What does a Whole Education mean to you?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Pascale Scheurer on August 17, 2010 at 8:38

These are excellent questions that we should keep in mind at all times, especially right now when the new government is making radical changes.

A good education should be a preparation for life.

I propose two further sets of '3Rs' (which I admit came from a discussion with Alain de Botton):
Learning to Learn: Reasoning, Rhetoric, use of Resources
Learning for Life: Responsibility, Relationships, Resilience

Permalink Reply by Robert Stephenson on August 28, 2010 at 11:25

I believe that giving children a hunger for knowledge, making the education process more FUN and more relevant to their life and needs is essential for success. we need to teach children how to be more confident and entrepreneurial and also give them more responsibility earlier that we do. I have recently run a pilot in a London primary school in a very undeserved area where year 5 students ( age 9 to 10 ) created their own teams and staged a series of events including a BIG talent show and made over £600 for their company. We need to prepare young people for life and the work place much better than we are in the UK. Blastbeat a very good example of this type of programme and a valuable piece of this the “Whole Education” movement.

“If organisations want to speak to, and connect with the youth generation these days, they need to finds way of incorporating music into their development projects” Carl J. Schramm, CEO, Kauffman Foundation

“The jobs and industries of the future will be talent-based, knowledge based businesses, making talent, skills and creativity the key levers both of the country’s economic prosperity and of the individuals’ chances in life ” DCSF - Talent and Enterprise Taskforce.
Too many inspirational teachers, schools, college leaders, youth workers, social entrepreneurs and educationalists are not supported by the current policy and curriculum environment and educational system. This needs to change, so I hope that the new coalition government will really start to in on this.
The emphasis on testing, grading schools and students, exams etc is too often squeezing out development of other life and job skills that are equally, if not more important. There is an awning gap between the standard education / points system and what young people need from education in the 21st century, what is needed is more of a “Whole Education” approach (www.wholeeducaion.org).

The Whole education movement holds common beliefs that supports learning that Is relevant and engaging, that builds resilience, develops good citizenship, is based on trusting good practitioners and is reaching beyond school.
With over a million young “NEETS” the education system is clearly failing a very large minority of our children.
Blastbeat recognizes these facts and thus has two developed a programme, one for Primary schools students (Blastbeat Prime) and one for post primary (Blastbeat).
Both of these programmes work within the school curriculum or as an after school or co circular programme to help address the need for engaging students as creative entrepreneurs and aspiring artists.
Blastbeat for post primary also is designed to deliver a programme that fits into the school curriculum for Music and Business B Tec as well as Enterprise Creation, Creative Media, Community Action & Services. So Blastbeat is extremely flexible and useful for teachers as it maps out and delivers compulsory as well as elective modules in the curriculum and makes it music easier for teachers and incentive’s students to deliver. Impact assessments on Blastbeat completed by students who habe completed the programme show that over 85% of students rated the programme as great (4) or awesome (5) and cited self-confidence, team work, greater insight into business, working to meet deadlines and being responsible as the top 5 learning’s for them.
Blastbeat achieves all this by bringing fun & relevance into enterprise teaching; bring a hunger for learning back into the educational process in schools and also to youth groups. Blastbeat leverages young people’s passion for music, multimedia, social media, making friends and money, having fun while learning and experiencing first hand team-work in business, communication, music, social, media & related environment.
To compete in the Blastbeat Challenge, teenagers organize themselves into Music & Multimedia Companies (MMCs) to compete in the business program, planning, promoting and hosting a live music event.
Thus Blastbeat really starts to prepare young people for the workplace, giving them confidence and the first hand direct experience of what it is like to be a creative (social) entrepreneur. Blastbeat also gives musicians and artist a real incentive and professional platform to develop and showcase their potential.
Blastbeat thus creates an educational programme around social and creative media and business. The primary programme is based the popular “Primary schools got talent concept”, but in this case the students are engaging not only in performing, but in organising & running the summer show, (or the “Christmas” one). The programme brings in all the best practices and develops not only the performance etc but the numeracy, literacy and self confidence building and all other aspects of Every Child Matters.
How does the Blastbeat post primary schools programme work ?
There are two competitions in one with Blastbeat,
a) An Enterprise Challenge – the student companies compete for prizes.
b) A Music Challenge –a superior Battle of the Bands / Acts competition.
One is part about the music business / event promotion & multi media and the other part is about the music itself, original composition and performance. Blastbeat gives students the opportunity to set up and run their own enterprise or Music & Multimedia company (MMC).
Each member of the company taking on a different job role which include CEO, Company Secretary and managers in Sales, Marketing, Public Relations, Ecology/CSR, Art & Design, Finance, Event, Talent scouting, Web content creation & Video crew, Photographers, Journalist etc ultimately producing a Battle of the Bands concert in order to identify the best musical talent in their neighborhoods. By participating in the Blastbeat programme, teenagers self-confidence, self-belief, self-esteem, social and life skills are boosted enormously. Blastbeat teaches real life creative and business-skills, where teens are creating, learning, and sharing in a structured online & offline environment that is centered on the music & multimedia business. These empowered teens then donate 25% of their profits from their gig to charity, making them young social entrepreneurs
This years winners are the Harmony Beatz MMC social enterprise team from Acton High School and the winning band are MT-Beatz from Barking Abbey School. they and 40 other individuals and teachers were presented with their platinum disc awards at the 02 Arena in front of over 12,000 people. Everyone had the day of their lives.
These two competitions in one bring together schools, students, teachers, parents and the community in the full circle of education in a fun and engaging way. Blastbeat provides a very popular high quality enterprise programme programme every part of which is being designed to fulfill units and modules for the new curriculum that comply with the GCSE requirements. Blastbeat is also designed to fit course units or modules with B’TEC Business, B’TEC Music, Enterprise Creation, Creative Media, Community Action & Services.
Blastbeat has successfully piloted a Primary School version for year 5 or 6 students where they actually organize and run their own talent event. Blastbeat intends to give this programme to primary schools nationwide for free in the coming academic year for schools anywhere in the UK for free. This is a perfect way to engage these students and prepare them for post primary education and schools.
Blastbeat run it’s music and multimedia social enterprise programme in 66 London schools in 2009 / 2010 and thousands of teenagers in Greater London with the support of the Department for Education City Challenge team. Blastbeat is enlisting local business in its “Corporate Challenge” initiative for them to partner with schools in their area, to help finance the programme and to supply Blastbeat trained mentors to students running the programme. Thus Blastbeat is opening the doors between local employers and schools / colleges in an exchange that is very beneficial for both. Thus Blastbeat aims to go nationwide from September 2010, through this innovative initiative where companies are twinning with schools and helping to mentor the students running the Blastbeat programme. But don’t take my word for how brilliantly Blastbeat works; just check out the footage of our UK finals at the O2 Arena on July 13th 2010, plus the performances comments and endorsements on our you tube channel ( blastbeatuk) and go to www.blastbeat.org and www.blastbeat.tv Blastbeat does not charge schools for this programme, instead we link with local sponsors and business to sponsor the programme in schools near them and they also help to mentor the students.Please just email robert@blastbeat for further information.

