The school I work in has started introducing The Creative Curriculum. To cut a long story short, let me explain..
The Creative Curriculum is a thematic approach to learning and teaching, designed to support children’s natural curiosity and stimulative their creative abilities. It puts a high value on direct experience and the learning experiences that the local community of the school can offer. This allows for learning in meaningful contexts – no more learning about obscure places and events that children can not relate to real-life. Hurrah!
For our kids, this means one thing – learning is going to be fun. For teachers? It means that initially, planning is going to be a bitch. But in the long term, children are going to enjoy a meaningful learning experience that teachers actually enjoy teaching.
For someone like me, on the brink of going into teaching (by which I mean, after a year of being paid peanuts, and another year of studying, I’ll finally be there), this is all pretty exciting. I remember being back at school, and constantly wondering why we were learning about things we would never use after we left school. I remember sitting exam after exam, based on abstract concepts, knowing full well that I would erase the knowledge I’d learnt the second I stepped out of the exam. Back then, graduating primary school, middle school and high school could all be related to passing a driving test… Driving lessons didn’t teach you to drive, they taught you to pass a test, and you learnt how to drive afterwards. School didn’t teach you how to live, it taught you how to graduate, and you learnt how to live after you’d left.
In the words of Vampire Weekend – who gives a fuck about the Oxford comma?
Or to put it another way, why teach children things just so they can pass exams? We should be teaching them how to learn, giving them the skills to go and learn about the things that interest them. Aside from basic numeracy and literacy, who gives a fuck about ancient history and algebra? I certainly don’t, and I can honestly say – with a full set of qualifications, I couldn’t do algebra if someone held a gun to my head, and I couldn’t tell you one single thing about the ancient Greeks.
I fully support The Creative Curriculum, and think although it may have it’s flaws, it’s a wonderful idea. I’ve seen the beginnings of it implemented, and the change in attitude from both teachers and kids has been wonderful. Learning should never be a chore, it should be an interesting, exciting experience that leaves you wanting more. The CC is the first of what I hope to be many steps to ensure learning is a positive and relevant experience, and I think it’s fab.
If you haven’t already heard of The Creative Curriculum, or you’re interested in how your school might implement it – click here.
