Day Four: Resilience and Structural Changes

• Resilience

I’ve always considered myself as a distinctly resilient person, determined and perseverant in everything I do. Until now however my concept of resilience was more about ‘moving forward’ without really considering the possibility that there could be any other way to arrive at the same end – what I have realised today instead is the

effectiveness of having multiple equilibrium points, be dynamic and adaptable within more than one frame of reference. I could apply this concept especially to human relations: definitely one of the most complex systems we could imagine, they change, waver, may fall and born again. Thinking especially to the situation in which I find myself right now, it is essential that – after a change – I learn how to move as far as possible from old habits and behaviours always preserving the same core goals and values but aiming at a different equilibrium and a new stability.

• From Industrial to Creative Industry

Ordered lines of desks, division between the students and the teacher, and an only focus on subjects useful for work – ‘no arts because you won’t make money as an artist’ type of mentality – are the three pillars of the current educational system. My personal opinion is that since the scenario we live in is such a rapid, volatile and difficult to grasp world, impossible either to predict or to control, it would be of much more use starting to focus on what we can actually work on: ourselves. If it is true that we cannot change nor adapt the external world, it is also true that, if we want to leave a future legacy, we can and must apply all these things on us through the most natural tool of development: creativity.

This year I have written a paper for the Global Observer about ‘playful learning’ and I have discovered few quite interesting examples already going on around the world: the ‘ANJI PLAY’ special Chinese kindergarten – where children live together as in a community and are faced with logical and real life problems to be solved by creating an adequate fictitious organisation, business or institution; the revolutionary school ‘AD ASTRA’ created by Elon Musk – tailored for every child’s special interests; FIRST robotic programmes – boosting STEM skills through fun and social engaging activities; or the Montessori method of education – focused on kids’ curiosity and their direct approach to the surrounding world.

Without going too far (and without having to open a mortgage just for sending your child to the most prestigious kindergartner), another successful example can be found in Finland where children are let play outside all together for most of the school day and where traditionally boring subjects such as maths and history are not considered boring. Just a simple change as starting the school day a bit later, around 10am, could make a big difference in increasing the creative thinking in children. In my case, I must say I have been quite

lucky in school since the early stages, always having had teachers able to engage us in many different activities intra and extra school: from the pen-pal project with an elementary school in Norway to school plays on Human Rights, from a course on sustainable, equal and fair-trade development to art and craft laboratories.

Of course, only after having gown creative minds it is possible to translate them into a true economy, very engine of development. I remember reading a report from the UN – while preparing for the interview for Global Governance last year – about creative industries worldwide and once again many are the examples of their success: from the Nigerian film industry to the Chiang Mai Creative City in Thailand, from the ‘Hip Hop Akademy’ in Senegal built by the association Africulturban to the support for content producers in Argentina. Also Italy is doing a good job in promoting new creative arts, with Milan leading the trend and being a world hub for innovation.