Review by Lesley Finlay
Dancing About Architecture by Phil Beadle
Published by Crown House Publishing Limited
Now, we should all get this – the power of creativity and the importance of arts in education. I certainly do because I worked on the now defunct Creative Partnerships programme. In my experience of encouraging teachers to rediscover their innate creativity, some jumped on board with gusto while others thought the programme was too messy, too noisy, too disruptive and too risky.
Mr Beadle of course has been practising creative teaching techniques since he decided he had better get a proper job as a teacher rather than following the rock star route.
I happen to know that some teachers find the notion of creative teaching and learning pretty insulting partly because teaching is a creative occupation.
The trouble is it is increasingly difficult to make it so, what with the current governmental obsession with facts and discipline.
In this neat little tome, Dancing About Architecture, Mr Beadle eloquently and enthusiastically argues the importance of how bringing the arts into ‘traditional’ curriculum subjects will give students a deeper, more memorable and more meaningful learning experience. This means having a go at juxtaposing subjects, for example the well-known system of learning punctuation through kung fu moves.
To help, the author offers simple techniques and resources to help, including how to write poems based on mathematic principles, as well as mixing sport into all areas of the curriculum.
This is a great book to have at your fingertips to liven up a dull lesson. I’m sure readers of Ink Pellet ‘get’ Mr Beadle’s approach.
It’s just the rest of them. Isn’t it?
ISBN: 978-184590725-9