Finding the sparks in Young People

The children starting year seven this year will be reaching retirement in 2080. They will have navigated a world that will have been significantly different from our present age. Mass migration, AI, environmental change, the world of work, and social structures will all have adapted to a new world reality. How do we prepare young people for that level of uncertainty?

One response should be to address their ability to be creative and adaptable, to learn to work well together and maintain healthy relationships under pressure. Values that employers are now looking for beyond simple academic success. We should also be helping students to find their giftedness and encourage imagination in a whole range of achievements from academics to sport, art, music and dance. Those approaches will tend to energise and build resilience in the new arrivals into secondary education. I know that many teachers would agree with this wider, flexible and more personal approach. But how do you address these needs in a busy cognitive centred curriculum preparing for a world that may or may not happen? Sir Ken Robinson commented:

Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth: for a particular commodity. And for the future, it won't serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we're educating our children.

(Ted Talk Schools and Creativity 2006)

That was one of the background issues behind the Salesian Teachers Conference in Birmingham in March. It was called “sparks!” because it wanted to focus on the unique energy, giftedness, passion and commitment that is art of every human life. In a sense spark is very close to Spirit and vocation in a young person’s life.  It is said that a teacher in Liverpool in the 1950s had both George Harrison and Paul McCartney in his music class but failed to engage with their passion and giftedness in music. He had half the Beatles in his class and he missed it! How many sparks do we miss

in our classrooms because of the tightness and pace of our curriculum demands? How many buried talents do we fail to unearth because they are not in our subject area or because we have never had the conversations that unearthed these possibilities? How many sparks needed to meet a changing world are we missing? How much energy, adaptability and imagination dies out in the shadow of a huge curriculum?

I have no answers, but our conference pointed to the need to increase the space for better quality conversations between pupils and teachers. Intentional conversations that show an interest in enthusiasms, hobbies, sports, specific gifts and passions that can bring young people to life.

During the conference we showed videos of pupils from the network of Salesian schools talking about their spark. For some it was music for some sport or theatre for others it was environment, politics, scouting, online gaming etc. The things that inspired, excited, stretched and focused young lives and made them feel alive were expressed. We need those enthusiasms and energies to find more room in conversations and in activities in the school day. We need to nurture the sparks that will help young people to respond to a changing world as an adventure into a new era.

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