"Knowledge exists to be imparted".
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
The Passion Project is not an island. It takes a village to raise a child and a village to pull off The Passion Project. We tapped into resources from different sectors of society in order to find what we needed to guide our students through the project and beyond.
Below are some of the key players in our journey.
Their collective wisdom helped - and continues to help - shape The Passion Project into what it is and what it can be.
Sir Ken Robinson
As teachers, it is almost impossible not to be inspired by Sir Ken Robinson. The ‘buzz’ generated by his TED talk on the death of creativity in schools, swelled to a loud roar. He was amazing, insightful and inspiring. This live talk was followed up with an animated version, utilizing the now more common-place skill of visual notetaking.
To have the opportunity to hear him speak, live, in Boise thanks to the ED Sessions – priceless. We would add ‘witty’, ‘dry’, and ‘freaking hilarious’ to our previous descriptors of Sir Ken. His talk was the first in a series of three titled ‘Reading, Writing, Revolution’ and he certainly started one!
His talk was a month or two before we would begin planning for the Exhibition and that was enough time for further reading of “The Element” and “Out of Our Minds” and for the ideas he shared to percolate.
If you are looking to start The Passion Project, I would recommend you click through the links above and become very familiar with the work of Sir Ken Robinson.
Why Schools Should Help Students Pursue Their Passion
Leo Babauta
Fast forward to the point at which you are trying to define passion, explain what it is and how to find it, to your kids.
Do a google search for “finding your passion” and the first hit will be Leo’s amazingly rich blog, ZenHabits and the post, The Short But Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion
He outlines the following steps to finding your passion:
1. What are you good at?
2. What excites you?
3. What do you read about?
4. What have you secretly dreamed of?
5. Learn, ask, take notes.
6. Experiment, try.
7. Narrow things down.
8. Banish your fears.
9. Find the time.
Great advice, fully explained in his post and very worthwhile reading. We shared this with our students and parents and it really was a great resource.
Simon Sinek
Simon is our “why” guy. He advocates that we should ‘start with why‘ and in doing so, will discover our purpose.
Find out what you like to do, how you do it and then consider why you do what you do, how you do it.
We were fortunate at this point to have two things: firstly, an amazing Passion Tour of Boise where we got to meet 9 amazing people who can truly say they are living out their passion: a conductor, a vet, an academy award winning director, a dog trainer, CEO of the YMCA, a businessman, an engineer, and two gals with a passion for fashion.
Secondly, we had a parent who works with people and organizations to help them define their purpose and connect them with their best ideas.
With these elements combined, we had a wealth of examples and the know-how to help our kids define their ‘why’ on their journey to identifying their passion. This part is important. It moves the inquiry to a deeper level of connection and understanding.
Will Northrop
Will Northrop is a parent at Riverstone and a consultant who works with people and organizations to help them define their purpose and connect them to their best ideas.
Having watched Simon Sinek's TED talk at school, and having thought about the 'why' that drove the people we met on our Passion Tour, students worked with Will in whole class, small group and one-on-one sessions to really try and figure out their 'why'.
We started off by thinking of the thing we were passionate about and what you would see us doing. We then thought about how we went about doing it - with enthusiasm, all the time, in a positive way - and recorded these traits. That led us to our why.
At Riverstone, we do not believe in 'one size fits all' education. Giving the students the opportunity to go through this process for themselves takes time, but yields lasting results for the individual and for the group as a collective. Working with Will, many students were able to articulate their passions more clearly and really have the chance to put forward their own unique perspectives on The Passion Project.
Seth Godin
Having read Seth Godin's“Linchpin” we were excited to see the follow-up workbook “Ship It“.
Once our passions were defined, Ship It was a great addition to our toolkit thanks to Seth’s generosity in letting us copy this out-of-print resource.
Ship It cuts to the nuts and bolts. It makes you write your shipping date, articulate your fears, add and subtract from your project to increase awesomeness and really set yourself up for a successful journey. Seth encourages us all to be artists, to be bold and to challenge the status quo - the essence of The Passion Project.
Having filled in our Ship It books, we wrote ourselves a letter to read the day before the Exhibition. As Seth said, we could save the space for writing what actually happened or we could speak truth into the future. We chose the latter and were excited to open our letters on the day of our Exhibition.
Seth is an advocate of "making a ruckus" - of poking the box and pushing the edge of possible. His inspirational education manifesto "Stop Stealing Dreams" further highlights the multitude of reasons why we need to make school different and would be an excellent read prior to beginning The Passion Project.
Tony Wagner
Tony Wagner’s new book “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World” is a brilliant read.
Instead of hoping kids will develop 21st Century skills by accident or as an ‘aside’ to their school career, Tony believes we need to explicitly look for ways to equip students with skills needed for what he describes as “an increasingly flat world”. He calls these the Seven Survival Skills:
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
- Agility and adaptability
- Initiative and entrepreneurship
- Accessing and analyzing information
- Effective oral and written communication
- Curiosity and imagination
He published this list of skills in his previous book, The Global Achievement Gap but has since conversed with people across different fields and discovered that there are other skills that needed to be added to this list of ‘essentials’. These include:
- perseverance
- a willingness to experiment
- taking calculated risks
- tolerating failure
- a capacity for “design thinking”
The last skill, ‘design thinking’, is a concept employed at IDEO . (If you don’t know a lot about this company, take a look here or go straight to this great Fast Company Design piece on what schools can learn from IDEO, Google and Pixar – brilliant!). Wagner shares IDEO’s design thinking concept as an example of a way of viewing the world that is fundamental to any process of innovation. (Wagner, pp13). The CEO of IDEO, Tim Brown, goes on to describe five characteristics of ‘design thinkers’:
- empathetic – looking at the world from multiple perspectives and putting others first
- integrative thinkers – being able to see all aspects of a problem and possible breakthrough solutions
- optimistic - believing that no matter how challenging a problem, a solution can be found
- experimental – being willing to use trial and error to explore possible solutions in creative ways
- collaborative – this above all!
Wagner goes on to list further studies, more conversations and addition research that provide similar lists of requirements and criteria for innovative thinkers, ultimately summarizing them as follows:
- curiosity – being in the habit of asking good questions with a desire to understand more deeply
- collaboration – listening to and learning from others who have perspectives and expertise different to your own
- associative or integrative thinking
- a bias toward action and experimentation
What he then wrote should have us all leaping for joy:
As an educator and a parent, what I find most significant in this list is that they represent a set of skills and habits of mind that can be nurtured, taught and mentored!
What I have seen first-hand through The Passion Project is proof-positive of that. And it is a beautiful thing.
