How can we use impro to change the paradigm in education?

Society is schooled… How do we de-school so the society to make people better human beings?

Can schools survive in their present form?

Do schools, as they stand, serve a purpose other than pushing children through an narrow curriculum?

Try to organise schools around projects:
• Have a central focus linked to skills and resources that are available
• Prepare students for society – the world is uncertain therefore we need to teach them to deal with uncertainty - “wave riders “
• Stop organising students into categories, i.e. ages, year groups, ability groups
• Use the model similar to primary schools – a creative curriculum
• Tap into intrinsic motivation – find out what students are passionate about and allow them to indulge in that area
• Allow them to find their passion – solutions focus, finding their strengths, identifying their resources, and see where those resources can be best deployed

Essentially, we need a more holistic approach to education - ideas that emerge, engage students and support collaboration - this is improvisation!

Can we address multiple intelligences?

Schools tend to focus on two intelligences:
• logical
• linguistic

Society and the world focus on sport, entertainment, business, banking, etc.:
• Visual and spatial
• Bodily – kinaesthetic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalistic
• emotional

How can we address and support these intelligences in schools?

• Improvisation is in demand, the skills we need for today’s world requires us to be adaptable, creative and be able to present.
• Improvisation nurtures and identifies the practices required to support these skills.
• Collaboration not competition:
• The notion of competition inside of education is small minded – education is about the greater good and we must resist the societal pressure to turn it into a competition.
• Understand the value of play: Not ‘Play-to-Win’ but ‘Play-to-Play’.