editor’s LETTER

Agents provocateurs

Irena Barker Editor

At the beginning of the pandemic, our columnist Richard Gerver found himself in a state of paralysis. He was fearful of what might come next and hoarding kidney beans as a proxy for certainty. He eventually released himself from his “Covid-19 funk” by connecting with his “inner toddler”, being curious about his situation and embracing change. Indeed, Covid-19 has been the ultimate provocateur – provoking change across the board, but this disruption may have provoked some positive developments too. In this edition, Professor Stephen Heppell looks at the “hybrid schools” using online and offline learning in tandem and predicts a trend for schools based in town centres – in the empty shops that internet shopping and Covid-19 left behind. Thankfully, Covid-19 isn’t the only provocateur out there. Beats Electronics’ founders Jimmy Iovine and Andre “Dr. Dre” Young have set up an academy in California where traditional boundaries between university subjects – and departments – are smashed down and students learn to think across technology, business and the arts. We talk to the architects behind the Iovine and Young Academy. We also report on the Ashley Hill Multi Academy Trust in the UK, which has brought in a learning formula of 50 per cent direct instruction and 50 per cent independent learning. Children who used to wait to be told what to do are now empowered to be independent learners. They are tiny schools with big ideas and it is reassuring to see that revolutions can still start in such small, unexpected places. If the virus has provoked anything within us, it is the importance of not simply acknowledging the importance of mental and physical health, but doing something to promote it. In our feature on page 38, which explores design for well-being, we look at the wide variety of ways educational spaces can do just that: from enabling people to make healthier choices by providing bicycle racks to planting trees and flowers to appeal to our natural “biophilia”. While building design won’t solve systemic problems with overwork, stress, isolation and a lack of resources in education, it can go a long way in supporting other efforts to improve staff and student well-being. And as Richard Gerver says, we don’t want children to grow up building and hiding in metaphorical toilet-paper igloos out of fear that things might go wrong. We need them to be confident and fearless so they can go on to be the next generation of provocateurs.