“Don’t Worry About Spelling”

“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”
A. A. Milne

“I don’t see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing.”
― Mark Twain

“God, don’t they teach you how to spell these days?”

“No,” I answer. “They teach us to use spell-check.”
― Jodi Picoult

It goes like this: I’m at a school and giving the class a handout. I’m reading it along with them so I can answer (hopefully) any question that arises. The first page is a list of vocabulary words (the day’s “Do Now” is: “Why do you need to increase your vocabulary?”); the following pages (parts A & B) are fill-in-the-blanks based solely on those words. The kids are struggling already. The answers are on the first page given: they just have to read, go back to the list, circle the correct letter or fill in the blank.

Part C is different: it’s a journal entry that asks them to think. All well and good, but then it says (and I’m only slightly paraphrasing here):

“Don’t Worry About Spelling.”

That in itself boggles my mind, but it’s not the first time I have been mentally gobsmacked (hmmm..is that possible, since a gob is a mouth? Don’t care: I’ll follow Mark Twain from his above quote. So yes, I am dumbfounded).

I wrote about a previous experience with third graders before: in assisting a student with a written assignment, in my trying to help them correct all their spelling errors, which were many, I was informed that the school administration did not want that. If the word read like it sounded, then that was good enough. I informed the teacher that I’d rather be fired for trying to help the student spell correctly then to dumb down. Nothing more was ever said to me on that subject.

In the case of the above hand out, this was High School. Six and seven grades higher, and “don’t worry about spelling” is emblazoned on the paper.  Scary. Just plain old scary.

On a recent interview, I was told by the interviewer that they had to discard so many resumes and cover letters due to the amount of grammatical and spelling (many homonym) errors that a normal spell check system does not catch. I’ve heard this before, and I’ve kicked myself in the head the few times I did not proof read a cover letter as well as possible, catching that stupid mistake that makes me sound like a dolt.

So…the schools say “don’t worry about spelling.” The job force, which is getting stricter and harder to break through, IS looking at these things.

Scary…just plain old scary; and very, very sad.

Public schools need to raise their standards and return to a more traditional, classical educational learning method.

What we are churning out is not working.

What do you think?

(Are You A) New Leader in Non-Profit Arts?

I am not a novice with Social Media, dipping my fingers in  various pots; even so,  there are still many, many more pots waiting to be stirred. I’m also not a novice in regards to the arts and arts education.

I received the following from a FB acquaintance (thank you Susan Shatz), and knew I had to pass this on:

Barry’s Blog: The ARTS Dinner-Vention Project

There are many people who live, breathe, eat, sleep, etc. The Arts (capital letters on purpose) but don’t have the exposure or professional gravitas which would give them the recognition that they deserve. They may be young in age, or “still new” in their respective turn at this part of their career. In Barry’s words:

Regular followers of this blog know that late every August I publish a list of the Most Powerful and Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts.  Most people understand that the list isn’t meritocracy based; it isn’t based on specific achievement or accomplishment per se; it doesn’t purport to necessarily identify the “best and brightest”, rather it merely identifies who has power and influence.

There has been some past comment that unfortunately the list excludes a whole cohort of serious thinkers – a group of younger (not necessarily chronologically younger) leaders omitted because their careers have not been long enough for them to develop the requisite power and influence the Most Powerful list embodies, and that there ought to be some mechanism that gives this cohort of leaders a voice and some recognition.  They are, after all, our future.

If you are interested/concerned about the state of the arts and nonprofit arts, I strongly suggest that you click HERE for the full blog entry. I know I’ll be giving this some serious thought.

Opening up dialogue with new thinkers, the ones who are doing the work, who resist hearing & living “we’ve always done it this way”…this is one way to acknowledge those who might seem behind the scenes but need to have a more national, if not international voice.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks.

About Barry: Former Director of the California Arts Council; President of the California Assembly of Local Arts Agencies; Executive Director LINES Ballet. Author (Hardball Lobbying for Nonprofits – MacMillan & Co.; Youth Involvement in the Arts – 2 phase study for the Hewlett Foundation; Local Arts Agency Funding Study for the Aspen Institute; City Arts Toolkit), consultant, public speaker. Barry’s Blog is a service of the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF). The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of WESTAF.

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part 2)

“There is a fountain of youth; it is your mind, your talents,
the creativity you bring to your life and the lives
of the people you love.  When you will learn to tap
this source, you will have truly defeated age.”

