Independent Thinking

See the same world you've always seen and that everyone else sees, but think new thoughts. Get children to think in order to make the world better further down the line. Fight back. Think for yourself, before it's too late and before someone else does it for you. Written by Independent Thinking founder and award-winning author Ian Gilbert, this book is an invaluable collection of reflections, ideas and insights on the nature of learning, thinking, creativity and, drawing on Ian's experience across three continents, the role education has in changing not only people's lives but also entire societies. Controversial, humorous and challenging, this book is both moving and personal yet carries an important global call to action from a man with a distinctive voice and a unique perspective who has earned the right to speak his mind.

Table of Contents:
Contents: These Are My Thoughts - Get Your Own 42 Uses for This Book Real-Time History The Pigness of a Cow A Ten-Step Parent Guide to Supporting a Child's Learning in the Early Years What's the Point of Education? Advice I On Feedback An Alternative Good School Checklist Indignez-vous - Et Eux How to Write a Book Does It Know? You Don't Want Quits It Will Only Take One Word to End Cake Sales for Good Trust Your Gut Don't Let Them Tell You Independent Thinking as a Refusal On Starting a Revolution Learning Makes Your Brain Fat Drawing Class Of Ducks and Lighthouses Do You Have a Philosophy of Education? Slow Children If You're Ever Thinking About Moving Abroad On Leadership I Seek and Ye Shall Find (and Look Cleverer Than You Really Are) How to Make a Difference Should We Be Teaching Children To Be Principled But Unreasonable? On Control And What Do You Do? Learning is Overrated On Grief The Serendipitous Benefits of Bad Taxi Drivers How to Know Whether You're a Humanist or a Scientist It's Not Succeeding That's Hard, It's Keeping Going Circumspice On Finding Things How to Get a Job Short Story Whose Problem is the Future and the 100-Year Plan? The Thing About Shelves One Little Girl's Story The Difference Between Creativity and Art The Cure Careers Advice for Young People Her Conversation with the Social Workers On the Purpose of Reading The Difference is the Size of the 'P' A Real-World Six-Point Noise Scale The Eight Stages of Manhood On Value 21 Ways of Knowing You Have Spent Too Long on Twitter The Conversation Between an Angry Teenager and an Adult Teachers - What Do You Teach? When Bad Science Leads to Good Practice Standing Still Your One-Minute Three-Step MBA in Crisis Management The Four Stages of Modern Life The Merits of Not Having a Clue The Intelligence of Six The Game of Solitaire Will Smith and the Flower Paradox Trying To Be a Good Man Train Your Dog Like a Child Train Your Child Like a Dog There's No Such Thing as an Educational Expert 30 Things That Exams Don't Measure The Space between the Stars Trust Why Am I Here? The Money-Back Guarantee Three Questions to Ask Before Every Training Day Three Responses That Are Worse Than Saying No The Mirror Things to Watch Out For When You See the Word 'Independent' Larks Ascending Captain Pouch College My Chilean Education On Leadership II Crowd to Brian: 'Yes, We're All Individuals' Advice II

About the Author :
Since establishing Independent Thinking 25 years ago, Ian Gilbert has made a name for himself across the world as a highly original writer, editor, speaker, practitioner and thinker and is someone who the IB World magazine has referred to as one of the world's leading educational visionaries.The author of several books, and the editor of many more, Ian is known by thousands of teachers and young people across the world for his award-winning Thunks books. Thunks grew out of Ian's work with Philosophy for Children (P4C), and are beguiling yet deceptively powerful little philosophical questions that he has created to make children's - as well as their teachers' - brains hurt.Ian's growing collection of bestselling books has a more serious side too, without ever losing sight of his trademark wit and straight-talking style. The Little Book of Bereavement for Schools, born from personal family experience, is finding a home in schools across the world, and The Working Class - a massive collaborative effort he instigated and edited - is making a genuine difference to the lives of young people from some of the poorest backgrounds.A unique writer and editor, there is no other voice like Ian Gilbert's in education today.

Review :
What an engaging read, splattered with gems which will make you think and thinkagain about life, living, dying and what education, teaching and schools are, and how, at their best, they might excite and influence. Idiosyncratic it is, with its Thunks and its apparent kaleidoscopic randomness, but all the more worth reading because, or despite of, all that.Christopher Day, Professor of Education, University of Nottingham For 20 years Ian Gilbert's company Independent Thinking has encouraged us to think independently. Never has that been more important. His new book is a wonderful celebration of how education should be about more than value-added: it should be 'values-added'. Ian Gilbert exudes strong values and clear principles. His writing is endlessly inventive and refreshing, and his ideas serve as an uplifting antidote to an educational world which can too often feel dispiriting, mechanical and joyless. This is a book to read and keep returning to, to rejuvenate us in the darker days of term-time. Highly recommended.Geoff Barton, Head Teacher, King Edward VI School, Suffolk Ian Gilbert has provided us with a wonderful, entertaining smorgasbord of a read. The author offers insights into his personal history and charts the ways in which this has influenced his own intellectual development. In doing so, he continually challenges our assumptions and delivers some perceptive comments on current educational practice. Although the book differers from conventional educational offerings, readers will undoubtedly find themselves forced to rethink their ideas about the best way to prepare today's children for life in tomorrow's world.Professor Maurice Galton, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge I enjoyed the latest book by my namesake - but not relative I should hasten to add!Independent Thinking is a teacher-friendly book in many ways. First, for busy classroom teachers, like me, it can be dipped in and out of and you'