I’m a big fan of the TED talks. I was especially taken by 12-year-old Adora Stivak’s eight-minute presentation about what adults can learn from kids. This child prodigy says the world needs “childish” thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity, and especially optimism. Kids’ big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups’ willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.
What are the implications for Jewish education? First, we can provide our students with lovingly hand-crafted education experiences in which we understand and demonstrate the uniqueness of each child. Read my Open Lion article about Teaching and Donuts.
Second, we can allow students to contribute creatively to classes, reveal their talents, and make their own meaning of the concepts. Technology can help students create concrete expressions of their ideas. For example, invite tech-engaged students to make and upload a video to YouTube, create a wiki or interactive whiteboard presentation, or build a Facebook page for the class. We know that the best way to learn is to teach others; have students who are good with words write a play for the class, musical students present a concept in song or with instrumentation, artistic children draw the meaning as they see it, and kids with a bit of rhythm interpret the theme or concept in dance.
Third, allow students to be wrong. If they’re afraid to be wrong, they’ll never be original. So says the British creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson in his quite entertaining claim that we educate children out of creativity.
Give students time and opportunity to explore, think, and discover. Above all, remember that the pride of a product we create ourselves stays with us for a long time.
