Best Practices: soft nudge or rules?

There’s a great article this month in the New York Review of Books, Health Care: Who Knows Best? The discussion around best practice in healthcare have huge ramifications for us in arts education. What are the dangers and benefits of establishing best practices? Can we make well-justified, broad-based policies in a one-sized fits all approach?

But it seems perfectly reasonable to engage in soft nudges a la Sunstein vs. the hard rules of Orszag. Here is Sunstein’s book on the subject with Richard Thaler, Nudge.

As we engage in the dialogue around best practices throughout North America, we could take lessons from the U.S. health care debate.

That “E” word and the road to transcendence

Ours is not an age of exuberance. – Gary Indiana.

I agree with Indiana and this is what makes play so necessary, compelling. In exuberance, by which I mean full engagement (physical, mental, spiritual) is transcendence; play takes us beyond our immediate circumstances. In that exuberant space fun can happen, learning can occur and even transcendence.

At 23, I realized that I didn’t know how to play. Growing up, in my neck of the woods, “play” was not “work”. Until I began training with Joyce Piven at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, I didn’t know I didn’t know how to play and certainly didn’t understand the value of play. And if you would have said “play” could be “work”, well, I couldn’t compute that.

What is play?
For me, play is straightforward: it is the transcendence that comes from engaging in something fully.

Getting It In the Calves: Achievement & Assessment

What does achievement mean in the classroom? And how do we tell if we got there? What does it mean in a creative session? In the session, we have objectives. Many arts educators do not burden themselves with objectives. There are a lot of good reasons for this, none of which are reasonable: wages aren’t high enough to plan, the plan will be 86’d anyway, etc. Others, such as myself, rely on objectives to gauge whether or not we have accomplished what we set out to achieve. So, objectives need to be clear, the session must be high quality and the participants need to expand their sense of who they are. That is achievement and assessment wrapped up in one.

For me, that expansion of who they are, of self, is achievement. But how do we know if it happened? Learning is stretching the envelope of what one knows is herself. Learning is acquiring new skills to be put into action. Learning is neurological growth.

But how do we know we know more than we did before? By ‘learning’ I am not just talking about experience – but I am talking about that too. For example, fully engaging in play is achievement. Getting your calves, feet, tongue and neck into the game is achievement. Can we please end the mamby-pamby, I’m-sort-of-in-it-but-not-really sessions? That sort of play is akin to noticing that something is happening. One notices from without, not within. These are usually led by facilitators who work from the neck up. Facilitators who are active artists are usually working like hell to get every muscle engaged. For me, achievement is happening if I can facilitate the players to be in the exercise fully.

I have seen countless arts education sessions where participants are applauded and rewarded for just showing up. Kids, parents and facilitators are thrilled to their gills. And, trust me, I am not judging anyone. It’s just not what I call achievement.

Sometimes getting there is like pulling teeth. The players just aren’t going to move. Their dull eyes stare back at you, they pick the cracks in the floor boards, they slump against the wall. I once was leading sessions with seventh and eighth graders and the most these folks could do was to make a circle. They had been yelled at by their drama teacher for four months straight. They had shut down. I could not make a connection with these kids until they began sharing their quiet, inner voices through monologues. Boy, did that teach me.

Behaviour is responding to something. One of our many challenges is to design sessions that help participants respond while rising to a new vista. Certainly, one has to massage expectations to fit the group but getting the calves into it acts as a metaphor for achievement. And, for that group of eighth graders, a circle and then sharing their thoughts – anonymously – became achievement. Another group, of incarcerated youth, achieved the capacity to move silently, without being heard and without being seen. We knew they had achieved when they could sneak past the Cat, in Cat Wants a Corner, without being caught.

So, then, how do we tell if we’ve achieved our objectives? For one, have the participants lead the exercise or demonstrate the skill themselves. Don’t bother with surveys that ask if they liked a session or not. Liking the session doesn’t tell us anything. Most people don’t like change and really how is an expression of their dis/likes going to help us be better facilitators?

The participants themselves will tell you what exactly they learned. But make no mistake, participants want to feel it deeply. Our assessments should cut into those feelings and responses – in this way we can learn. In this way, we can measure achievement.

But do we ask them? Do we challenge players to connect themselves and what is achievement to them, to the content of the session? Of course, we do. We ask players to interview each other, demonstrate the skill and to share the connections they have made.

