Life changing film

We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For, a landmark independent feature-length documentary inspired and guided by Lord Puttnam and former Education Advisor to Tony Blair, Sir Michael Barber, explores the education system in the UK and asks the inconvenient question: Does it work?

A shifting educational landscape

The world is changing rapidly, but our education system is not keeping pace – does the current system really provide young people with the opportunity to develop their talents? One of Hybrid Arts’s heroes, Sir Ken Robinson, along with many other high profile speakers in this documentary, think not. Robinson says, “What we have is a system shaped by historical forces, but they are now totally bankrupt for education in the 21^st century – they are betraying most of our children.”

The mainstream system, driven by static knowledge, intrinsically fails to capture the here and now. Such outdated methodology is not equipping our children with the skills and knowledge needed to cope with a challenging future. The struggle educators face is finding a way to use the opportunities in the classroom to tap into young people’s talents and develop these fully so they are able to fulfil their dreams – and creativity has the potential to unlock these dreams. But Hybrid Arts have come to find that young people find it extremely challenging to chose which dream to pursue, when finding their passion is frustrated by the curriculum at school.

The hybrid context

As a social enterprise that puts creativity back in the classroom, Hybrid Arts lives and breathes the ideas behind this film. We have driven policy, research and practice by commissioning artists to engage and educate young people aged 14 – 19 who do not fit into school structures. After 6 years of being at the forefront of innovate educational practice combining creativity with vocational learning, we are starting to witness the educational landscape in this country shifting – the opportunity to make real change happen is now. We believe the key is creativity.

Robinson makes an excellent point about creativity and how it is perceived. “I can’t believe it people say they are not creative…they just haven’t been taught how.”

When Ellis and Carr formed Hybrid Arts they were driven to deliver learning that inspires, motivates and qualifies young people, using the conduit of creative technology, after becoming increasingly frustrated with how creativity did not have the chance to thrive within the boundaries of conventional classroom learning.

Hybrid training programmes started by utilising a variety of art forms, including music, video, animation and graphics, where learners can experience first hand what life is like in a pioneering creative industries enterprise. These technologies are still a fantastic medium for harnessing creative potential and providing motivation, but it’s what happens when you put a young person with an artist in a hybrid learning environment that you really see educational and social development take place as a result of that interaction.

In a simulated work environment, Hybrid Arts provides students with the vision and belief to see how their interest could become their living. A successful education system identifies talent, and ensures the learner knows what to do with it. The creative technologies are often a highly useful tool in this process due to the way in which they stimulate self-expression and experimentation.

Annika Small, Former CEO of Futurelab – a non-profit organisation dedicated to transforming teaching and learning – is passionate about the potential of technology to advance educational practice. “A real opportunity is afforded by technology to find a new approach to learning, freeing up teachers to take on the role of facilitator and to help those students who particularly need stretch a challenge; but also those who are currently being left behind who are completely disengaged with today’s system and who cannot see the relevance for them, and who’s natural interests, aspirations and skill-sets are perhaps not readily visible.”

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Students on our Creative Arts and Media Diploma programme

Re-inventing the system

Innovative practice needs to be flagged up and implemented elsewhere – this needs to be a collaborative effort from all quarters of society. Small adds, “The current state of education reminds us to confront assumptions around what education is for, who conducts it, how it is assessed may need to be challenged – and not within the confines of the educational community. It will need to take place with families, children, businesses, technologists, spiritual leaders, scientists – all making the case for how education may need to change to meet the social, technological spiritual, the human needs of the 21^st century.”

What is so inspirational about this film is that it demonstrates how education is a pertinent issue that affects absolutely everyone. Not just those young people currently in the education system, or those working within it, but everyone. Martin Stephen, High Master at St. Paul’s School, raises a pertinent point; “These bright young children are probably going to be the only natural resource that is left in the UK within 20 years.” Robinson adds, “Anybody who thinks education isn’t about the economy, isn’t listening.”

We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For is supported by various sponsors including the Edge foundation, Hewlett and Becta.

See the trailer below