~Sophia Loren~

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part One)

 

The creative arts should be, to me, flexible and adaptable. Embracing new concepts, moving along with the social/economic/political spectrum, can allow new discoveries as well as keep things afloat. What good is it if you master your art, stick to that one idea, but the times have left you behind?

Arts administrations need to do the same, as the economic landscape has changed so drastically in the last five+ years. A new, or renewed, interest in Life Long Learners can be key in keeping organizations going well past the base of the school ages that many focus on.

What was inspiring to me was participating, through OPERA America, a section of the Open Opera Conference: Creative Resurgence. Opera companies are looking at involving the older adult population in more ways than just filling seats. A number of opera companies from across the US and Canada attended this day long workshop/program on Creative Aging, with many of them already utilizing interactive, participatory programs.

Storytelling is one of the primary arts disciplines that seems to  be in wide use: delving into true life testimonials, musical works have been formed, from revues to full mini-operas. Being part of the creative process, the participatory input ranged from storytelling and writing to either performing the work or having professional singers enact their life stories. The librettos ranged from true life to fictionalized non-fiction.

In Creative Aging and the Arts (Part 1), I spoke about our morning session with Ms. Susan Perlstein, an advocate for the creative aging movement, and is the Founder Emeritus for the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA).  In the afternoon two groups shared with the assemblage two recent projects that had just been completed: the pilot project I did with my musical collaborator Zach Redler for OPERA America, and Opera North’s latest operatic collaboration with an elder population.

Presentation: Transitions: Sung Stories

Opera North, Inc. worked with NewCourtland (a service for older adults) to produce Transitions: Sung Stories. Gathering oral history from Philadelphia, PA elders, Jules Tasca (Librettist) and Leslie Savoy Burrs (Composer and Executive Director of Opera North, Inc.) created a moving story that stemmed from the real life interviews.

Relating the details of the process to the group, both Mr. Burrs and Mr. Tasca laid out a professional program that produces positive results. In a video that showcases Mr. Burrs, we got to obverse how he interacted with a group of physically challenged elders. Working with a variety of percussive instruments, the participants helped lead Mr. Burrs, wielding a flute, to compose one of the pieces that became part of their opera.

What was apparent, watching the video, was how involved and engaged everyone was. No one just sat on the side, a spectator. This was a vibrant community coming together for a project that celebrates their lives, and also celebrates the worth they still have in the greater society.

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In Part Three of Creative Aging and the Arts, I’ll be discussing the work that I had the pleasure to experience with our group as well as responses/reactions of the attendees from the full day seminar.

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ATTENTION:

I am available for consulting on Inter-Generational Program Development

as well as Project Management/Facilitation

I am willing to travel or work over Skype with your organization

Please contact me at:

stuart.nager at gmail dot com

Budget Cuts: No Kindergarten!!!

Harrisburg school budget to cut Kindergarten, Art, Sports

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania schools eliminate Kindergarten

The Danger of Cutting After-School Programs

School Budget Cuts: How Students Say Slashes Are Affecting Them

 

Please read the links above first. I’ll wait.

Now…

I’m completely blown away. Schools are probably the last place we should be cutting budgets, since the future of our world depends on the children. We propagate the species to continue, and I would hope we’d like to leave a better world, and give our kids the chance to advance.

Doesn’t seem like it.

These types of cuts will not happen in private schools. These schools have the means to make sure all the educational hurdles we are facing does not happen to their academics. They’ll continue to have Kindergarten, Art programs, Sports programs, and have a more well rounded student in the long run. They’ll take working models and stick with them, instead of futzing around like the public sector does.

As part of the public, we should allow all children the best education possible, no matter the social/economic happenstance of the family/community.

What Is A Drama Teacher?

A Fourth Grade Classroom:

I was asked the question: “What is a Drama Teacher?” when I had announced that I am one.

According to a young lady , who I had the pleasure to work with that day, a Drama Teacher is:

 

“Someone who teaches others to exaggerate emotions so they can be Drama Queens.”

 

I think that pretty much says it all.

Longer School Days/Year: Is This AN Answer?

Chicago Wants Longer School Days; Foes Want Details

Longer School Days That Work

Obama Calls For A Longer School Year

Iowa Considers Longer School year

Speak Your Piece: Longer School Year, and Better

 

 

I was just on an interview for a job I would love to have. One of the questions I was asked was about the working hours: would I mind working the longer hours this new school would schedule. What struck me is that it needed to be asked at all: there are many, many reasons why extended school time is needed today.