Achievement is being taken somewhere that is not anticipated. It is having a goal and discovering what it is to find oneself at the apex of that goal and then to make it ones own. It is a deep sense of participation. Our academic and creative sessions are evaluated by the capacity to articulate and describe. In creative sessions, certainly these descriptions are important but the nut of learning is whether the players can use the skills to create their own expression. I want participants to be surprised at their arrival in foreign lands.

Portraits, Interrupted

I didn’t learn how to play until I was an adult. That is slightly disingenuous. Play flummoxed me like theorems would later. I wanted to be a part of the world where play was free and uninterrupted but I didn’t know how to get there. An exercise, Portraits, got me there.

I was constantly faced with the glorious neighborhood kids who jumped bushes, threw broom handles for spears and seemed to make up games by the minute. They are ‘glorious’ now; that’s not how I wouldv’e described them then. Being chosen meant possible failure. Peanut, my best friend, had my back always but when he wasn’t around I was terrified that I wouldn’t be picked for these exercises and terrified that I would be picked.

It got worse the older we became and it seemed odd that I was very jealous and hurt when Peanut walked to school with another friend. Hello!? I was gay! I was a little gay kid. But neither me nor my family had the experience or the language to know what to do with a kid who wore his grandmother’s wigs, listened to Abba’s Dancing Queen like a broken record and read the entire set of Little House books thirteen times! And, my god, failure filtered through the floorboards of our house clutching at our ankles and filling our spirits with lead. We couldn’t fail at our house – well, my poor brother did – or we would have been murdered.

With my mother’s increasing madness, and rage, it became imperative that the mistakes my brothers and sisters made had to be hidden. Little known fact – and who would know except my siblings – but I used to volunteer to take the blame for missing chocolate chips, the kitchen floor not being mopped or the dogs not taken out. Masochism. That’s all that was. That is slightly disingenuous.

Bullying is a Community Issue

The dearth of social justice and human rights teaching leads to bullying and hate crimes. What do kids do – and do we back them up – when they are bullied? Responding with “We have a bullying policy.” isn’t enough – clearly. We have the anti-bullying policies, which is a start, but we lack the strategies. Everyone knows that a racial slur is unacceptable but to use the word “gay” pejoratively passes muster. What’s up with that? Because it’s okay to call a kid “gay” or sit on the streetcar and talk about a professor as “so gay”, kids will continue to kill themselves: 4 in the last two years. The connection is that simple. Sort of.

We don’t value gay people and whether we deserve our basic civil/human rights is still debatable in public discourse. Because the value of diminishing gay people is still open to debate, the use of “gay” as a slur continues.

I’ll go one step further. The schools could support teachers who teach about two moms, two dads and same-sex affection. While some do, of course, many boards are frightened of the local zealots who want to mislead around the actual evolution of families and individual sexual orientation. We have got to figure these things out or we’re going to continue to kill our kids.

When it comes to things like bullying we have abandoned teachers and administrators. We have not given school teachers and administrators enough tools to deal with bullying on any issue. Unfortunately, there is little room for any anti-bullying measures except suspension.

For example, a colleague recently approached me about her son who was being bullied for appearing non-straight. Her son, and the perpetrator, were suspended. So not only is the kid victimized by the bullying but he is tossed out of the school community for being the victim of bullying. Suspension delays the inevitable. The kids are going to return to school or move on to another school and perpetuate the problem there. Suspension is not the solution.

Teachers are overworked and underpaid. We need parent/caregiver/student-led councils which have the trained capacity to address bullying as a threat to the community – not just the student. In this way, individual communities can address bullying from a community perspective. And a myriad of solutions will emerge from this.

Multiple Intelligences = A Framework

I found a recent reply to the excellent article by Fran Smith on Oklahoma’s Arts Education programs by Patrick Groff, Professor of Education Emeritus, San Diego State University misleading. Professor Groff argues that Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences has not been shown to be empirically demonstrated and that Gardner has not shown any interest in these demonstrations.

I have used Multiple Intelligences as a framing or contextualization strategy – not a teaching strategy. Gardner’s theory reminds me that every one learns differently, brings a variety of expertise to a session and encourages me to think outside of the box in terms of lesson design. The person who has logical skills may achieve differently than the kinesthetically intelligent participant. Ignoring Multiple Intelligences would be a bit like pretending our participants aren’t human.

