"Then I would push the stick forward, open the throttle forward and go hell for leather after the blighters. Once I got alongside it was a jolly easy thing to get them to crash – all you had to do was to put your wingtip under the wingtip of the bomb, and tip it over, which would upset the gyros, and they would fall out of the sky.  The Typhoon was one of the few planes fast enough to catch them."

Telling us stories of chasing German V1 flying bombs

We were all sitting around the table in a tiny hotel in a tiny town, having dinner with our professor, who that night was telling us stories of chasing German V1 flying bombs during the closing stages of the war.  We hung onto every word he said, enthralled by those stories.  We had been talking geology for days, thanks to us being on a field mapping exercise, and we were going to be talking geology for days to come, so listening to war stories was welcome change, and we just loved it.  

The best bit of formation flying he had ever seen

I remember him finishing off a lecture with an image of geese flying in tight V formation, with the announcement that that was the 'best bit of formation flying that he had ever seen'.  We loved some of our other lecturers too, and the reason why I am telling you this is that somehow, somewhere, some magic had happened.  Someone had sprinkled fairy dust around.  And I had been fortunate to have had some settle on me.  

Not long before that I had been clad in grey flannel trousers, white shirt and blazer, going off to school to listen to the ever-so-boring lessons on a variety of subjects, and chaffing under the yoke of petty rules and regulations.  It was a tyranny.  Now I found myself throwing my leg over my trusty motorcycle, clad in jeans and T shirt, and growling my way up the hill to that ivory tower, that house of wonders, that place of magic, to learn about igneous petrology, sedimentology, geomorphology, geochemistry, structural geology, palaeontology, geophysics, earth history, mineralogy, chemistry, physics and surveying.  

It was terrifying but downright magical

It was terrifying, stimulating, intoxicating, exciting and downright magical.  I was hooked.  Where once Monday mornings were things to dread, now they became something to look forward to – a grand adventure.

I often look back on those days and wonder why one experience could be so bad, and another so good.  Old Professor Matthews passed away a couple of years back and I went to his memorial.  However I would have no compunction to attend the funeral of my school geography teacher.  Which is an indictment really. 

The most fortunate thing that can ever befall a person

I don’t want to bang that drum anymore, except to say that to fall into the hands of a good teacher is one of the most fortunate things that can ever befall a person.

Are we are killing creativity in schools?

Which brings me to Sir Ken Robinson.  I came across him when reading a book on the power of story telling by the Head of Ted, Chris Anderson.  Thank you Chris for leading me to Sir Ken’s door.  Now Sir Ken Robinson was a great educationalist, and I would recommend him to you.  There are some wonderful videos on YouTube worth checking out, and I think Sir Ken’s video on how we are killing creativity in schools is the most watched TED video of all time. 

Those videos resonated deeply with me.  Let me explain.

Quoting Sir Ken, “Education is a human system.  It is about who wants to learn and doesn’t want to learn.  Every student who drops out of school has a reason for it, which is rooted in their own biography – they may find it boring, they may find it irrelevant, they may find it at odds with the life they are living outside of school.”

Earlier in his talk he makes the point that “If you can light the spark of curiosity in a child, they will learn without any other assistance….. Curiosity is the engine of achievement."

Sir Ken elsewhere makes makes the point that this new generation is the most stimulated generation ever in the history of humanity.  And yet we use industrial-age methods to teach information-age kids.  And in doing so we have to move from the aesthetic to the anaesthetic – drugging the kids to pay attention and to sit through boring lessons doing boring exercises.  And as I watched those videos I was reminded of my school days and my university days, and how different the two experiences had been.

I have an even bigger question

So what has this got to do with you and me?  That is a good question.  But I have an even bigger question. How do we, as Geography Teachers at the coal face each day, make our geography lessons so creative, so engaging, and so exciting that the kids can’t wait to get to our class, achieve amazing grades, and go on to drive real change in the world?  That is the question, and here at Rock and Sky we go looking for the answers. And we would welcome you to join us on this quest.

How do we, as Geography Teachers at the coal face each day, make our geography lessons so creative, so engaging, and so exciting that the kids can’t wait to get to our class, achieve amazing grades, and go on to drive real change in the world?  That is the question, and here at Rock and Sky we go looking for the answers. And we would welcome you to join us on this quest.

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