Lincoln+School+Vision

I began this school year by sharing the video “YOU [|Make a Difference]”. And as the year has progressed, we have gotten to know each other better. As we close out the year, I wanted to share the following so that we carry the momentum of this year into next.

Sir Ken Robinson is a speaker on creativity and innovation and before that was a professor in the United Kingdom. I was fortunate enough to see him speak at the Celebration of Learning and Teaching 2010 Conference in New York. He discussed the concept of standards versus standardization, saying that "standardization only ever gives you the lowest common denominator." He also stated that great schools, of which there are many, are different from one another because they are "personalized and customized," not because they are standardized.

Sir Robinson went on to discuss some alarming statistics from a longitudinal study on divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the ability to think of many answers to a specific problem… this is the first step to problem solving… before we get analytical and make THE BEST decision. 1600 children were given eight tests of divergent thinking. They were retested every 5 years. Here were the results:  · Ages 3-5 years – 98% scored in the creative genius category  · Ages 8-10 years – 32% scored in the creative genius category  · Ages 13-15 years – 10% scored in the creative genius category  · In tests of over 200,000 adults over 25, only 2% tested in the creative genius category

The highest scores in this experiment were earned by the youngest participants - kindergartners! The students were retested every five years, and there was a control group of a slightly larger number of adults. (Source - [|Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today]by George Land and Beth Jarman)

Making an additional point, he emphasized that we in education need to anticipate the life that the kids we are teaching will be living, and teach to that future. He stressed that we had to "enliven the minds of learners."

Sir Ken Robinson has had a tremendous impact on me in regards to how I look at my own children, especially my daughter. If you met and interacted with my daughter, you will understand my perspective.

Watch this presentation: "Do Schools Kill Creativity”, delivered by Sir Ken Robinson.

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My dissertation work has brought before me much research on motivation – intrinsic and extrinsic. I ntrinsic motivation refers to performing a task for the inherent satisfaction or joy involved with the specific activity. External motivation, on the other hand, can be explained as the performance of an activity to attain separable outcomes or external rewards, such as grades, a prize, money, prestige, and so on. One of the important keys to creativity, happiness, and the realization of one’s full potential is the ability to be intrinsically motivated.

The **Candle Problem** illustrates the importance of intrinsic motivation. According to psychologist Karl Drucker, individuals who have mental blocks that prevent them from using an object that has a particular function in a new and different way suffer from “functional fixedness.” In his famous candle problem experiment in 1945, individuals were given the following items: A candle, a book of matches, and a box of thumb tacks.



The task given to the participants was a simple one: attach a candle to a wall such that the wax would not drip on the table below. Can you solve it?

To find out the solution – watch this presentation by Daniel Pink – “The Surprising Side of Motivation". However, try it first before you watch this.

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Daniel Pink goes on to speak about how the Candle Problem was further studied by Princeton Professor of Psychology, Sam Glucksberg. He adjusted the original study in the following ways:  · He timed Group One to determine how long it took to typically solve this kind of problem.  · For Group Two, he offered the following rewards: $5.00 to those in the top 25% of the group who solved the problem the fastest and $20.00 to the person who was the fastest overall.

The study revealed that Group Two took three and a half minutes longer, on average, to solve the problem. This is a surprising result, considering that if you want individuals to perform, we offer rewards, bonuses, and other incentives. For this study, incentives were supposed to sharpen focus and enhance creativity but instead, dulled thinking and blocked creativity.

Glucksberg later redid the experiment, making the problem easier. Instead of presenting the box as a container for the tacks, it was empty. By making the box only a container, less mental flexibility was needed to assign a different function to the box. The reward group solved the problem much faster than the other group. The findings of this study revealed that extrinsic rewards work well when tasks are much simpler.

As all parents do, I think and worry about what kind of individuals my children will become. And I keep coming back to these two concepts – divergent, creative thinking and motivation that is intrinsic. As my children go through school, I wish and hope that they have teachers that do not prevent my children from this development.

I share this with you so you understand what is at the foundation of my beliefs about elementary education, the development of children, and the role we have as adults in their lives. My desire is that we all come together to define what we see as important at Lincoln. As a staff this year, we began discussing and exploring values and techniques in our study group. As closure and assessment of what we have learned from our study and collaborative discussions, I have asked you all to agree on some common values, expectations, and practices.

Next year, we will continue to work towards a common purpose for Lincoln School. And as “corny” as it may sound, my vision, as I have shared, is to go back to creating childhood memories.