A short recap of the visit to HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity
Last week I had a chance to visit the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity (兆基創意書院) and participate the critique day of 10th grade students. Million thanks to teacher Cming Liu for offering me a private tour. He’s the faculty development director of the shcool and we exchanged many thoughts of school leadership.
The Lee Shau Kee school is for students who want to develop their art and creativity skills. They created an environment allowing kids to have as much space as possible to express their ideas. The critique day I got to see was a regular event where students are asked to share their project results and give feedback to each other. There were even invited professionals from outside of the school to visit and comment on students works.
Two things that amazed me:
The energy in the campus - Unlike the ones with only lecture-oriented classes, this school allows the teachers AND the students to turn the learning activities into what they feel like organically.
The results delivered by these 15-year old students were actually fascinating. One may find it same level as college freshmen’s works. And this is just these high school students’ first semester! This demonstrates that adolescents have so mcuh potential and they can keep surprising you as long as you provide them opportunities and supports.
Another highlight is the “democracy wall” in the middle of the school buildings. This place allows students to share thoughts and opinions about school affairs on a giant blackboard. And regular summits will be held to discuss these topics equally. This is a common pratice in democratic education schools and I’m happy to see it kept in Hong Kong.
Mr. Liu and I also discussed the challenges we’re facing in nowadays schools. Kids are facing more emotion difficulties than ever. With all the extra information coming from the social media, on one hand adolescents are obtaining many more opportunities from it, on the other hand they lack guidance to live independently from the internet and dissolve the information anxiety.
Our education is at a crucial turning point. With the advanced technology and accessibility to young adults, there’s a huge opportunity for educators to empower them and hop away from the traditional paradigm. But we also have to be extra careful with our strategies to engage these young adults in this fast-paced world.