Art is Again the Answer

Someone, I think it was me, recently asked this question:

Is the professional artist with no advanced degree, certification or background in education really qualified to teach?

The short answer  is “Yes, of course@^**&%What? Are you kidding?" 

Yes, yes and, for the last time, yes, artists with no advanced degrees in education are totally qualified to teach. Some of us, right out of the box. 

Here’s one reason why:

1. WE’RE PLAYFUL! 

Seriously, Ken Robinson is not the first person in the history of the world to point out that creative play is the skill set of the future. John Dewey, who is long dead, goes on and on about imaginative play; noting that, especially in early childhood, play is a “purposeful activity” that has “an end in the sense of a directing idea.” Sure, he makes it sound boring, but if you can manage to get to the end of a passage, you'll realize that Dewey's absolutely on our side.

“In their intrinsic meaning, play and industry are by no means so antithetical to one another as is often assumed...Both involve ends consciously entertained and the selection and adaptations of materials and processes designed to effect the desired ends.” 

See? After much comparing and contrasting and an ironically dreary passage about drudgery, Dewey offers another gem of the ocean:

“Education has no more serious responsibility than making adequate provision for enjoyment of recreative leisure; not only for the sake of immediate health, but still more if possible for the sake of its lasting effect upon habits of mind. Art is again the answer to this demand.”

I don't know about you, but I feel validated.

Get to work!

Also: Cathleen P. Black went to private schools and sent her children to private schools. She has no advanced degree in education, no certifications and, virtually, no experience in public education at all. Ms. Black is going to be the new chancellor of New York City Schools.

Laugh it up.

-------

Democracy and Education: Play and Work in the Curriculum. Dewey, John.

Words To Live By

I am reading A Short History of Myth, by Karen Armstrong, and have found much that inspires me. Teaching artists who have ever had a hard time getting a group of resistant students to engage in play may relate to our text for the day:

"Human beings are unique in retaining the capacity for play. Unless they are living in the artificial conditions of captivity, other animals lose their early sense of fun when they encounter the harsh realities of life in the wild. Human adults, however, continue to enjoy playing with different possibilities, and, like children, we go on creating imaginary worlds. In art, liberated from the constraints of reason and logic, we conceive and combine new forms that enrich our lives, and which we believe tell us something important and profoundly "true". "

- Karen Armstrong  A Short History of Myth page 9

Play On

According to her official website, teaching artist Elizabeth Swados has written 3 novels, 2 works of non-fiction, a book of poems and nine children's books. She's also a musician, director and composer, with 5 Tony Award nominations.

I can't imagine where she finds the time, but I'm so glad she does, because I find her book At Play: Teaching Teenagers Theater to be terrifically useful and illuminating. In the introduction, she explains that the book is meant to guide educators who need to do some of my favorite things, such as:

1. make a show outside of school
2. make a show in school
3. train young actors in a community or drama school environment
4. train young actors in a classroom or after-school environment
5. use one or two exercises in a limited class time

Also: The annual Face to Face Conference starts tomorrow. Tweet.

Play by the Rules

Did you know that more than 5,000 children are expelled from pre-K programs each year because classroom teachers can't control them? I had no idea.

In a lengthy Sunday Magazine Article, the New York Times reports on that, and on researchers who are trying to prove that "imaginary play" can help young children learn how to exercise self control. More precisely, researchers are looking at something called "executive function."

From the article:

Originally a neuroscience term, it (executive function) refers to the ability to think straight: to order your thoughts, to process information in a coherent way, to hold relevant details in your short-term memory, to avoid distractions and mental traps and focus on the task in front of you. And recently, cognitive psychologists have come to believe that executive function, and specifically the skill of self-regulation, might hold the answers to some of the most vexing questions in education today.

If this research turns out to be significant, maybe adults could be offered remedial work on the college level.

Young

Cartoonist Lynda Barry is our last guest.

Here she is in a New York Time's profile from 2008.

How to Think Like a Surreal Cartoonist

By CAROL KINO

Published: May 11, 2008

In her two-day writer’s workshop, Lynda Barry sings, tells jokes, acts out characters and even dances a creditably sensual hula.

Also: Lynda Barry's book @ Amazon; What It Is.

Also: Lynda Barry @ Myspace.

Plus: Lynda Barry, on youtube, talks about children, creativity and play. She's funny,ha, ha.

TGIF.

I'm out.