Shaking Up the Mind

Since returning from Harvard's, Project Zero Summer Institute I have continued to revisit.... and revisit the experience and reflect on the 'big ideas' explored over the week. While visiting the States I also spent time in some of the wonderful art galleries and museums. With a strong focus on the Arts at the Institute and the experience of these amazing galleries some interesting thinking has taken shape for me.

‘ I wanted to shake up the mind, the mind, to discover something that they wouldn’t without me’

This reflection by Picasso caught my attention as I immersed myself in the amazing MoMA. I began to think about this in relation to education , 'How do we shake up the mind, what opportunities are created for students to see something that they wouldn't necessarily see by themselves .............or as David Perkins commented in one of this presentations at the Summer Institute, 'Is what we offer so 'tame' that there isn't much to discover?'

Where are the points of discovery within our curriculum landscape that shake up the mind? Or is it so carefully mapped that we can not see beyond the map? Our curriculum, our learning spaces need to seek out places of discovery where the learner is engaged in new ways of seeing from many different perspectives.