A Common Collision: Arts Facilitators & Teachers

Quantum Collision

In my line of work there’s often a collision of two worlds. At least, two. The one I’m thinking of now is when arts educators sponsored by arts organizations, like the one I work at, go into school board-governed classrooms run by teachers. These two worlds/entities (Arts Educators/Facilitators & Teachers) are very curious about each other but often don’t tell each other what they need. Artists want to achieve their session objectives; Teachers want the Artists to be impressed with their class. Of course, I’m generalizing – but that doesn’t invalidate it.

When one of the arts educators I work with go into a classroom, I want them to chat for a second with the teacher and let them know how the teacher can support the session. Otherwise, by default, this support will be shushing and corralling: You guys, pay attention! Ssshhhh!! This is particularly liberating in a theatre workshop (not!).

What happens is that a Teacher doesn’t know how to support the Artist (capital A) and ends up, because of his default position as the Shusher (capital S), shutting players down – physically and emotionally. But the Artist is generally trying to open students up to their bodies, feelings, thoughts, awarenesses, etc.

Now, just for the record because I know some of you are thinking it, not every teacher wants to be actively involved in your session. Some teachers become absent during arts sessions. They are eager for a break to chill, catch up on grading and so on. That’s fine. What isn’t fine is undefined participation which acts counter to the praxis the artist is trying to achieve.

But most teachers, in my experience, do not ‘absent’ themselves. In fact, eager teachers (eager to support, eager to participate, etc.) are not given direction in an arts session and so are defaulted into classroom managers. This is no fun for them or us.

‘Managers’ treat people like things. People are not things and they will not be managed. If you don’t believe me, try it. Lead and they will follow; manage and they will dig in their heels. People, no matter the age, want leaders – even if they aren’t ready to take responsibility for their decisions. Treating participants as if they are unruly machines to be kept in circles or lines or, god help us, liking the activity (dammit!) will kill any possibility of discovery.

But getting this direction isn’t the teacher’s responsibility. It is up to people like me (or my staff) who book artists in classrooms to outline the participatory options for teachers; and then it is the responsibility of the artists themselves. If we engage the teacher, though, we might be surprised at the different directions the session could go.

Teachers can be fantastic support in the session: they learn new skills and see their learners in whole new ways.
This shouldn’t be news: we live in a quantum universe; everyone is already participating. In the room, in the school office, at the arts organization – everyone who contributes to making the session happen is participating. My point is that we need to discuss how and why?

Perhaps prior to a classroom visit, an email or letter can be sent to a teacher or even attached to an invoice which gives general guidelines for the teacher’s participation during the visit. These guidelines could advise:
“We would like you, the Teacher, directly involved in the session. In addition to ideas you may have, here is how you can support the session:

-We think of you, the Teacher, as a colleague. Listen to activity directions and when we divide into smaller groups, please lead one or two groups. The Artist will help you do this successfully.
-If the Artist has been unclear, for yourself or players, feel free to interject a clarifying question as a participant. And so on….

I recently observed a session with 36 third-graders, 3 teachers and 1 Arts Facilitator. The kids were split into 4 groups via very clearly outlined tasks (e.g. find the movements and voice of X character). Because they are third graders, they could have used some help getting going but all 3 teachers only ‘managed’. They shushed and corralled wandering attention as the Arts Facilitator hurried from group to group hoping to not leave any one group with no guidance for too long. The Teachers looked at the ceiling, the players goofed on each other, etc.

What if the Teachers had been included in the instructions: Teachers, here’s what I want you to do. Each of you lead one group as the players discover how the Monkey King moves, the Phoenix rises or the Empress sings. Make sure they get it in their backs, their knees, their necks and so on! Go!. You have 7 minutes! By doing this everyone has a goal and a responsibility towards achieving that goal.

So, even if you don’t have time to touch base ahead of time with the Teacher, if he is in the room, give him a meaningful task that supports the session objectives. Trust me, he is participating whether you like it or not. Your challenge is to choose the manner of participation because the wrong kind can be very counter productive.

