Framlinghamian 2019 - Single Pages 72dpi - Flipbook - Page 72
A WORD FROM
THE HEAD OF
THE PREP SCHOOL
I
would like to begin with a story I heard
recently about the psychologist JP Guilford
who is often referred to as the father of
modern creativity. Guilford is most famous
for devising the alternative uses test by
which subjects are asked to name as many
ways as they can to employ a simple object
like a brick or a paperclip. What I did not
know was that, prior to his fame and during
the war, Guilford had been tasked with
developing personality tests designed to
pick out the most suitable candidates to be
bomber pilots. During the process he was
rather frustrated to be joined by a retired
air force pilot in whom he placed little
confidence. His disparaging opinion was
only strengthened when it became apparent
that both men drew up lists making
completely different recommendations.
Guilford was later devastated to learn
that his own selections had in fact been
far more regularly shot down and killed
than those recommended by the retired
pilot. He endeavoured to discover exactly
why his work had been so catastrophically
flawed and so sought out the pilot to
try to understand the difference in their
approaches. It turned out that their
judgements hinged on one key question:
‘What would you do if your plane was shot
at by German anti-aircraft guns when you
were flying over Germany’. He immediately
ruled out all those who answered ‘I’d fly
higher’.
Those who answered ‘I don’t know, maybe
I’d dive’ or ‘I’d zigzag’ or ‘I’d roll to avoid
gunfire by turning’ all gave the wrong
answer according to the rule book. But it
was this latter group that the retired pilot
later selected and whose survival rates were
so much better. In short, those who had
ignored the rulebook survived because they
were less predictable and more willing to
adapt to change.
Sticking with Guilford for a moment, it is
interesting to see where his experiences in
the war led him. Those tests he later ran
with paperclips and bricks produced some
interesting results. It may embarrass adults
in the room to note that, when questioned,
they will usually provide somewhere
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THE FRAMLINGHAMIAN 2019
between 10-15 uses for a paperclip. A
genius with outstanding skills in what is
known as divergent thinking will find over
200. Astoundingly in tests for this kind of
thinking 98% of children in kindergarten
are considered geniuses. By the age of
8-10 the figure has dropped to 50% and
by the age of 13-15 the number has almost
halved again. We are all born with the
capacity to think divergently but for some
reason that capacity deteriorates. Sadly,
education can play its role in this decline.
We far too often tell children that there is
only one answer, that there is only one way
of measuring success or failure and that
we must all be the same. And how can
that sort of teaching prepare our young for
a world that is constantly evolving and in
which the jobs of tomorrow will be entirely
different to those we all aspired to in the
past? The shape of the world is changing
faster than ever and we must prepare our
children to change with it.
The entrepreneur Robin Chase noted
recently: ‘My father had one job in his
lifetime, I will have six jobs in my lifetime,
and my children will have six jobs at the
same time’. We can teach them to fear
such unpredictability or we can help them
to embrace it and I know which side of that
fence I would rather be.
You may have worried about the impact
that a world rocked by Brexit, Boris, North
Korea, climate change and Trump is having
on our children. And it may surprise you to
learn that I don’t think that impact has been
a uniquely negative one. One of my biggest
concerns at the Prep School, in our idyllic
pastoral location and with our long summer
days of laughter, exploration and play, is
that our children may grow up in a bubble,
wrapped in cotton wool and detached from
reality. But that bubble has been burst by
world events and pupils are less apathetic
about politics than they have ever been. We
recently consented to a group of 12 year
olds representing the school at the climate
change demonstration in Norwich and our
own activist group ‘Agents for Change’
continue to lobby on environmental issues
forcing us as adults to do what we perhaps
always knew we needed to do. They are
currently campaigning on issues ranging
from solar panels to mental health and
from gender neutral uniform to the weight
of school bags. Framlingham children are
independent, they are confident, they are
strong minded and they care. I am sure it
was ever thus. But I also sense that in some
ways now they are angry. And that isn’t
always a bad thing.
But beyond the jokes and behind all the
work AFC do, is an important principle:
that young people really do need to be
engaged in politics and to understand the
issues that face their world. In the general
election of 2015 just 43% of 18-24 yearolds voted compared to 78% in the 65 and
over bracket. In the referendum of 2016
an astonishing 90% of the over 65s turned
out to vote but less than two thirds of those
younger voters made it to the polls. Almost
three quarters of those younger people who
did vote wanted to remain in the European
Union. Jane Goodall, the naturalist has
always stated: ‘The greatest danger to our
future is apathy’. As we know well in our
school, children are anything but apathetic
so something is going seriously wrong.
But there is no doubt in my mind that
things are changing and for the better. The
number of 18-24s who voted in the general
election of 2017 rose to 72%. And perhaps
we should consider following the example
set in the Scottish referendum of 2015
where 16 year-olds were allowed to vote
for the first time and over 80% are thought
to have signed up to make their voices
heard. And when we look at the work
of Agents for Change, and the examples
of Greta Thunberg and the hundreds of
thousands of children in 112 different
countries who protested over climate
change this year, it is clear that even the
smallest of voices all together can make the
loudest of roars.
Role models like David Attenborough and
Jane Goodall really are leading the way, as
she says:
‘You aren’t going to save the world
on your own. But you might inspire
a generation of kids to save it for all
of us. You would be amazed at what
inspired children can do’.
And those words of Jane Goodall certainly
apply to our inspired and inspiring children
here at Framlingham College Prep School.