Before I continue, these are MY opinions from what I’ve observed in the field (I have taught as a Teacher, Teaching Artist and as a Substitute Teacher); I’ve left you five links above for others on the subject. Object if you must, but do so with justifications and always keep it civil.

I have heard from too many educators that there is just not enough time in the school day to accomplish all that must be done. I’ve experienced it myself: you just get things going, and they have to rush to another class instead of investing the time needed t o really explore. I’m not talking about busy work, which I have seen in an abundance. Actual student engaging moments get cut short many times.

We have a  shrinking teacher base, due to budget cuts in places there should not be budget cuts. Classrooms are overcrowded. Tests and evaluations and  rote “learning”  practices shove aside a real chance for connections and actual learning.

Yes, we should have more teachers, more classrooms, and less students per class.

With the changing economic realities, parents are not always home until later in the day. The idea of Mom always being home after school is antiquated in many parts of the US; that has changed, but the schools have not changed with the times. There are after school clubs and such already in place; but again, the idea for a longer day is not just social activities (which they do need to foster as well, since much of home life gets truncated that way).

Double blocks of teaching (80 to 90 mins) during the day gives the teacher and the class to work on projects. The time constraints we have now means that there are only three classes per day that way. A longer day would allow more constructive work.

Advisory meetings, portfolio work, special projects that have a true impact and are not busy work (again, seen too much of that), planning sessions; individualized work (NOT study halls: I saw, in one location, 12 students on computers playing Halo in study hall; not making that up, and it was not my place to stop them)…there is so much that can be accomplished with proper time use.

The long summer breaks were originally set up by agricultural needs: farmer kids needed to work on the farm. School came second.

Education should not come second in anything we do.

 

Would You Like Fries With That?

One of the most disturbing things that I have heard  from a student was:

“Why should I try? I’ll only be working at McDonald’s.”

I was an Artist-in-Residence for a year for a large school district in Westchester County, NY. Still early in my profession, that statement was both a shock and a revelation of a point of view I had never considered before: low expectations given, and projected; leading this student to live  that that is all they can do. The young lady who said that to me was in a ninth grade repeat class. Most of them, I was told much later, were on their THIRD repeat of ninth grade.

Yes: she was a third timer.

It was not that working at McDonald’s is such a negative job, but the expectation of that is all she could expect in life is. There are jobs that many would never consider ever doing in their lives as “beneath” them; there are people who feel that there are  jobs that  are forever out of their reach.

I worked at a private Prep school (the capital P is on purpose) for five years. They were a usual sort of kids, except for one basic thing: their parents had power (=Money). Money enough to afford the very high K-12 tuition. If I remember correctly, all of these students went on to Ivy League universities , or “back-packed” across Europe, before coming back to such schools.

Were they born smarter, more diligent? Driven, yes, by their parents status. Academically as well. They were not taught to pass a test as the NYC public schools are (and have been) but really had a well rounded curriculum.

What got me on this was reading Roy A Ackerman’s The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth… . Take a look.

I’ve already written, a number of times, about this inequality in teaching. If Bloomberg and other mayors really cared, they’d look at the educational platforms that these private schools use. Yes, money pushes those kids along. We can’t fight that, but…we can elevate the level of how students are taught, what the curriculum is, and the entire structures of schools. I wrote about some ideals of mine in What Constitutes Education? and also in Public vs. Private Schools (there is a comparison of NYC schools and the same private prep school mentioned above…hopefully, it’s eye opening).

The other part, and it is a huge part: The Parents.

Parents have to be involved. Not just in making sure that their kids do their reading/homework, but support them, encourage them, take the time to invest in what they are learning, get involved in outside of school learning (excursions outside of their neighborhood)…being parents, not just adults whose house the kids reside in.

So, the next time you see your lawyer go to a McDonald’s drive through (or his/her aide), think of who is doing the ordering, and who is serving.

Internet of Babel

http://www.somethingawful.com/

Taking a short hiatus from things can be good, now and then. I’ve wondered what to do with this blog: the guest posts have given me a wonderful respite, allowing me time to get better as well as well lend time to write when I felt like it, as opposed to just churning out something to post.

So…a huge thank you to all who have already guest blogged here, and to the ones that I still have in wait. I’m going to set up that schedule soon.

As to right now, I again find myself questioning directions for the next segment of my life. I am tired of all the negative chatter that surrounds  us; doing something, anything, is preferable than sitting in a corner (to me). I am not sure if this is the proper forum for achieving any goals.

