Education in the New Renaissance

Keynote Address for the "Catch the Rainbow" Conference
Markham, Canada
April, 1999

I’ve been thinking. Thinking is good, but can be dangerous. The changes in this keynote address due to my thinking on the plane have resulted in a series of related ideas in sequential form, some with audience participation. The topic of this address is "Education in the New Renaissance."

The Hypothesis

My hypothesis is this:

In periods of enlightenment,

While "royalty" sleeps (or makes proclamations),

Change (shift) happens,

With vision provided by the childlike and the children.

Before going any further, we will put the royalty to sleep, because it is past their bedtime.

[At this point, we performed the story of "Little Princess Goodnight," by Bill Martin, which can be found in the Holt Sounds of the Storyteller basal reading text, circa 1975. Bill Martin has declined permission to print the story, but the characters of the princess, dragon, unicorn, peacock and mouse were enhance by sounds chosen by each table of banquet participants, and included usual and unusual combinations of mouth, table utensil, and environmental sounds.]

The Renaissance Players

The Renaissance was a period of enlightenment and vision that may be characterized through the following list of selected archetypal characters and definition of their roles.

Cast of Renaissance Characters
Character	Definition of Role
Royalty	Lacks vision Usually hands down decrees that do not take the needs or desires of the population’s majority into account.
Leonardo/Leonora	Looks inward to create vision. Insightful and occasionally isolated. Provides new ideas intuitively through artistic representation through the languages of image, sound, gesture, and drama.
Curmudgeon	Looks backward. Doubter. Says, "It’s not possible." Or "You can’t do that." Or "It can’t be done."
Everyperson — Common Variety	Avoids having vision – can’t afford to look. Will not act on any vision.
Everyperson — Elite Variety	Many opportunities to have, enjoy, and act on visions. Builds library and collects books. Reads vociferously. Writes ideas in a journal, and keeps it faithfully. Draws and drafts images daily. Plays and writes music – clavichord becomes desired instrument of expression.
The Press (Gutenberg that is)	Provides printed words that share ideas. Allows print to be readily available to the masses. Allows sounds to be silently transmitted.
The Scientist	Use visions to "create knowledge." (See below)
(Clergy)	(We will not address this role due to separation of church and state, but there is a strong and powerful analogy that can be made here. My guess is that members of the clergy can take any of the above roles played by humans, and that it is a matter of personal conviction.)

An interesting and critical effect of the invention of the Gutenberg Press was that even though it allowed ideas to be spread, and caused a knowledge explosion, words became separated from music, and sounds from words. People could read without hearing the words, and poetry became separate from pitches as music became more of an instrumental endeavor. The resulting sounds of silence marked the beginning of a sophisticated society and culture that separated intellect from spirit, and childlike openness from thoughtful pursuit.

Time to Think

The above human characters entered into dialogue both in person and print. Although Leonardo was both scientist and visionary, the typical scientists made new discoveries by using the visions of the artists. Artists represented new ideas as many as 400 years before they were "discovered" by scientists.

By reviewing representative art over the periods of European history, the story of vision leading to scientific discovery unfolds. This phenomenon is eloquently examined in Art and Physics, by Leonard Shlain.

The following works of art were displayed with a brief commentary which described the representations of societal perceptions through history as represented in the art of the period.

The Lute Player, by Orazio Gentileschi – Renaissance focus on "everyperson."
Interior with People, by Pieter deHooch – Representation of three dimensional perspective through use of vanishing point – two parallel lines do meet!
Music at the Tuileries, by Edouard Manet – Nothing is a straight line any more, not even the horizon.
Sunny Street, by Philip Evergood – Renaissances occurred in other places than Western Europe, and everyperson can come in more than one color.
Persistence of a Memory, by Salvador Dali – Even perception of time changes, and our perceptions lead to inaccurately represented facts.
M. C. Escher – drawing represent two perceptions of reality which are different, but occur at the same time. Ideas become more and more complex, and sometimes interfere with one another. The whole is more than the sum of the parts.
Waterfall, by M. C. Escher – even when things appear to be normal at first glance, an investigation may show that something is quite amiss.
Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2, by Marcel duChamp – When the whole world starts to be in motion, representation requires a change in representation.
Mural, by Jackson Pollock – When the image does not represent any pattern or idea except chaos, the society and culture is in need of a change, a new perspective, new visions and interpretations.

Dialogue and communication can be experienced in the languages of the arts, through representation in image, sound, or movement.

We explored the concept of communication and dialogue through creating "hand dances" to "L’Esquercarde," by Leo Delibes. This piece has clear questions and answers, highlighted sometimes by loud sounds at the beginning of phrases, sometimes by changes in tone color or articulation, and always by a pause at the end of the phrase. The music, although composed during the 20^th century as incidental music for a play, has a feeling of the Renaissance. "L’Esquercarde" can be found in McGraw-Hill’s Share the Music, Grade K.

We participated in "The Court of King Caraticus," a cumulative game song, which can be found in McGraw-Hill’s Share the Music, Grade 4.

The Today’s Education Players

If today is really a New Renaissance, it will be a period of enlightenment and vision. Perhaps we can identify the modern players who fit the archetypal roles of our Renaissance characters.

