They’re gonna put me in the movies

I was interviewed in the art room yesterday and filmed – believe it or not – by a genuine film crew – camera man, sound guy, lights man, interviewer, gaffer (hi Carlo!) etc.

The interview was related to a film being made about our school, to be shown at recruitment fairs. It was unrehearsed and unscripted – nothing like the spontaneous  question and answer session! – and one of the questions was about the arts, and creativity in general in school and beyond. What do we do that other subjects don’t?

I replied with some thoughts about how the arts ask students to synthesize ideas from different places. Among other things we (art teachers) ask students to find different answers and responses to any one question; we suggest to them that there are lots of ways to interpret a question, there could by many answers, and all of them could be right: in art terms, there are multiple ways of depicting an idea.

We challenge students to think divergently

I’m not sure if I got my point across. (We’ll see when the final cut is released!)

After the film crew had cleared up their equipment and left, I remembered a great RSA Animate presentation given by the equally great Sir Ken Robinson.

I wish that he had been there with me yesterday, not least because he said it (and more) far more eloquently and persuasively than I did in my spontaneous attempt to give a sound bite answer to what is a very complex question.

(“Can you boil it down to a short sentence?” the interviewer asked. Yikes!)

Check out Sir Ken’s video on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

[youtube]zDZFcDGpL4U[/youtube]

You probably won’t see me on a big screen near you in the very near future, but you never know – if you are looking for a job in international education and my school is recruiting, you might see me (or at least a recording of me) there!

Cheers.