Imagine, Work, Trust, Create (The Creativity Series: guest blog)

I met Molly Faulkner many years ago in Lincoln, Nebraska. We were at the International Thespian Festival to run workshops for High School students  from across the country who really, really cared about theater in all its aspects. From there grew a long standing friendship and respect for each others craft: Molly in Dance, mine in theater.

This is a real pleasure to have her here.

The Creativity Series: Guest Post

Imagine, Work, Trust, Create: Molly Faulkner

In trying to answer Stuart’s questions about creativity I found myself trying to define it so I could better investigate how it manifested itself in my own life.  Here’s what I came up with.

There is a world of action and a sense of journey implied in the word creativity.

To be creative is to imagine something and then follow it through to a conclusion. It may not turn out as planned but it leads somewhere. The idea of creativity has engendered many scholars to try and define it, map it, visually represent it, and try and pin it down in language, but the concept is too broad, the process too variable, the experience too personal.

There is a liminality that creativity entrusts to its initiates, standing on the threshold between envisioning and conceiving. The lens of creativity both broadens the focus to encompass connections from outside world and narrows it to recognize how these connections serve the idea. Every step of the path leads to the end of the journey, and there is an inherent trust that it is the “right” path, the ONLY path which will lead to other paths.

Creativity by its very nature is a successive finite endeavor, there has to be a conclusion a product that can be deemed creative. Creativity demands an audience, demands recognition, and demands perspective to be truly appreciated.

Back to Stuart’s questions of the what, how, where, why, and who of creativity, I’m a professor of dance at a community college. I try to be creative in my teaching, in my choreography, and in my administrative work. But more than that I try and let creativity permeate my life and when I let it, it gives me great peace.

I am awed at the connections between living life and the creative process and constantly try to minimize the compartmentalization between “my art” and my life. I learn this lesson over and over again.

When I trust the process and embrace the liminalty there is an excitement rather than an expectation for what’s next, and isn’t that what creativity is all about?

Molly Faulkner is an Associate Professor of Dance at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA. She was a professional ballet dancer, a dancer for Tokyo Disneyland, and the muppet Grover on Sesame St. Live before she discovered a passion for teaching and choreography. She has degrees in dance from the University of Arizona (B.F.A.), University of Iowa (M.F.A.), and Texas Woman’s University (Ph.D.).
Molly Faulkner, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Dance
Palomar College
760 744-1150 ext. 2318

National “Sing Everywhere” Movement (Creativity Series)

I have had (and have many in the waiting) some great – and I mean GREAT – guest blogs for my creativity series. Yesterday was no exception, but a comment by Maureen of Zencherry got to me, as well as many of the comments to yesterday’s post.

I have an example of kindergarten happy turning to first grade bricks.

Youngest child: Teacher pinned a naughty badge on his shirt, (on the first day of school), and made him wear it all through the day and then on the bus home to me because he “sang in the bathroom”. It said it in big red letters on his badge.

Yesterday’s Guest Blogger, Lisa Kramer, of Woman Wielding Words, commented and said exactly how I feel: “That makes my heart hurt. “ Lisa also declared it a Sing In The Bathroom Day for her family.

I’m taking it one step further: I hereby declare a “National Sing Everywhere Movement”!

If you go back among my posts you’ll see that I have endorsed the fact that we can all sing, dance, paint, CREATE!!!

Too many times creativity and exploration is deemed unacceptable and does not fit the norm of what’s expected in school, work, and life. To these fuddy-duddies, I give a great big raspberry (and in some cases a certain raised middle finger); I just don’t have the words to describe in a public forum like this how I feel about that teacher who, to me, exemplifies all that is wrong with our education system and corporate system. Yes, there is lots more “wrong” in both – just what was done to Maureen’s kid really rankles me.

NAUGHTY BADGE

SINGING IN THE BATHROOM

(Don’t let it out, but…I  do not know how to make a badge. If anybody knows how to, they can use what I’ve just done above and I would be honored to display it and give it out to all you naughty creative people).

SING OUT LOUD

FINGER PAINT ON THE WALLS

DANCE LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW

BE CREATIVE… WEAR THE NAUGHTY BADGE PROUDLY!!!!!!!!

Don’t EVER let someone shame you from doing something that is not causing anyone else harm.

I have PLENTY of stories of adult BULLIES who have shamed me, from childhood on. ADULT BULLIES.

