, I have expressed my views about keeping art, music, PE and other electives available to students on a regular basis at other meetings, and, third, I didn’t want to speak against a program that has found success in the past at Goodman (and I believe the program itself worked for Goodman) without knowing more about where the district administration was headed ---- in other words, is this a decision that site council actually gets to make?

Here are a few of my thoughts:

Educators are talking more than ever before about 21^st century skills and creative thinking. This is not isolated thinking, but broad-based thinking that applies to all areas of the curriculum. We are nearly 10 years into the 21^st century and just embracing technology and Web 2.0 tools, yet the world is moving on at a rapid pace and new thinking about the future for our students is already emerging. I just recommended a book to the staff by Daniel Pink that is being quoted at the K12 Online Conference this week. Here are the skills he believes our students will need for work:

According to Pink, the keys to success are in developing and cultivating six senses: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Pink compares this upcoming "Conceptual Age” to past periods of intense change, such as the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance, as a way of emphasizing its importance.

Booklist (March 15, 2005 (Vol. 101, No. 14)

The arts and performance based curriculums have been promoting this learning for students for the 35 years that I have been an educator. Technology is opening up the use of creative thinking and active learning in the classroom for all areas of the curriculum that many electives have always taught and embraced.

Our schedule was studied and changed in response to helping the math teachers make more contact with students and I believe that the building has been supportive of initiatives of the math department in general. Our SIP and Wednesday morning collaborative time is already intended to give us a chance to look at common assessments, see if the students have learned, and decide what to do within the class and curriculum to make sure the students who didn’t get it have a chance to re-learn the material and those that do move on. In other words, at the point that something is taught and not learned, curriculum has to be created and differentiated to meet students’ needs. I believe in this process, but I feel teachers are caught in a “Catch 22” if they have to follow a prescribed textbook or curriculum. In 35 years of teaching, I have never taught from a textbook and I know it’s radical, but I believe that we should stop this practice if we are really going to achieve a learning centered curriculum.

I believe that all of us here at Gig Harbor work extremely hard, and none of my comments here are meant to imply anything else. I began as a performing arts teacher and I will always believe in the power that performance based practice in all subject areas has to impact the potentials of all of our students in all areas of the curriculum and for their future lives.

Have the best of holidays and we will carry on in 2010!

We'll see how the response goes? Today - Never Stop Trying