The second aspect of involving Teachers as colleagues is to consider their professional development. By involving Teachers you not only make an ally for yourself and every other Artist who will enter the classroom, but you are supporting our heroic teachers with ideas/activities/exercises which, provided they understand the pedagogy, can be adapted in a million ways and for a million purposes. During the session as they practice leading an exercise they are not only expanding their teaching capacity but also that of young people. And that is gold.

Finding It In The Real World

Recently several colleagues have wanted their sessions to generate creative material for presentation. Often there are disparate topics/themes/threads to explore. There are many, many ways to do this. Here’s one which introduces and uses the principle of Elliot’s Objective Correlative.

It expands the power of observation and connects craft to art in an adventurous and fun way. I’ve used this many times and have been thankful for the old man’s contribution.

In particular I’ve used the principles involved in Elliot’s Objective Correlative to explore seemingly unconnected themes, events, situations, things or narratives.

I first explored Elliot’s idea in grad school but realized that, as a theatre creator, I’d been using the concept for a long time. In fact, I’m not sure how theatre – or any other art – could be done without finding an equivalent in the physical world for emotional states. That’s our whole business. Elliot writes, ““the only way of expressing emotion in the form or art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula for that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in a sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked” (Selected Essays, [London: Faber and Faber, 1951], pp. 144-5).

So, the other day, when a colleague presented me with two emerging narratives and themes, she had questions as to how to proceed in her class’ exploration. Being an old hand at Collective Creation, perhaps my exercise below can help. Part of her goal is to generate original materials while exploring the themes of man-made social constructions (as reflected in our dependence upon technology) and our more authentic, wild selves as represented by the Forest of Arden in As You Like It.

Pantea Karimi: As T.S. Elliot Imagined

Exercise – Finding it in the Real World
created by thom vernon
Point of Concentration: to explore the emerging themes by finding real world counterparts (things, events, sequences, sounds, etc.) which evoke a sensory experience informed by emotion.
Uses & Applications: Exploration of Themes, Generating Original Material, Improving Observational Skills, Critical-thinking

Directions:
1. Have a brief discussion about the themes/topics to be explored. Let’s say ours is: Techology vs. Authenticity. Have the discussion through an exercise (such as creating a collage around the theme or a relay improv scene). Get the topic introduced but don’t overtalk it.
2. Send your class out as individuals or pairs to notice technology (or whatever your theme is) in the world. They are to make lists of their observations. Additionally, they might go further and notice where/how technology influences interpersonal relationships. Participants could create a list of at least 5 technological referents (two lamps twisted around each other, a person texting, a power outage, a car slamming on its breaks, etc.).
3. The next step is to do the same with the Natural world. Find trees with large knots, a sprout pushing through snow, a rotten apple, etc. Go futher and notice the Natural human world: a hand on an arm, intimidation, no eye contact between two people, a peck on the cheek.
Remind participants that they are specifically looking for objects/events/situations, etc. which could elicit a particular emotion and probably evoke an emotional response. Encourage your explorers to be as specific as possible.
4. When the participants return, ask them to brainstorm emotions/themes etc. that could be attached to their observations.
5. Finally, ask participants to test their objective correlatives by creating tableaux, portraits, monologues, short scenes, newsarticles, short stories, poems and so on including at least four of their observations. They can work individually, in pairs, or in small groups. I’d suggest using at least two or so opposing observations (e.g. Technological & Natural) from one or two participant lists.
6. Participants can present their works and then after reflect, as a group, upon their experience.

I highly recommend using the material generated in your collective creation or as a basis for further exploration.

Give & Take

This lack of play and oppression of habit (in the form of circles, etc.) means that we shut down a major means of knowledge and experience acquisition (see The Oppression of Circles). Another aspect of play is social development.

Part of social development – and a main goal of my work – is the nurturing of authenticity and spirit within the rules that make play and fun possible. Going further, the crazy thing about play is that it often isn’t as fun if the players don’t follow the rules. “Tag” isn’t very fun if three of the players are sitting in chairs, talking amongst themselves or if others refuse to move.

So, in terms of social development, play (as in many other things) teaches us how to be ourselves and find freedom and our own authenticity within the rules. In play, authenticity emerges on impulse, without planning and without self-consciousness. It is also a means to teach a fundamental principle of socialization: giving and taking freely and within the rules.

I’ve never had a class that wouldn’t try an exercise at least once. That said, I have never asked their permission. But, I’m also very sensitive to the reality that these human beings are different than they were the last time we met. And what worked last week, may not work this week. I stay acutely tuned to where the participants are, who is in the room and why they are there.

