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[Music]
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thank
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you I have uh four children that's why I
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look so tired most of the time I
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think and this is uh my eldest son Henry
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he's 18 now which by Hammond standards
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you know he's quite a big big chap by
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Hammond standards when he was about 4 we
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used to play in the garden regularly he
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used to find a couple of sticks and
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throw them at
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me and uh well he didn't just do that I
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mean and I'd catch one and he'd run at
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me and he'd say aha Captain Hook we meet
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again let's have a
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battle I'll never forget a couple of
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years later we were on a camping trip in
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Devon and it was one of those Farm sites
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you know where you can have real
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bonfires and burn sausages on sticks and
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go home smelling a wood smoke you
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know and there was uh a patch of
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Woodland just next to the field and my
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eldest son and I just stole away into
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the woods and we went foraging for for
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sticks for the fire and I saw a couple
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of particularly straight
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sticks I thought I know I gave one to
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him and I went after him and I said
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Peter Pan at last we meet again let's
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have a
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battle he stood at me somewhat
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sardonically and he said don't be silly
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daddy that's not a sword it's a stick
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did you know it spelled
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St and it rhymes with brick did you know
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that
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Daddy and I said no I didn't know that
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that's amazing you're very clever for
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learning that aren't you well done Henry
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and he said should we get back to the
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campfire because we got work to do and I
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said we have got work to do haven't
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we and something inside me died that day
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because I knew that something inside
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Henry had sort of withered away way what
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was it in those two years since we
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played in the
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garden that robbed him of his metaphoric
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competence robbed him of his ability to
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see the stickness of the stick and its
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potential to be a metaphor a portal if
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you like into which both Henry and I
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would step into imagin Realms into
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Neverland what had happened in those two
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years well Henry had started school and
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I'm not having to go at the teachers I'm
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a teacher I've been teaching for 20
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years the teachers had done the right
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thing they had taught him that stick
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begins with
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st and it rhymes with brick it
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does fair play the teachers had done
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exactly what they were supposed to do in
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the current system before any teachers
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walk
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out but listen school is a place where
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playing becomes learning and learning
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very quickly becomes
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working and it happens behind a
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desk no to Yourself by the way if you're
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going to do a TED Talk don't uh don't
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leave it to the last last minute to read
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the rules and find that you can't
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actually use any pictures and images
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without permissions and copyright I did
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that I found that out last week so I
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thought I better make my
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own I'll uh I'll I'll take that as a
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huge
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compliment and uh thank you thank you
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and uh there he is there he is in school
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with his classmates I believe they're
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called his
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cohort when they're sitting comfortably
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then we can begin and teach them a
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compartmentalized curriculum of English
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math French geography History Science
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and so forth you know how it works once
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we' taught them that which we deem to be
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important in adulthood we can test them
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on
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it and we can test them on the three
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hours of what they have read what they
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have remembered and what they can can
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regurgitate and when you've done that
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you can do all sorts of wizzy things you
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can sort and rank them you can find
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average scores you can find average
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children if you want to know what the
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average Shard looks like that's what
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they look
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like I've taught many of
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them they never know which way they're
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going and um I believe that's called
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National expectations what an average
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child could and should know by the end
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of their
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education and then you put them on the
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road to learning you set them to work
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takes about 13 years and there are
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checkpoints along the way aren't there
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where you check their attainment and
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progress and it's all about making
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progress and there are formal
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examinations too on the road to
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University they didn't make it but some
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do and it was after one such round of
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examinations that I went to see my son's
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te teacher it was a parents
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evening have you ever had those 5 minute
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speed date jobs you know with a
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bell I actually ring the bell now in my
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current role as head teacher's
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grade somebody's sitting there too long
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I go and ring the bell quite
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close I went to meet his
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teacher I knew I'd only got five minutes
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so I very quickly asked my burning
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question which is how has Henry
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performed this year how has he been
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performing this year his teacher proudly
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grabed the score sheet and said he got
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an A in English he performed well in
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maths he got an A star he performed
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quite well in science he got a B he
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performed okay in geography you got a C
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we can work with that he performed very
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well in history got an
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A I listened patiently and obediently
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and proudly and then I raised my hand
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and I said forgive me I think you've
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misheard my question I asked how has
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Henry been performing and all you've
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given me is the result of his
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performance I knew that he came home
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with the results in his little diary we
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talked about them for a minute or two
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and never we never talked talked about
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them again cuz there's nothing you can
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do about them they're
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fixed definition of a fixed mindset is
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to look at the results and expect them
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to shift up by looking at them he looked
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at me quizzically and realized he got
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about another 50 seconds of this awkward
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awkward so and so so I said look okay in
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the last few
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seconds if my thank you if my son was an
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F1 motorc car a Ferrari as clearly that
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is the race Engineers know that the
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performance of that car cannot be en
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captured
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at by the result it achieves in the race
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alone second or first or 17th you
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know they know that the performance of
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the car comprises Myriad different
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factors and