This is a problem that needs to be addressed on the same level we try to do with the kids.

What can we do about it?

Living With Creative Passion (Creativity Series: Guest Post)

I am not 100% sure how I came upon Woman Wielding Words, Lisa Kramer’s blog, but I am glad I did.  (PS: she thinks it was something to do with LinkedIn.)

I found a kindred spirit, overall, in what she has written, and this guest post only cements that.

It is a pleasure to introduce her to you here.

The Creativity Series: Guest Post

Creativity isn’t About Being Perfect, It’s About Living Life with Passion: Lisa Kramer

No matter where I am or what I am doing, one statement crushes me, causing me to want to scream.

What is this horrific statement?

“I am not creative.”

I hear it all the time; in college classrooms, in discussions with friends, and perhaps most painfully out of the mouths of children. How could a child not be creative? Or perhaps I should ask, what does society do to suck the creativity out of children, or their belief in their ability to create?

In my experience, everybody is creative, but there comes a point where creativity is frowned upon as something less worthy or less “normal”  in some way. That is a loss. If you look at the dictionary definition of creativity, you will find the following:

. . . the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or  imagination (dictionary.com)

How could anybody not welcome the “ability . . . to create meaningful new ideas . . .etc.”? Why is creativity something that society seems to fear rather than embrace?

I don’t have the answers, but I fear for a world that stifles creativity in children at such a young age, and a society that seems to be trying, on a daily basis, to silence anyone who thinks outside of a restrictive social norm. I’m sure some might say that I exaggerate, and that children lose their creativity as a natural result of getting older. However, the problem is not simply an issue of growing up.

Several years ago, at a week-long puppet-making workshop for grades K-6, I offered different puppets for different age groups.  For the Kindergarten and First graders I decided to make fish puppets, based on The Rainbow Fish.  The Kindergarteners took their instructions and ran away with it, adding color and scales, eyes and glitter in any chaotic fashion that suited their fancy.  It was a fast-paced burst of creative energy, and I loved the result especially the fish with two eyes one side of its head and thee on the other.

In the first grade, things were different.  Many of the kids censored their creative impulses.  If they couldn’t do it “right” or make the “perfect” fish, they wanted either my assistant or I to do it for them.  (We didn’t, of course).

In Being Perfect, Anna Quindlen writes that “being perfect [is like] carrying a backpack filled with bricks every single day.” (11)  Where do we pick up and fill that backpack?  What happens between kindergarten and 1^st grade that allows us to catch this terrible disease?    Perfectionism is, in many ways, the enemy of creativity. I am not saying we can’t strive for perfection in our creative endeavors, but that pursuing perfection often paralyzes our ability to create.

Often the people who say, “I’m not creative” are also the ones who slog their way through life just doing what they have to do following all the rules as they go. Perhaps this comes from a narrow definition of what it means to be creative. Creativity is not limited to those people who can put words on a page, or images on a canvas, or write music or whatever you think of as creative. Everything we do involves a creative choice, especially if we take even the tiniest step away from the “rules”: how we dress, how we set up our desk, how we cook our food, how we decorate our house, even how we sign our names involves creative choices.

Imagine a work place where everything must be done in one way, and one way only. Your office or cubicle has to be decorated under precise parameters. Every word you write, whether a memo or an e-mail must be worded following protocol. Imagine yourself as a worker in this place, who suddenly realizes that there is a better and more productive way to accomplish XYZ, but you do not speak up because it doesn’t follow the proscribed rules of the company. Slowly you learn to stifle those creative thoughts, and become a corporate drone. Life turns gray.

 

I am not saying that all corporations suck creativity out of every individual. I’m not even saying that people who don’t think they are creative can’t enjoy life. Instead, I argue that in order to make change and embrace life, everything we do must incorporate creativity. If we lose the creative aspects of ourselves, then what do we have? So my response to a person who says, “I’m not creative” is, “yes you are, you just don’t see it.” And my response to the question “Why creativity?” is simply, “Life is creative.”

 

Lisa A. Kramer is a freelance theatre director, educator, and writer. After graduating from Smith College with a double major in Theatre and English Language & Literature she spent some time teaching English conversation in Japan. This led her to expanding her understanding of theatre and pursuing and MFA in directing from the University of Hawai’i, Manoa as well as a Ph.D. in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State University.  She enjoys directing theatre for all ages, developing new works, incorporating non-western techniques in productions, and exploring cultural and social issues through theatre.  She hopes to develop shows using multiple cultures, languages, and generations to help build bridges.”

