Reinventing Normal

Last year I came across this short film by Liam Saint-Pierre, featuring Dominic Wilcox. I immediately knew I had to show this to my students — and I did. Dominic is a designer and artist who pushes himself to look at things from a different perspective.

Watching this short film makes me think about schools — the epitome of normal. Schools reward normal thinking and behaviors. Curriculums are designed to produce predictive, normal outcomes. In most schools, there are very few opportunities for students to display creative thinking, which is tragic. Here is a quote from Dominic:

I’ve convinced myself that within everything that surrounds us, there are hundreds of ideas and connections waiting to be found. We just need to look hard enough. Some of my ideas develop from observations on human behaviour and I express them through the objects I create. I also experiment with materials to try to find surprises that can’t be found simply by thinking with a pen or a computer.

Are we allowing, or even encouraging, students to be creative in their thinking? How might we change normal in schools?

It will certainly take creative thinking to reimagine learning for the 21st century, but we are not preparing students and/or teachers well for this challenge.

Learning in focus — Challenge yourself to look at things from a different perspective. Exercise your creativity.