It was early November 2022, and I was sitting on stage at our senior prize giving, a fairly traditional affair, but I like tradition. I like the celebration of achievement. At the end of the evening I was deliberate in acknowledging that not all achievement looks like this, that for example there are those for whom achievement is battling anxiety and getting to school in the morning. That comment alone drew an email of gratitude from a parent the day after the prize giving.
Anyway I was sitting on stage listening to the Head Student addresses (we have three Head Students, one for each 'kāhui' - our vertical pastoral groupings) and yet again one of our head students made reference to creativity, and our vision of creative excellence. No, this is not the first year that this has happened, I'd guess at least three times over the past few years, but memory is a dodgy thing, eh.
This unprompted student reference (we don't tell them what to say) led me to thinking that something may be going on here. I wondered in particular if we are finally seeing something happening within the school culture itself. I wondered if we are seeing creativity embedded as part of 'how we do things' at Hornby High School.
That's traditionally how we define 'school culture'. We tend to recognise this as 'the way we do things around here', and on the one hand this could be interpreted as the ways and means that we employ, the mechanistic approaches we use, in getting things done. At Hornby High School we make this visible on our staff site in this way.
On the other hand it could really mean 'the way we do things around here', as in what we value, the beliefs we hold that drive our daily actions. And this reference to creativity made me wonder what progress we had made: do we have a creative culture, do we have a culture of creativity, do we have something else, something far less interesting and profound? These are not the same things.
To be honest I don't know. I'd LIKE to think that we are growing a culture of creativity, a culture in which increasingly staff, students, Board members, and community, share a common belief in the importance and value of creativity as we go about our business. I have worked hard to try to bring creativity to the fore in our mahi. In 2022 we published our first ever student poetry year book- ka rawe!!!! Each year we award a prize for 'creative excellence' (sponsored by the Hornby Rotary Club), something NOT limited to the creative and performing arts (although this year with Nadia we had a truly outstanding recipient with an extraordinary performing arts background).
I've written before about this idea that we are what we repeatedly do, what we repeatedly talk about, what we repeatedly think about. In a quote usually attributed to Aristotle, we'd say “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." It does appear that this quote in fact comes from a more recent philosopher, Will Durant. Try a quick Google search. Frankly though I'm not too worried about who said it, but more about the sentiment, one that I hold close. If we repeatedly talk about valuing creativity, AND if we repeatedly ensure that our actions demonstrate that value, then over time I believe that we will build a culture of creativity in our community.
We see increasing levels of creativity across many curriculum areas. For a second year in a row we have made a successful application to the Ministry of Education to host a 'Creatives in Schools' programme with the amazing Dr Claire Hughes (thank you Ministry of Education). We foster and publish student creative work, whether poetry or art, tech projects or maths.
Many staff have embraced our creative approaches to timetable and curriculum innovation, despite the pressure this puts on them to change how they personally do things. The year 2023 will see a significant shift in timetable and curriculum, as a consequence of their thinking.
So, are we creating a culture of creativity? Are we creating a creative culture? I'd like to think that both statements are correct, but it's perhaps not for me to judge, but rather for our community, our tamariki, our staff, to judge. I may be 'over egging the custard' as a former Headmaster of mine used to say (I loved that saying), but I can't help feeling that there is something quite profound to be read into these spontaneous references to creativity being made by head students after their 7 years in our kura.
"So, are we creating a culture of creativity? Are we creating a creative culture?" You ask a very good question Robin, not sure if it matters or there is a difference? Something is definitely going on at HHS when students (and staff) are discussing and referring to creativity! Your adherence and constant reference to creativity is now the way things are done at HHS, congratulations, something to be very proud of!!
ReplyDeleteI had an interesting discussion with my son Tyler Hinde Tyler while I was in Sydney about the development of AI and technology. He works for Animal Logic (now part of Netflix) as a concept artist for film. He told me there have been many conversations with Google about the potential of apps like Chat GPT. This programme available to anyone, can write an essay on any given topic, combine images in the likeness of any artist i.e Picasso, Van Gogh and it does so by scooping up everything it can find on the internet which is causing huge issues in terms of copyright.
ReplyDeleteFor that reason he's stopped sharing his images online which with our love of 'share' is hugely disappointing but this type of tech could put him out of a job!
Thank goodness, schools like yours Robin, continue to promote Creativity with a capital C and put it front and centre of their pedagogy. If schools gloss over the importance of students' creativity and AI technology takes over, well where does that leave us? I don't think I want to watch films and read stories put together by a robot. If technology goes down that track I think we’re doing ourselves and the generations that follow a disservice.