Creative Occupation (Creativity Series)

I had the misfortune of meeting a very ugly woman. Outwardly, she was dressed very well. She was put together. Some of you, if you looked at her, would’ve found this woman in her early 30s to be physically attractive. The ugliness came from inside.

I was at the courthouse parking lot in White Plains, which also serves as the parking lot for the White Plains Library. It waiting our turn to pay for the meter, somehow some conversation started at wound up about what was going on in New York City Wall Street occupation. I know that I mentioned, more under my breath than anything else, that 100 of the protesters had been arrested instead of giving up the space in the Park.

Her next comment: ” I know. Those lazy bastards need to get a job.”

Are you stunned?

My comment: ” Are you kidding me!? I am out of work. I can’t find a job. You… get me a job? Huh? I need a job?” And she just walked away from me as fast as her pointy expensive shoes could take her.

The haves and the have nots.

I had just had a discussion with some one the previous night (someone whose opinion and knowledge I respect and admire: NOTE – all facts that I am going to present are from this person. She presented this information while I was discussing my feeling feelings and opinions; so, I am supporting what she presented to me in total accord) about the occupation of Wall Street and in other areas of our country. It is costing the municipalities a tremendous amount of money for a protest that, while semi-peaceful, has absolutely no purpose other than to say ” I don’t like what you’re doing.” There is absolutely no clear concise agenda or, in my mind, anything that deals with solving the problem. Any problem.

I have railed here often about that fact; if you going to complain, come up with some solutions and do something about it. Playing the complain complain complain game is a total waste of time and it completely diffuses and obfuscates the real problems. Case in point: the Bank of America withdrawal of personal accounts when they decided they just wanted to make more money off of the common person. An action was decided on, it was enacted, and Bank of America backed off.

I believe in protest, but I believe in problem solving more.

I do not believe in violence and nonsensical rhetoric. It gets us nowhere.

Why do I feel that this is part of the creativity series?

It is time all of us to find creative solutions to the problems that we face is very un-united United States. If you think that this country is not a laughing stock to the rest of the world, imo, you are sadly mistaken.

What we are doing right now is not working. Doing the same old again and again and again is putting this into a spiral that goes far beyond the financial crisis of the world. I am not sure I have the intelligence or the finesse to offer any problem solving myself. I do feel that we do need extreme critical and creative team work to take care of the problems that we face.

Without pointing fingers:

• WHAT DO YOU FEEL WE, UNITED, CAN DO?
• WHERE DO WE START?
• Where do  our next creative leaders come from?
• Do we have any?

Renaissance People (Creativity Series: Guest Post)

The Internet has provided me quite a number of wonderful network possibilities. One of those was my meeting Roy Ackerman. He has been a staunch supporter, overall,  of this blog and my creative writing one, Tale Spinning. He is also been one of the first people to point out spelling and grammatical errors. That is a good thing.

Roy is a very passionate individual. It comes through in what he writes on his own blogs and in the comments that he leaves all over. It is my pleasure to receive this and future guest blogs from him.He is a mensch. That is a very good thing.

You can find Roy at Adjuvancy or at   Cerebrations .

# 2 in the Creativity Series

Roy Ackerman: Renaissance people

I have been a fan of Leonardo da Vinci since 1962.

I went (with my entire class) to the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art) to see the Mona Lisa (didn’t everyone in the metropolitan New York area?).  We already had spent a month in class learning about him, but I also bought a biography and studied it from cover to cover. I began writing all my lab journals backwards, just to emulate his practice.  (Did I have anything worth stealing?  Wouldn’t you have wanted to know!)

I studied his drawings for all sort of technological breakthroughs- helicopters, airplanes, devices of all sorts.  I knew I could learn from him- and develop all sort of things.  Da Vinci helped keep my focus on the development of an artificial kidney.  And, like da Vinci, many of my designs could not make it because the technology was not yet available.

(In my case, technology may have been available to Bell Labs, but not some eleven year old working in his basement- but I had already managed to come up with more than a fair share of viable products.)

I knew that da Vinci had developed the principles I needed to learn.  I have spent many a day studying creativity and genius.  The key credos are: Nothing is ever good enough; Be curious about everything; Emotion is not the enemy of logic; and,  There are some things to which the absolute answer cannot exist.  (These principles, I might add, are not high on the list for most engineering doctoral programs, but that’s a subject for another discussion.)