Is blogging just another Tower of Babel?

I took on the mantle of blogging just a wee bit more than a year ago: “get an internet presence!” was what my (then, hopeful) agent said to me, as well as others. In that year time, I am still not sure what greater good this has done for me or anyone else. So…

Now that I have that down, I need to take another step back, post the guest posts I have in hand, and figure out “What Comes Next.”

One thing: I commented on Bonnie Copeland’s (My Rivendell) The Foundations of Character post about what I feel breaks down character. I do think we are lacking in character, overall, and bend to who shouts the loudest. I called it a “non-community of yellers”, the age we’re living in.

Listen—really listen to someone’s POV. Place your own concerns aside for the moments it takes to really click with where someone is coming from. Communicate back: don’t condemn, place judgement (moral or religious or political) and LISTEN. Ask questions “Why?” or ask for clarification.

Does it take time? Sure, a bit more. But…we’d all be better off if we agreed to really hear what someone else has to say, really try to care why they feel that way.

Thanks for all of your support. It DOES mean a lot.

Process and Practice in Education

Kid Politics: This American Life

Spending a Day with the Roma

Process Drama and Multiple Literacies

What hard choices have you had to make?

Do you:  Go with your gut reaction? Weigh the pros & cons, and come to a decision you can back up and justify? Do you follow what your friends/family/confidants say &/or do, without question?  Do you go against what you believe due to outside pressure?

On my way home from a great Interactive Theater workshop in NYC, I turned on the local NPR station (WNYC 93.9 FM). The program This American Life was on, and just in time: I had been hearing the teasers for the program and was hoping to catch it. A group of 5th graders (ten/eleven years old) were undergoing an amazing Process Drama:

“What if, say, the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada in 1983 had been decided, not by Ronald Reagan, but by a bunch of middle-schoolers?”

The students were led on an amazingly detailed program. Three rooms were set up for them: a press room, a command center, and the President’s office/war room. Split into three groups, the students were in role, being asked to make the hard decisions that adults with “experience” in these matters had struggled with almost thirty years ago.

I don’t want to spoil it for you. I included the link above (first one) so you can listen to the program (there are two other “acts”: one with a 14 year old discussing Global Climate changes and a school in Brooklyn that is governed by…the students). I hope after you listen you’ll come back here and leave some comments.

The second link is from the blog Woman Wielding Words about an amazing experience with practicing drama with kids from a very different culture.

The third link: really, the nuts and bolts of what I love to do with students: have them make personal discoveries and to think for themselves. Weigh it all out, find out what they feel is right or wrong, and then also look at how someone else see’s the same situation; How it is sometimes hard to make a decision at all.

There are applications for Arts in Education in all core curricula, as there is in Art in all aspects of life. That is part of what creativity comes into play.

Is There Creativity In Education? (The Creativity Series)

Creative Education Foundation

Creative Education Blog

The Children’s Movement for Creative Education

 

Is There Creativity in Education?

Since the middle of October, I’ve been asking people across arts disciplines and other careers to answer a few basic questions about creativity in their lives, how they use it, how it impacts them and/or others.

Only a few educators answered my call.

Now, the easy answer is that creativity is being deleted from many schools. Many Arts-in-Education programs are being terminated; new ones are rarely appearing. Arts organizations are scrambling for grants as the schools are losing the fundings they’ve had to bring in Teaching Artists.

I don’t believe that the only creativity comes from the Arts classes: theater, music, dance and fine arts. I feel that a good teacher finds creative moments daily, when the student surprises them in a positive or negative way. Finding learning moments, working around the boundaries that seem to hamstring some, how they find creative life outside of the classroom and use it…I’m only touching the topic here.

So…why have so few educators answered my call?

Busy? Sure, I do understand being busy. There are times I’ve got so much on my plate it IS overwhelming. Forgetting? Oh yeah, that happens too. Life happens. I get it. (BTW: I asked for 300-600 word essay; this post is 319 words and took me a half hour: just saying)

Now that schools are coming to a close for the holiday break, I do hope to see some of the guest posts promised and maybe a few unexpected ones, not just from people in the arts but outside of it, who find creativity in their lives, whether it’s in their career or daily life outside of “work.”

Personally, I feel there is a LOT of creativity in Education, and it extends far beyond a classroom. Learning happens far beyond a school setting, and it should be life long. I know I search for new things.

Open your eyes.

What creative educational moments do you find in your lives?

Happy Holidays