The Ascend

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the element – how finding your passion changes everything.

Our toolkit pick of the week is this inspiring and insightful book by Sir Ken Robinson, ‘The Element: how finding your passion changes everything'.

This book will open your eyes to the importance of finding your element, connecting with your true talents and fulfilling your creative potential. It is a book of new ideas for a brighter collective and individual future.

Get your copy here.

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD, was an internationally recognised leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human potential. He worked with governments, education systems, international agencies, global corporations and some of the world’s leading cultural organisations to unlock the creative energy of people and organisations.

Robinson’s TED talk: ‘Do schools kill creativity’ - is the most viewed TED Talk ever with 73M views. If you haven’t seen it and want a taste of what you’re in for, check out the video below.

A quote to ponder by Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach:

“The child is made of one hundred.
The child has a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred, always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling
of loving
a hundred joys for singing
and understanding
a hundred worlds to discover
a hundred worlds to invent
a hundred worlds to dream.
The child has a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine
the school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child to think
without hands

to do without head
to listen and not speak
to understand without joy
to love and marvel
only at Easter and Christmas.
They tell the child
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child that
work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there!”