Recently (11 -21 Juli 2012) me and my wife Anita Wuestman have been to Dubai. As members of the Dutch Delegation we took part of "The Asian Pacific Conference around Giftedness, 2012". About 1600 (?) people from all over the World where gathered to share knowledge about how to create the best kind of education for children with High Abilities, or Talent or Giftedness, whatever it is called trough out the World.
As President of the Dutch version of ECHA (European Councel for High Ability) Anita was curious about the status of Giftedness in Asia and specially in the Moslim communities, as it was the first time this Conference took place in an Arab area. Lucky for me I got invited to come along.
For me the Conference was a great way to discover the different ways of trying to achieve Excellence in a lot of different society's. To give You some examples: I spoke with Australian Government people and teachers from Tasmania, with Male and Female Arab delegates as in professors and Education Foundations, Professors from Hong Kong, an Enthusiastic lady from Greece, great teachers form Singapore and a very smart en nice girl of a price winning new kind of Education in Dubai. And this is only the short list!!
In the next weeks I hope to translate some of my tools and articles to send them the materials that I promised them.
They all were interested in the way I tried to explain them my view on the World, by using Spiral Dynamics as a reference.
The thing is that all the speakers off the Asian en Arab World say they need Creativity and Innovation to flourish in their Countries. But on the other hand they keep on pushing Models, Projects and Plans into the situation, with very straight ways of applying, where the children / students have to sit still and Listen. This Context will never make them Critical Thinkers and as long as the System remains Blue (Spiral Dynamics color terminology) You can not expect Students (ore Teachers, ore Headmasters) to act Yellow (SD!)
The participants to the Conference seam to feel this Paradox, but do not know how to pinpoint it. My VAXA Compass Dashboard turned out to be very helpful in getting this on the Table.
Hopefully in the coming month's we can develop chance's to go there and not only talk about this Paradox, but to help them and start doing things about it!
A prominent Arab Keynote speaker said that as the Oil Reserves will once dry out, it will be more important to discover Brilliant Minds then it is to discover new Oil Fields ore Gold mines. And that if a Country does not succeed in creating the best possible environments for Gifted People to flourish, they will loose their Talents and then loose their influence on the Economy and the Position of their Country. In other Words: There is a Huge Sense of Urgency. But at the same time as they put a Great Show on Stage, You See the Worries from the people working on the school floor, once You get to know them a little better.
There is Lots of Work to be done. And as ECHA tries to cover the Field of Children, Youth and their Teachers, I would very much like to step up to the Alignment of Context, Leadership and Knowledge. To Create the Environment that not only Children and Teachers, but all grown ups can Enhance their Excellence.
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