Permalink Reply by Keith Heggart on March 1, 2011 at 0:04

A great start to what I hope will grow to be an interesting discussion.

As for me, I think that, as a society, we need to reconsider what our purpose is in educating young people. Ultimately, what do we hope to achieve? In Australia, the government launched what it termed was 'the education revolution', which basically meant a re-visioning of national education systems, and paved the way for a national curriculum and more technology in classrooms. However, the purpose of this was to increase the profitability of Australia, as it sought to link increased and higher educational outcomes with higher GDP.

I find this troubling - is the only reason we go to school to get paid more? On the other hand, I believe that 'whole education' must look at the social and ethical implications of education. In other words, how can education fulfil its social obligations and encourage the development of an active, informed group of citizens, citizens who are capable of recognizing injustice and taking action against it? To me, that should be one of the goals of 'whole education.'

Permalink Reply by Ian Lewis on March 1, 2011 at 1:37

Economies have been built on tulips and trinkets and they are currently built on games (golf, football, yachting), fun, dance, music and violence.  We can choose our sustainable market in anything for which we can educate if we want money as the base; a recent/current one was manfacturing where limits of resources and of later problems of disposal form a slowly arising awareness in boardroom educations of later life. The highest marks in education must focus on those changes which actually deliver a better world - food where food is needed rather than more food with un-health, less population, no unnecessary journeying, production, messaging, etc., and extra marks for more time to enjoy our lives.

It would also be healthy to award extra marks to those who educate to produce ideas which remove those who spend their time pressurising others to work for them rather than for themselves - Human Capital Theory.Schultz et al. 

 

One answer is in E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops.  It actually gives us the answer to 'Where does all the go, go?'

Permalink Reply by Norman Jackson on February 24, 2012 at 10:32

I am delighted to join a group of people that believes in the idea of whole education. The issues you highlight for school education are replicated in higher education. My concept of a more complete education was developed over several years while working at the University of Surrey and we called it 'lifewide learning and education' and it is applicable to learners of any age, especially ourselves.

It recognises that most people, no matter what their age or circumstances, simultaneously inhabit a number of different spaces - like work or education, being a member of a family, being involved in a club or society, travelling and taking holidays and looking after their own wellbeing - physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.

We live out our lives in these different spaces and most of us are fortunate to have the freedom to choose which spaces we want to occupy and how we want to occupy them. In these spaces we make decisions about what to be involved in, we meet and interact with different people, have different sorts of relationships, adopt different roles and identities, and think, behave and communicate in different ways. In these different spaces we encounter different sorts of challenges and problems, seize, create or miss opportunities, and aspire to live and achieve our ambitions. It is in these spaces that we create the meaning that is our lives. In these spaces we enact who we are and lay the foundations for who we want to become.

My concept of 'whole education' (a more complete education) is therefore one that embraces the opportunities that everyday life affords us to educate and develop ourselves. Lifewide education embraces, honours  and incorporates a lifewide concept of learning and personal development into the educational policies, structures and practices of schools, colleges, universities and other educational providers.

When I left the university last year I decided to set up a community interest company to promote these ideas and help other people adapt them to their own situations. We have a rapidly growing community which includes people from all phases of education and many people who are not educationalists, and I would like to invite you to join us if you feel these ideas have value. 

lifewideeducation.co.uk