Sir, – In response to "We need schools for messers, dreamers and misfits" (Opinion, August 31st), I draw Fintan O'Toole's and readers' attention to a TedTalk available online.
Ken Robinson’s short presentation, watched over 70 million times, is called, “Do schools kill creativity?”. Among other things, Robinson argues credibly that intelligence is diverse, dynamic and distinct. We must avoid in education at any level transmitting the idea that a child or student is useless; the consequence could result in life-long damage.
Nor should any student be defined simply by what they produce in terms of academia or exam performance.
To conclude, we succeed where we strive for a holistic balanced education with the capacity to encourage creativity, risk-taking (in terms of being free to make mistakes), and that recognises intelligence in all its forms and guises.
– Yours, etc,
STEPHEN O’HARA,
School chaplain,
Carrowmore,
Sligo.