Here are the basic concepts for you to follow as you become the modern day “Renaissance Man”.

Curiosity- Why do we do what we do?  How can what we do be done better?  faster? greener?  cheaper?  As espoused during many creative sessions- don’t discharge ideas immediately- give them a chance to gestate. Learn something new every day.

Prototype- Test your concept, and learn from your failures.  Question your axioms- how can you be sure they are true? Pick a few heroes and learn from them- the positives and the negatives.

Sensation (use your five senses).  Pay attention to colors, odors, smells, touches, and sounds.  Amplify your daily experiences.  Document what you feel.

Evanescence.  This has always been my favorite word.  It exudes the meaning.  It’s how ambiguity leaves its mark.  Don’t be afraid of things as they vanish- record your experiences and learn from them.  And, just because they vanished, it does not mean what they offered for the moment was not true.

Art and Science in balance.  There are four viewpoints to balance- emotion, imagination, logic, and practicality.  Product design needs this in droves.  I learned more about this mixture of innovation, art, and science when I was lucky enough to meet Sam Crosby, one of the finest industrial designers around.

Completeness- Develop versatility between grace and fitness for purpose.  Use your other hand to write, to draw, for everyday activities.  Force your brain to embrace all of your attributes.  Recognize that everything is interconnected.  What you do today affects your tomorrows.

Don’t be intimidated by the umbra of da Vinci.  Be like the photo- use his work as your footstool.

 The world needs way more than just one “Renaissance Man”

Have you met my friend Roy?: To be a catalyst is the ambition most appropriate for those who see the world as being in constant change, and who, without thinking that they can control it, wish to influence its direction. As an adjuvant, I want to enhance the benefits to all.

A polymath whose interests span chemical engineering, medicine, biotechnology, business, management, among other areas. Among my inventions/developments: dialyzer, dialysate, neurosurgical drill, respiratory inspirometer, colon electrolyte lavages, urinary catheters, cardiac catheters, water reuse systems, drinking water system, ammonia degrading microbes, toxic chemical reduction via microbes, onsite waste water treatment, electronic health care information systems, bookkeeping and accounting programs, among others.

---

What Constitutes Education?

“Our large schools)..are organized like a factory of the late 19th C : top down, command control management, a system designed to stifle creativity and independent judgment.” David T Kearns CEO Xerox

‘The guiding principle being put forward is that schools must be self directing.’ John Goodland

‘It is, in fact, little short of a miracle that the modern methods of education have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail.’

— Albert Einstein

Alternative Education Resource Organization

K-12 Academics: Alternative Education

I do not believe education happens in just a school setting. If we are open to new things and explore what is around us, there is a lot of real education available. There is a whole wide world at our fingertips now. what we learn from it, what we take from it, is up to us. Or just you. YOU need to find what is out there.

We mainly think in terms of our children in education (unless you are into Continuing Ed classes or going back, like I did, for your Masters/PhD later in life).  If you are not seeking out “formal” paths of paper certified education, don’t think you still can’t, or worse, don’t, have more to learn. Opening yourself to lifelong learning is, to me, a very important part of life.

‘Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it.’

— Albert Einstein

I’m now involved in the planning committees of TWO proposed Performing Arts Charter Schools. My work in curriculum development is being utilized here, making arts integration  the main foundations of the schools. Yes, I want separate arts disciplines to thrive on their own, but the guidelines and rules of these Charter schools get in the way. Yes…the states mandates still get in the way.

If you’ve noticed, I have been somewhat quiet about educational subjects lately. Personally, it has been a frustrating period, and I have been trying to wrap my head around the restrictions imposed the two projects. If you look at the second link above, you’ll find a slew of alternative ideas out there. I am doing more research, so more on new(ish) ideas and thoughts to come.

The Bosch painting that heads this is how I see what is going on. My interpretation: we are fractured in our murky confinement. Boxed in, and boxed in again. Encased, closed off, separated, and just uneasily floating in a bubble that is waiting to burst.

What Constitutes Education?