Here’s a great exercise, “Give & Take”, to develop impulse, play, agreement and authenticity within the rules:

Point of Concentration: agreement, impulse development, focus and so much more!

Originator: Joyce & Byrne Piven, the Piven Theatre Workshop

Directions:

Round 1.
1. Invite players to move through the space. Calls: Move Up, Down, Right, Left, Crawl, Jump, Kneel
2. Call Freeze. Freezes should be on a dime a la suspension with energy vs. a stoppage.
3. Call each player’s name one at a time. As a player’s name is called, she should move throughout the space creating a repeating, abstract sound and movement. Calls: Stay away from words! Use your whole body! Use the whole space! Breathe! Find the sound and Keep going until I call another player’s name!
4. Call another player’s name. Player 1 freezes. Calls: No movement! Every eyelash and every blink counts!
5. At some point, probably before everyone has created an abstract sound and movement, freeze them again. Explain that they are to Carry on until every player has moved throughout the space as you call.

Round 2 – Give
1.Same as above, except that now the game is only Give. Players are to Give only (and not take).
2. Players ‘give’ the energy and focus to another player by freezing with eye contact and a “throw” of energy. Players that are given to in the game, take the energy “thrown” to them and – on impulse – use that energy to make their own repeating, abstract sound and movement. Calls: Take the energy given! Don’t think about it! On impulse! Create your own sound and movement!
3. After everyone has been given to, move to Round 3.

Round 3 – Take
1. Same as Round 1 except that now the game is only Take. Players are to Take only (and not Give).
2. Players take focus with a strong, repeating abstract sound and movement. Another player may take back at any time. Calls: It is not a game of politeness! How strongly can you take? Take Strong! Take back at any time! Just because you were taken from doesn’t mean you can’t take back.
3. After everyone has been taken from, move to Round 4.

Round 4
1. Same as above, except that now the game is Give and Take . Players are to give and take.
2. Using the techniques of Give from Round 2 and those of Take in Round 3, players Give & Take. Calls: Use your whole body! Get it in your knees, your lower back, your shoulders! Give across the room! Take strongly! Playing isn’t for politeness! and so on.

Extensions; After players are comfortable with basic Give & Take, take them further by inviting them to explore ambiance, environment, sound – all sorts of elements.

The Oppression of Circles

I’ve got nothing against circles. In fact, I even do my best end sessions with some sort of coming together so we can all get a look at each other, connect and then head out into the world. But there are teachers who, every single session, insist on these darned circles no matter where their participants are. It’s mind-numbing and no wonder the players resist. Ask the players to solve the challenge of connection. They’ll do it, just watch!

This obsession with this or that formation or activity tells me that a teacher has a limited tool bag yet is probably using the yarn that kids need consistency to justify themselves. Of course, kids crave structure and consistency but so they can fly. Constraining their movement into x or y every session is for the teacher’s benefit, not the students’.

Further, if we’re using the same formation session after session we aren’t acknowledging or integrating the daily developmental growth which kids undergo. They are constantly testing for a million reasons but mainly because they are trying to figure who they are today. New thoughts, feelings, discoveries – don’t you remember? Our approach to session design must reflect this. And for the record I wouldn’t approach an adult class any differently.

As I said, I’m as much a fan of the circle as the next guy but this hard-headed insistence on forcing people to explore topics in the same way, session after session, denies how play, intelligence and social development works. Play is how we learn kinesthetic and spatial limits, capacities, intiative and response. Play is an integral means of learning. See this fantastic article Taking Play Seriously by Robin Marantz Henig. Those of us who use play as a serious strategy when teaching literacy, math, geography and the arts aren’t surprised by the research but certainly appreciate that it’s being done.

Because I come from a very Mid-Western (U.S.) cultural milieu, I didn’t learn to play until I was an adult (at the Piven Theatre Workshop). At a rather late stage I learned to run with abandon, fall, and connive like hell to get what I want. I learned to respond on impulse to fellow players. These are all skills that’d lain buried in me. In my milieu, education was for getting jobs and ‘play’ was for little kids. If I heard, “grow up” once, I heard it a thousand times. More on play shortly and exercises to get you and your class off circles for circles sake and into the real circle of learning.