Sometimes the universe joins the dots ...

Sometimes the universe connects the dots for you. Sometimes, the universe screams at you, screams the message "hey hey hey stupid.. can't you see?" Call it serendipity, call it synchronicity, call it what you like, but I've had one of those mornings.

It began with an interview with a new grad for a teaching position. I asked the interviewee what they thought were the necessary conditions for creativity to flourish. Included in the answer was the observation that creativity is a very personal thing, it comes with and from our personal responses to our world. She also talked about needing to be able to connect with our cultural identity, having and knowing that sense of self. Hardly new I know, but I needed to be reminded of that.

Then a very good colleague (Anne) popped in with a small piece of mahi. She then thanked me for sharing my poetry, and gave me a copy of a poem that she had written 30 years ago, something deeply personal. It was a very good poem. And it left me with LES ('leaky eye syndrome'). It impacted for me at a deeply emotional level, it dug down into my emotional self, that place where the spark of creativity resides.

I then had to make a short trip in the car, and on the radio they were playing Mussorgsky's 'Night on Bare Mountain'. I recalled first hearing it as a child, and then seeing the interpretation of the music that appeared in the 1940 Disney movie 'Fantasia'. The music, the memory, the mental imagery, were deep, profound, and moving. I was right back as the young child who had first experienced the music, and the movie. Strong emotional connection enhances memory and learning (perhaps more than almost anything else?)

Finally on a walk around, I came into Patricia's classroom. She had the students interpreting a picture book, with their own versions of the story and the imagery. The students were deeply engaged, you could almost 'see', and you could definitely 'feel',  the creativity in the learning space. This was deep connection, deep meaningful engagement, built on the back of strong positive relationships.

Students with their 'drafts', all a WIP

None of that (I think) is rocket science. We have known all of this. It was interesting that the universe pushed all four of these things at me in one morning.

As human beings, while we talk of the struggle of the artist, the isolation of the artist, as lying at the centre of creativity, I am wondering if that sort of creativity is the exception. Maybe creativity is more generally the result of emotional connection, within ourselves and with each other.

And so this led me to the big question: how do schools build this emotional connection, this relational connection, for and with our learners? My premise (to restate it) is that we need to do this if we are to create optimal conditions for creativity, if we are to nurture and to grow wellbeing, connection, and personal growth for our rangatahi, and for our kaiako. After all, that's what our national curriculum says.

And the final piece of this stream of consciousness was a presentation three of us made at a wellbeing conference hosted by Christ's College yesterday. Our premise was that building strong relationships, and focussing on creativity, are the best ways of meeting the wellbeing needs of our learners, and our kaiako, 

I am always looking for coherence in what we do, and there it is right there. Our Wānanga structures, and our focus on creativity, support improved relationships, and emotional connection, essential for creativity, essential for personal growth, essential if we are to create empathetic young people. 

That doesn't bely the need for deep knowledge and high skill levels. These are an implicit part of this.

This is all about being human, about making strong emotional connection, about seeing what we have in common rather than what makes us difference. Surely this is key to a better society?

If we connect this with our Manaiakalani kaupapa 'Learn, Create, Share', we could reach the conclusion that our kaupapa, when effectively implemented, supports deep connection that enhances our humanity. Too long a draw of the bow?

And all of that leaves me with the big question that continues to haunt me" what does effective leadership that enhances wellbeing and creativity actually look like? And have we come close?