{"id":1530,"date":"2020-11-07T21:59:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T21:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2020-12-27T21:59:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T21:59:55","slug":"the-divergent-thinker-award-est-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/rwc-blog\/the-divergent-thinker-award-est-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Divergent Thinker Award” (Est. 2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The Divergent Thinker<\/strong><\/em><\/span>” Award will be awarded for the first time in 2020 as a part of the end of year student prize giving event at Puketapu School, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.<\/span><\/p>\n

With our daughter leaving Puketapu School at the end of 2020, this marks the end of 31 years of intensive involvement with this incredible little New Zealand country school (which includes my mother having been the Deputy Principal of this school for 15 years); and our family has decided to thank this school for many rewarding experiences by gifting the said award trophy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trophy:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Divergent Thinker Award\u201d – recognises and rewards young people who demonstrate strong capability of thinking \u201cdivergently<\/u>\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>This is the ability to think about NEW or DIFFERENT perspectives\/ solutions\/ approaches\/ methodologies in relation to issues\/ problems\/ opportunities that they encounter during the school year.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am very<\/span><\/strong><\/em> concerned about the way in which society generally is increasingly placing considerable emphasis and value on \u201cstandardisation\u201d and \u201ccompliance\u201d (ticking boxes), versus teaching and encouraging \u201cnew\/ different\/ innovative individual thinking\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The latter is in fact a critical skill for any human being to develop in order to contribute towards the evolution<\/u> of mankind. The evolution of mankind simply cannot progress without the contributions of \u201cdivergent thinkers\u201d \u2013 people who are orientated towards searching for and experimenting with new<\/strong><\/em><\/span> ways\/ approaches\/ methods for resolving issues\/ problems and opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are serious consequences for society when \u201cdivergent thinking\u201d is quashed in favour of \u201crules based compliance\u201d; the most serious of which is that individuals stop\/ lose the ability to think for themselves and therefore stop communicating their own unique perspective on a situation\/ issue\/ problem\/ opportunity. In effect, the perspectives of individuals become suppressed under \u201crules\u201d which dictate how a particular activity must be performed in an expected standardised manner.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are each delivered into this world with a set of qualities\/ attributes that define us being the unique individual<\/span><\/strong> that we are. We are not<\/span><\/strong> a homogenous product of any shape or form. Rather, we are each a unique life form that longs to apply the best of ourselves in our daily lives in order to realise being the best individual that we’re capable of being. Hard-coded “rules” stifle, suppress and even oppress this natural pursuit; and worse still they tend to create a world where the perspective of the given “rule” is the only one that is correct; and all other perspectives are “null and void” (invalid). This is very damaging to the evolutionary course of society as a whole, for it tends to “standardise” behaviours to fit the expected “norm” set by the given “rule” and any deviation from the “norm” is punished (simply because it is viewed as being “deviant” – and therefore is unacceptable by virtue of its difference).<\/span><\/p>\n

It is my deeply held belief that it will be the \u201cdivergent thinkers\u201d of the world who will prove to be the greatest contributors to the improvement of both the human world and the world as a whole going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Divergent Thinker<\/em><\/span><\/strong>\u201d Award is an incentive to encourage<\/u> a greater amount of divergent<\/u> thinking happening at Puketapu School; for Puketapu School to increasingly and ongoing become recognised as \u201cthe leading school in New Zealand where new\/ creative\/ divergent thinking that constructively challenges the status quo is not only permitted but is purposely developed, nurtured and strengthened\u201d<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Award can be awarded to \u201cany\u201d student of \u201cany\u201d age within the school in any given year.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Award will be awarded to the student who has consistently shown their ability to process a problem\/ issue\/ opportunity through their own cognitive capability<\/u><\/strong><\/em> and:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Constructively question\/ challenge pre-existing solutions\/ approaches\/ methods that have conventionally been applied to the given problem\/ issue\/ opportunity; and<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Brainstorm, develop and communicate their own line of thought as to how the given problem\/ issue\/ opportunity could \u201cbetter\u201d be addressed or resolved.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The plate on the base of this trophy announces the key strengths of the recipient of this new award:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Curious Questioner<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Constructive Challenger<\/span><\/li>\n
    • New Solution Finder<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Specific objective criteria has been developed to guide the selection of the award recipient each year.<\/span><\/p>\n

      As thinking adults we (teachers and<\/span> parents) have a key role \u2013 a responsibility in fact – to play in guiding and encouraging the independent thought and constructive questioning\/ challenging by children\/ emerging young adults.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \u201cThe Divergent Thinker\u201d Award very much encourages and rewards this pursuit; for the betterment of society and the world at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

      I hope that other schools in not only New Zealand, but around the world, understand the importance of nurturing the ability of children and young adults to think in a divergent manner; and ultimately take it upon themselves to introduce a tangible award of a similar nature to incentivise the development of this essential skill.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      “The Divergent Thinker” Award will be awarded for the first time in 2020 as a part of the end of year student prize giving event at Puketapu School, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. With our daughter leaving Puketapu School at the end of 2020, this marks the end of 31 years of intensive involvement with this incredible little New Zealand country school (which includes my mother having been the Deputy Principal of this school for 15 years); and our family has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1553,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realworldconsulting.kiwi\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}