In no particular order, MY answers to this are as follows (but, really, are not closed: I’m always open to a new idea, or simply one I forgot):

• Inquiry Based Learning
• Peer to Peer Mentoring
• Freedom for Failure (learning from the “mistake”, not making it a negative)
• Open ended process at times, to allow interpretations (doesn’t always work in Math & Science, but…)
• Feeling safe in stating/putting out your ideas
• Dialogue & exchange of ideas (see above)
• Exploration of the world around us (parks, museums, historical sites, using the  internet properly, etc)
•  LISTENING and focus
• Not settling for mediocrity,
• Not rewarding for least effort/what was required; only for going beyond what was expected
• Drop all the PC garbage, which creates this new fear & loathing, and really teach the history behind something, to…
• Allow ourselves the freedom to think, create and critique for ourselves.

What Constitutes Education For You?

What’s In Your Interpretive Wallet?

“The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”

 Marcus Aurelius Antonius

First, I apologize a teeny tiny bit for the F word above? Missed it? I’ll wait. (btw, notice the “teeny tiny bit”…)

OK…you got it? Good.

The point here, that I am trying to make is this: what YOU get out of art-any piece of art-is what you get out of it. It is your referencing that influences your point of view, your opinion. Sharing it with me, that is ok. Really. I know a few people who don’t believe me when I say that, but, again, that is their opinion and their POV.  I have no problem if you like something and I don’t, or visa versa. Tell me from your POV and don’t proselytize or push your opinion as the only correct opinion and we’ll be fine. Really.

Case in point: I am not a fan of Charles Ives music. The cacophony of sounds he produces gives me the heebie jeebies. In mentioning this to a musician a few years ago, she expressed the complete opposite feeling. In a very positive dialogue, she expressed how it felt to PLAY Charles Ives, what it meant to her, the challenge, the utter sense of beauty she felt in being part of the process, and more. I also wound up researching Ives a bit, reading about the man and how he crafted his music. I walked away with a different perspective. I may not dislike it as much as I had previously, but nothing would have changed if I wasn’t open to listening to a different POV than my own.

BTW, We were participants in an intensive two program about Aesthetics in Art with the Lincoln Center Institute.  Well worth doing for ANY educator, and I strongly suggest it for ANY person who is involved in creating curriculum policy for schools.

Everyone is of course free to interpret the work in his own way.  

I think seeing a picture is one thing and interpreting it is another.
Jasper Johns

For those not in the know, I write creative fiction on my other blog, Tale Spinning. I LOVE getting comments from people about the work, mostly on how they feel about it (good or bad). Telling me how I feel about it, or how they interpret my mood or character or circumstance…not so much. I also don’t like to really tell you, the reader, what I was feeling/thinking when I wrote what I did. Sometimes Stuart’s life bleeds into things here and there (write what you know), but most time it’s the creative imagination, the play with words, the feel of the language, that moves me along.

Your interpretation and feelings are just that: yours. Share it: I’ll be happy to hear it. I find it interesting to hear something resonated with a reader in a way I had not even thought of before. Yes, sometimes a blue curtain, If I were to write that, is nothing more than a blue curtain to me. It’s a descriptive word to give you a visual picture. Is there a deeper meaning? Could be, could not. Does the shade of blue mean anything more then painting a picture? “A rich velvety Sapphire Blue curtain…” is far different a picture than “the curtains were blue.” It still is up to you to decipher what it means to you and how it affects you.

It’s all good, too. Just don’t tell me there is only one answer. Don’t tell me you know what I meant, unless you’ve asked me and I’ve told you first. Silly, silly people, critics and teachers and those who like to argue for the sake of arguing and self importance.

OK…now I am in the mood to go to NYC and walk around The Met or the Frick, maybe MOMA. Anyone want to join me?

 

All Children Are Artists

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
John Steinbeck

Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
William S. Burroughs

Artists are traditionally resistant to labels.
Patti Smith

Artists have really never had any representation on Capitol Hill, because it’s not the nature of the artist to join together and make a unified presence. Those days kind of died in the ’60s.
Sheryl Crow

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
Pablo Picasso

All children are artists, yet we often try to take it away from them in the pursuit of testing…I’m sorry, education. Until they are told, in one way or the other, they can’t dance well, or sing well, or draw well, or tell a story/act well…well, they will just DO IT. They don’t start off with the negative filters that destroy them along the way.

I integrated all different art forms in the theatre classes. I looked to have the students explore, for themselves, how to find their artistic voice. Too many times, a student would tear up a piece of artwork. “Why?” would come out of my mouth. “Because it’s no good” or variations of that. Looking at the unfinished work, judgments in this child’s mind were already formed. Where it came from was beyond my scope most times. Seeing these 500+ students only once a week, for 45 minutes at a clip, did not afford me the full in-depth deciphering of their psyches.

