I grew up in a family where everyone had plenty to say, and where stories mapped the way the world worked: my father’s vivid childhood in India; new ways of being that rattled old ways of doing; and ageing elders whispered tales of War.

And more. Swallows and Amazons, Narnia, The Call of the Wild, the rhythms of Robert W.Service and an eventual obsession with all poetry. Teenage weeping over Dulce et Decorum est, learning the words to John Cooper Clark’s Chicken Town; ranting, rhyming ‘radio shows’ made with my friend Catherine and recorded on her tape machine. Laurie Anderson on the radio. Leonard Cohen. Punk rock.

Decades on and words are now my working medium, and still chart changing landscapes in print, and for spoken word.

Enthusiastic to share these skills and passionate about the process of creating with them, I teach or facilitate writing poems, stories, and plays in educational settings of all kinds.

I have been working in schools and community groups as a freelance writer since 2005 and have been employed as an Adult Education tutor with the Workers Educational Association since September 2008.

I used to loathe school. Back then, mine lacked the vibrancy and possibility that I see in many schools today. The few experiences I had that made learning fun, serendipitous, sensory and gritty with challenge and real life experience, I can still remember with enthusiasm and affection. What if all learning could be that good?

Schools have changed with the times.  Many head teachers and teachers are clear of the benefits of creativity in the learning environment, especially most of those I get to meet. But requirements to tick appropriate boxes sometimes based on the whims of politicians, sometimes require other approaches. Or there is simply too little time or resources to schedule creativity in. Or there are teachers who need and deserve the space to connect more fully with their own creativity.

Education ‘guru’ and professor, Sir Ken Robinson has been a high-profile advocate of the arts in education in recent years, bringing new insights to established theories and getting these back into educationalists attention. In his most recent presentation on the TED website he speaks about current global education reforms not being enough – that a Learning Revolution is required in order for learners to develop a passion for their work, through connecting with innate talents and growing into their ’the authentic self’.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

Creativity, according to Maslow(1954), is only possible to access if every other aspect of self-development has been achieved first. Apart from physiological and safety needs being met, and a sense of security and belonging at home and at school: self, esteem, confidence, respect for self and others must be achieved. What greater mark of achievement for teachers, than when learners consistently meet, maintain, and push the limits of their previous creative achievements?

At some of the schools or educational establishments that I visit, this creative, Humanist approach is encouraged in all subject areas, and with great results. You can feel and see it reflected in the attitudes of teachers and learners alike.

Humanistic teaching approaches, or, student-centred learning, takes the focus off the teacher as fount of knowledge, and encourages everyone to be equals in the learning process; to meet and sometimes set challenges, discuss, experiment, form relationships; and through these processes build allegiances through mutual awareness and respect. Teaching a creative subject necessarily establishes this culture, and results in students producing original work and generating positive affirmation. They develop a sense of self as a creative person, as a valuable team member, as an artist, poet, or writer. Perhaps some will take up these pursuits directly, or perhaps these activities, as instigators of the creative creative process, are simply part of that individual’s self-becoming.

Learning how to write stories, poems and plays can encourage and enable learners to connect more fully with what they, uniquely, most want to express, as well as how to best express it.

And then there’s just the joy of it: of catching a sense of rhyme or of shaping a story and valuing that, and being able to share it with others.

And finally, there is the art for its own sake: except that I don’t believe that learning how to, or producing art is ever just for its ‘own sake’. According to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, it is through access to art and culture that we acquire Cultural Capital as an aspect of ‘Social Capital’. Cultural Capital is a concept which proposes that, by being able to access culture, we develop the ability to further access culture: improving quality of life and access to the wider world, beyond the limitations of Class or whatever other demographic might limit greater social interaction and individual Human Potential.

In Adult Education, whether formal or informal, these values are no less relevant. Bringing a sense of play to structured learned sessions can challenge limiting beliefs about learning and ability, encouraging the ability to learn, to create, and express with true voice.

And I am compelled to continue with my own learning and creating as an integral part of being an educator, and an artist. We are all constantly our own self, becoming.