Responsible Risk

For the last couple of years, teachers have been busy with the implementation of the new curriculum. The new document, as always, looks at the needs of our students in the current climate.

I am sure that the terminology, "Thinking Skills" will bring a collective groan from teachers up and down the country and mutterings of what do they think that we have been doing all this time if not teaching students thinking skills and processes??

As a staff we have spent many an afternoon wearing festivally coloured party or thinking hats....and then, of course, there are the "Habits of Mind". This term the focus is "Responsible Risk". Aside for the fact that I think 'responsible risk' is an oxymoron and I believe that the correct terminology is 'calulated risk', I do appreciate the sentiments behind this concept.

Here are a couple of quotations that speak to this notion:

"Risk, risk anything. Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth."
Katherine Mansfield

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud became more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

Anais Nin

"I feel pain for those who never sing but die with music in them."

Unknown