There’s an interesting quote on the Google Moonshot Summit website. It says:
“A moonshot is an ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking project undertaken without any expectation of near-term success or benefit and also, perhaps, without a full investigation of potential risks and benefits.”
One of the things I like about the International Baccalaureate is the insistence that a well-constructed curriculum should promote the IB Learner Profile.
One of the attributes listed is Risk-Taking…
When my students are preparing to share a presentation with the whole class, I often remind them about how outstanding an achievement this is. “Given the choice,” I say, “between standing up in front of a group of people and giving a talk, or swimming through shark-infested waters; the vast majority of adults will reply, ‘Give me a set of trunks’!”
This is one aspect of risk-taking we can model for our students. But it shouldn’t be the only one.
One of the unintended consequences of a desire to improve standards in some schools has been a disincentive for teachers to take risks. If a tried-and-tested formula is guaranteed to produce mediocre, but acceptable results, why should a young teacher put their future career on the line by daring to try a different approach?
My contention is that the lessons learned by students participating in projects that see risk-taking in action by teachers willing to make mistakes have the potential to be more valuable than the actual subject content.
This is one of the reasons why I enjoy teaching computer science; a creative academic discipline which constantly reinvents itself as new tools become available to us. It forces us to take risks and look for new solutions to an ever-widening range of problems we feel confident to tackle.
Right now, I’m also humbled by the prospect of meeting with up to 40 other like-minded risk-takers, problem-solvers and educators at Google’s Moonshot Summit in just a few short weeks. Some of them, I already know. We’ve met and shared examples of good practice before. It’s going to be an exciting time.