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variables aerodynamic design the breaker
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horsepower the acceleration the tread
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the tires and so forth they know you
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cannot comment meaningfully on all of
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those things in the result of the race
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alone second give me a meaningful
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commentary about my son tell me what
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really matters that leads behind the gra
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the bell went I had to move
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on we can flate the word results and
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learning performance too often in
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schools and they're not the same thing
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they're not the same thing at
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all the results of the output we know
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that they're fixed I don't mean fixed
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fixed but they're set they're
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done the input is the learning
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performance we have to look more closely
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at learning we have to look at what it
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means and I think it means growing
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but here's the thing growing isn't
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mentioned much in school it's called
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making progress isn't
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it but growing is what childhood is
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about but here's the interesting thing
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nothing stunts growth more than sorting
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and
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ranking it's entirely incompatible with
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growth when you think about it we have
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to look at what lies behind the grade
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and I think behind the grade are
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attitudes behaviors and capacities
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there's your ABC that's the one that
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matters we can't see it behind the grade
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we're scratching the surface only there
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are deep down things to my son to all
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the children I've taught in my 20 years
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which cannot be encapsulated numerically
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alone and that iceberg is reminiscent of
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the curriculum itself there are deep
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down things that are being learned at
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school every day every day in the
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environment and culture of the school if
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the visible curriculum above is entirely
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based on propositional theoretical
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abstract knowledge that we teach in
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learning objectives then the curriculum
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below is based on empirical knowledge
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experiential knowledge tacit knowledge
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that comes to us through our sensory
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Explorations and social
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encounters if the visible curriculum
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above largely requires you to apply
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logic deductive reason verbal reasoning
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non-verbal reasoning
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computational capacity knowledge
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retention then the curriculum below asks
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for
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Instinct intuition
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inquiry empathy
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creativity it is the curriculum below
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that is
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real the curriculum above that we plan
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teach
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assess is entirely abstract to the
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average primary CH child it is the
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curriculum below that is real because it
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is founded on their emotional
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state how we feel is what's real it's
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the link to what we think said Eric
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Jensen and I
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agree and yet we say it's a hidden
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curriculum we have to look really
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closely at what reality looks like for
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children we have to look at how they
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learn and what reality looks like for
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most children in my
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experience is that they learn
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subconsciously from most of their
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Primary School experience Al photically
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from the environment in which they're in
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driven by their
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emotions it's set it programs our
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subconscious for the rest of our lives
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that's me aged seven 40 just realized
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it's 40 years ago 40 years
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ago my subconscious has not changed the
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hopes daed dreams likes dislikes fears
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little insecurities wild Ambitions
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things I thought I was good at things I
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thought I was no good at and never would
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be have not changed and none of those
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things were formed meaningfully by the
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visible curriculum I was taught they
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were forged in The Crucible of the
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classroom where I formed my own model
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view of the world and my own view of
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myself and they've not changed all these
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years what can we do about it in a few
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seconds it's the culture of school that
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matters it's the deep down things the
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way we do things around here that
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ultimately affect children's view of the
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world and it's set it's
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programmed for a long time
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afterwards it's a culture that delivers
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self-respect and then that all important
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self-d discipline those I know who lack
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self-d discipline invariably lack
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self-worth and self-respect so why be
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disciplined it's the self-discipline
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that gives us the vision a meaning a
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purpose having a plan seeing the point
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and reaching our potential it's the
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culture of the school how we do things
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around here you know those platitudes
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you see on websites and on school
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prospectuses kindness aspiration all
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those really important things
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collaboration Pride ambition it's those
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things that need to be lifted off the
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page and what do they actually look like
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because those things are forging
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children's view of the world all the
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time every day gives them
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self-confidence helps them participate
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step up take a role derive some value
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from it and ultim I hope have some
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positive
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wellbeing it's the shared beliefs the
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core values of the school that
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ultimately affect children's success and
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happiness maybe it's true of work too
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maybe it's the culture of work that
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ultimately affects our output not the
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targets and not the deadlines it's how
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we do things around here maybe it's true
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of home too how we do things around here
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are helping to form and Forge children's
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character to close
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I'm fed up of hearing life is short and
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you got to get on with it an 8-year-old
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said that to me the other day when they
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were busy writing a whole page of
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writing my heart nearly
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died not least cuz I was nearly 40 years
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older than he
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was life is long but childhood is short
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and it's getting shorter and we've got
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to stop calibrating
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it if we don't we'll lose it and we'll
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be calibrating and testing and
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self-examining and self assessing and
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self-doubting for the rest of our adult
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lives let's go with the
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flow let's remember that the most
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fulfilling and happiest adulthood is not
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built on a childhood that's dominated by
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the need to grow
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up the best adulthood is based on a
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childhood that is free untrammeled and
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has plenty of
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opportunities to see the stickness of
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the stick to reach for fresh metaphors
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and to do something new thank you very
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much indeed listing thank
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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you
