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Week nine: In the Early World

In the Early World helped change the course of education in New Zealand and across the world. Described by one reviewer as “possibly the best book about teaching ever written”, this book is important not only as a brilliant demonstration of the creative capacities of all children but also in its profound implications as to the nature of the learning process.

This week, we're looking back through some photos of author Elwyn Richardson's students and their artwork at his small rural primary school at Oruaiti in Northland in the 1950s.

"In this work the children themselves made many discoveries of technique and of appreciation. We learned from them as we went along. Comparatively little professional writing on creative education came my way during these years, and I began with only sketchy educational beliefs; but now I realise that what I have learned from my children and recorded here supports some well established educational beliefs. For what I myself learned during these years I have mainly my children to thank. They were my teachers as I was theirs, and the basis of our relationship was sincerity, without which, I am convinced, there can be no creative education." – Elwyn Richardson, In the Early World