Smoking with New Ideas

This is an iconic picture.  A rider in the 1913 Tour de France has been captured on camera offering a fellow rider a lit cigarette.  The rider next to him also has a cigarette dangling from his lips. In those years, it was believed that smoking opened up the lungs allowing more oxygen in so that athletic performance would be enhanced.

Image source: wikipedia.org

Clearly, nothing is the same anymore.  What was regarded as a universal truth in previous years, is laughed at in the modern era. In fact we find it difficult to imagine any elite athlete today resorting to smoking for health reasons.

We have to ask ourselves the same question about our attitudes in teaching today.  Do our classrooms look different from how they looked one hundred years ago? Do we still seat pupils in rows like factory workers, preparing them for the Industrial Revolution?  Is knowledge acquisition still dispensed in the HMV (His Master’s Voice) way?  Is discipline today still associated in teachers’ minds with punishment?

Wynberg Old Boys of the 1980’s will remember a popular Maths teacher and cross country coach, Mike Moore, who is currently teaching in Canada.  He was out in South Africa on holiday recently and popped into our staff room.  We had a pleasant chat about education and soon found ourselves involved in a discussion on the future of education and whether or not schools were teaching skills relevant to the 21st Century.

I was intrigued as he rattled off the skills which his school expected its pupils to acquire:  Communication / Collaboration / Research / Self Management / Critical Thinking / Resilience.  I immediately started to tick off mentally whether we cut the mustard in all those areas – or whether we were (metaphorically) cutting off the oxygen like Tour de France cyclists.

Ken Robinson, in one of his more well-known TED talks on ‘Creativity’ (2006), said the following:  ‘Teachers now have to make a case for an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermines it.’ I suspect that he had overemphasis on structures and completing syllabi in mind when he said this.  He wanted teachers to find ways of releasing creative energies so that pupils can be encouraged to work out solutions themselves – age appropriate, of course.

Click here to view Ken Robinson's "Ted Talk on Creativity"

I was intrigued recently to hear about one of our teachers who informed his class that they would be given a test the following week on work that they had not yet been taught.  He gave them the topic and a week to research the issue.  During this time, they would be expected to collaborate among themselves in order to conduct their investigations; think critically about what questions they wanted to ask; communicate among themselves and their teacher to see whether or not they were on the right track and above all, not give up when the going was tough.  It was certainly tough for these boys as he was disrupting their comfort zones, but by this process he was teaching them 21st Century skills.

What a far cry from the 1913 classroom where the teacher was the sole source of information and on his or her shoulders fell the responsibility of pupils’ learning.

I still have the notes of a talk I gave to the Grade 9 parents at the 1999 Subject Choice evening.  ‘There is a very good chance,’ I pontificated,’ that by the time your sons have reached the age of 40, they will have changed jobs, if not careers, two or three times.’

Well, seventeen years later those statistics have changed.  It now stands at 10 – 14 job changes by the time they are 40 – most of which have not been invented yet.  Those 21st Century skills are scheduled to be in great demand!

Our recent SEED Day (Social and Environmental Entrepreneurship Day) last term demonstrated these philosophies more than adequately.  The emphasis was on the fact that a greater variety of careers were now an option - beyond the usual traditional ones of law, engineering, medicine and accounting.

Laura Bergh, recently a high flyer in the corporate world, is now a sustainability advisor.  She was the driving force behind the organisation of the day and gave us her full and enthusiastic backing.  She addressed the teachers in a session prior to Seed Day where she explained the concepts behind the event.  She emphasised that the 21st Century skills had to be caught, not taught and should be the subject of ongoing discussions throughout the year among the boys and their teachers, tutors and coaches.

She sourced 24 entrepreneurs and the boys were instructed to sign up for three different entrepreneurs whose stories they would like to hear.  The instruction to the entrepreneurs was that they had to describe the trials, tribulations, pitfalls, excitement and rewards of starting their own businesses.  In addition, they were to stress that there were career options available which could add value to society by uplifting communities and at the same time would not degrade the environment.

Elon Musk is a South African whose name is cropping up very regularly.  He has apparently described himself as having struggled at school and not really fitted in.  He emigrated to Canada after leaving school (later moving to the USA) and now, many years  and umpteen failures later, this multi-millionaire has changed the lives of millions for the better with his inventions: Pay Pal, Space X, his electric cars and, recently, his energy saving batteries which can power a house for six hours.  He is the poster boy of Social Entrepreneurs.  He has benefitted personally of course, but then so will billions of people as well as the resources of our planet.  Just imagine, no more rolling blackouts!

Image source: globalpossibilities.org

How many potential Elon Musks are there in our Wynberg community?  The point was repeatedly made, both in the individual sessions and in the panel discussion afterwards, that our boys need to invest in themselves by putting in their best efforts at school to develop themselves academically and by taking up leadership opportunities.  This investment in their personal development should be ongoing as they continue to enhance their intellectual assets in tertiary studies.  Many of the successful entrepreneurs have given themselves a good foundation with post-school qualifications.

The boys were asked afterwards to give written feedback.  The majority were effusive in their appreciation of the day:

‘It made me think about the bigger picture.’

‘Not a single boy did not learn something.’

‘It was the best day ever. I now view the world in a different way.’

One boy gave a somewhat backhanded compliment:

‘To everyone’s surprise, this day was a fantastic learning experience.’

One response was very gratifying and showed that the message had hit home. He certainly understood what the day was all about:

‘SEED showed us it is possible to make money and to look after society and the environment at the same time.’

Yet those of us who have spent our lives working with boys, know that there are always some who will say it as it is. I would be disappointed if there weren’t. There were a few comments that were delightfully frank and brutal in their honesty:

‘A complete waste of my time.  The number of people who become social entrepreneurs is small – but yet you force the entire school to act interested in it.’ [sic]

‘I thought that it was a waste of a day – we could have gone home early.’

‘What about those of us who just want to make money?’

If Tutors take up these comments, they will be a great catalyst for discussion in our daily tutor periods.

78% of the boys (presumably minus the three above) rated the day as a 7 (or higher) out of ten.  The comment (reported in the Weekend Argus on Saturday 5 September) would definitely have been lost on them.  It came from one of the winners of the 2015 ‘Sanlam Entrepreneur of the Year Award’, a ceremony which was held last week in Cape Town:  ‘It is receiving a reward like this that reminds you that it is cool to be excited about new ideas.  It is cool to be pro-active.  It is cool to mess up.  It is cool to work your ass off on something that is meaningful to you.’

There were also pearls of wisdom from the 24 panellists when they discussed issues with the school towards the end of this very worthwhile day.  Laura facilitated the discussions and skilfully allowed different opinions and perspectives to emerge. She gave them some challenging and thought-provoking questions:

‘What was the trigger which made you make this change in your lives?’

‘What would you have wished that you had known back in your school days?’

‘What inspires you to continue this journey?’

Three responses stood out for me as being more than philosophies of entrepreneurship, but as a credo for life.

‘It takes guts to do something different.’

‘Get rid of poisonous people – they will just pull you down.’

And the best of all:

‘You either win – or you learn.  You never fail.’

Surely that applies to everything we do in life?  I was heartened by one of the panellists afterwards, who said: ‘I was amazed at the level of engagement of the boys.  It gives me hope for the future.’

So keep a sharp lookout, Elon Musk.  There are some Wynberg boys coming your way – and they will be smoking with new ideas. Nothing is the same anymore.