Cast of Renaissance Characters
Character	Definition of Role
Royalty	There is not supposed to be any more royalty, since Dewey’s treatises and the creation of democratic principles. Sometimes decision-makers take the royal role, particularly politicians and bureaucrats. They, intentionally or otherwise, sometimes make decisions and decrees that are not the best for the children or teachers. Often schools are run more for the convenience and needs of the adults than the needs of children. When schools are places driven by adult power, and children have little power or choice, this is a royalty role for the adults involved. Therefore, we can take on the role of royalty sometimes.
Leonardo/Leonora	The educational leaders who create new ideas and theories are our visionaries. They include people like Howard Gardner, Jane Healy, Leslie Hart, Alfie Kohn, Michael Fullan, Geoffrey and Renata Caine, Eric Jensen. We can take on the role of visionaries in our own settings by imagining what can be and articulating ideas to others. Our childlike, creative self can lead us to take this role.
Curmudgeon	There are many nay-sayers in education today, including individual on boards of education, legislators, administrators, and teachers. We can take the role of nay-sayer and often do.
Everyperson – Common Variety	The children are the majority of common everypersons in the world of education. We can take the role of everyperson when we ignore the impulse to have vision or act on the vision of others because of personal pressures that may be financial, relationships, or dependencies. Sometimes we are just burned out and choose not to attend.
Everyperson – Elite Variety	The children are the majority of elite everypersons in the world of education. These children are in enlightened educational communities such as arts-infused schools which have strong arts programs, arts infused across the curriculum, and democracy which allows the voice of the child to be heard. Children have journals, read and write vociferously, have many authentic experiences, and learn through the artistic processes of creating, performing, and responding in all arts (dance, drama, music, and visual arts). We can take the role of everyperson when we act on the impulse to have vision or act on the vision of others to address the needs of children and create child-centered schools based on current research. There is a preponderance of evidence that arts infused schools result in academic and social achievement.
The Press (Gutenberg that is)	The new press is technology in all its manifestations including television, video games, MIDI technology, drawing tools and graphic design, computers, telephones, the internet, and so on. Where the Gutenberg press began the move from sound to silence, technology is moving us from silence to sound. When used correctly as a creative tool, technology is able to free learners from the constraints imposed by high skill arts such as drawing and playing instruments. Today’s student is able to create with far less skill because of the computer. The communication of today is a combination of image, movement, sound, and word languages that requires multiple forms of literacy.
The Scientist	Brain researchers are the scientists that interact and dialogue with the theorists today. They include Frances Rauscher, Antonio D’Amasio, Norman Weinstein and many others. New finding on the brain help us know what is appropriate for children. This information is summarized beautifully in Teaching with the Brain in Mind, by Eric Jensen.
(Clergy)	(We will not address this role due to separation of church and state, but there is a strong and powerful analogy that can be made here. My guess is that members of the clergy still take any of the above roles played by humans, and that it is a matter of personal conviction.)

To review and summarize:

The Renaissance led us

From sound to silence.

The new Renaissance

Has the potential to lead us

From silence to sound.

Implications for the Educators

Based on the research and ideas presented thus far, there are several implications for educators.

Brain research tells us many things, among which are these critical points:
- Early experience is critical to healthy brain development that will allow the child to learn.
- This experience must be in multiple modes including visual, aural, and kinesthetic stimulation.
- There must be an absence of threat for children to grow and learn.
We must begin to test what matters. Facts are increasing at an exponential rate that makes it impossible to teach everything. As we have seen throughout history, facts are only perceptions of the moment, and can be refuted through new research and information. The computer makes current facts readily accessible, so it is more important to teach overarching concepts and skills, and the proccesses for learning to learn. It is also important to teach creative and critical thinking and problem solving. They are the keys to future growth and knowledge. The current emphasis on testing miniscule facts is counterproductive and is so overemphasized that teaching to the test has taken the place of teaching children how to learn.

In addition:

Tests should be developmentally appropriate. It is not appropriate to expect first graders to be reading fluently.
Assessment is different from testing. Assessment is used to help children know what they have accomplished and what the next challenge will be. Assessment also informs teachers about the effectiveness of their instruction, and suggests where adjustments should be made. Testing is to give a grade.
Considerable thought must be given to what is important for children to know. We have limited time and the possibilities are endless, so decisions must be made or instruction will be diffuse at best, and entertainment at worst.
Higher Order Thinking should be encouraged whenever possible. Knowledge and comprehension are important steps, but can usually be accomplished within a learning process that requires children to think more deeply about the application of the ideas, and then evaluation of their own ideas.

The arts are essential for children (and adults) to envision the world. They are a lab for learning in all disciplines through the artistic processes of creating, performing, and responding. Teaching and learning in, about, and through the arts provide a core for school and curricular design. This is the natural way of learning that is evident across cultures and historical periods. As our culture and society has become more ‘sophisticated,’ the separation of the arts from other disciplines has worked to society’s disadvantage as
- Children are increasingly unable to express their emotional feelings in productive and acceptable ways.
- Learning has decreased because primary modes of learning have been trivialized.
- Language ability has been decreased because the music of a culture transmits essential information about syntax, rhythm of the language, and vocabulary to very young children as their parents sing.
- Cultural belonging has been diminished because the values and traits of a culture are transmitted through the arts of that culture.
- Parents do not play, sing, dance, or interact with children to create a family bond and develop the visual, aural, and kinesthetic understandings that are required for proper brain development.

We are the gatekeepers to the future, and it is our responsibility to act in ways that will cause positive change based on research to happen. The child’s voice must begin to be heard in schools. You must choose the role you will assume in the New Renaissance. All the roles are available, and it is a personal decision how you will contribute, in the name of all of our children.

We sang and signed "In the Name of All of Our Children," by Sally Rogers. It can be found on her CD, We’ll Pass Them On, published by Red House Records.