Sometimes I would notice that the child would look at what someone else was doing and immediately stop. Rip, crumple, toss, and then maybe a hissy fit. Did this student have his work compared to another piece of art, directly or indirectly? Jealousy? Fear of failure? Ridicule lessons in the classroom or at home, or both? Honestly, most times I could not tell you. I’d let the classroom teacher know when she/he would pick the class up, but more often than not they dismissed it with the “oh, you know how ______  is.”

When does the toddler who throws him/herself into their art become their own worst critic?

How Appreciating Art Can Promote Literacy

Why Arts Education is Crucial, and Who’s Doing It Best

As to adults, why do many of us turn away from embracing an art form that we love? I often tell any class I lead, no matter what age level this very simple thing: When we create in art, there is no wrong answer, and there should be no judgment of what or how we do it. We CAN all sing, paint, dance, act, tell a story, play a musical instrument (yes, you can do percussion). If we compare it (See rule #1 above) to someone who either has practiced their artistic craft for years upon years (or are just artistic savants), well…we just do ourselves a disservice.

So what if you’re off key, can’t draw a straight line, are a klutz. If you love it, DO IT. Just do it. Do it for the love and happiness you feel when you let yourself be free. I can sing, but my voice is not trained like it used to be and I go off key a lot. My art is mainly doodles. My music is percussive or on a kazoo. My artistic language comes out in the written and spoken word, but I do sing, I do dance, I do play music, and I do art.

YOU DO ART…All children are artists. We’re still those same children, but the art has been beaten out of you. Take it back.

Give it back. Give the arts back to the schools.

The reason actors, artists, writers have agents is because we’ll do it for nothing.

That’s a basic fact – you gotta do it.
Morgan Freeman

Before The Students Come

Teacher Preparation Checklist for the Classroom

Teacher Training: Classroom Preparation

Classroom Icebreaker Activities

Ed School’s Pedagogical Puzzle

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.  ~Lily Tomlin

School may have started already, or, as in NYC, it is just about to start. Getting the room ready, setting up your files, your lesson plans, backward planning your curriculum map (what do you mean, what’s that?), putting up the new bulletin boards outside your rooms, hanging up this or that, taking inventory of the classroom library: all this and more. You’ve been to the store a few times, at least, and you’ve most likely come close to spending a lot of your own money that will not be reimbursed for the coming year.

You gab with those you haven’t seen all summer, gossip with those you have, and already start thinking about where to go Friday after school  for drinks. Don’t deny it. Plans for vacations will probably come up once or twice too, and the kids haven’t started yet.

Now, that’s if you’re in an area that puts something into the schools.

This is a classroom in Uganda.

Now, I have been a school teacher in New York City. I’ve seen first hand the overcrowding. I’ve heard the complaints about no funds for copy paper, new books, material, and more.

According to the link above, this is ONE classroom of an elementary age school. Siblings of various ages are put in the one room, with one teacher. ONE TEACHER.

Should we not expect the best for the children of the world?

 

 

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.  ~Albert Einstein

What’s my point? Yes, we want the best, the cleanest, the newest, the ability to have the most resources for our students.

It’s not going to happen, unless everyone gets behind the Educational System, and not only go beyond the care of the aesthetics of the school (the bulletin boards and such) and really get back to what is important: allowing education to happen. Concentrating on how to reach and engage the students more than buying the right color choice?

Can that one teacher lead those in his or her classroom as effectively without the frills and gadgets? Yes, of course. Those things are only gloss and the razzle dazzle. Test scores as the only means of assessment are only razzle dazzle. They obscure the basis of what is real: finding the way to reach students that are getting more difficult to reach, and in some cases, more difficult to manage.

What Would YOU Do With This Empty Classroom? Is The Room More Important Than The Student?

Integrating The Arts Into Core Curricula

Arts Integration Solutions

Teaching With Arts Integration

ARTSEDGE: The Kennedy Center

“The arts are an essential element of education, just like reading, writing, and arithmetic…music, dance, painting, and theater are all keys that unlock profound human understanding and accomplishment.”

–        –William Bennett, Former US Secretary of Education

As much as we want there to be dedicated instructors of all the arts disciplines in schools, we have to face the current financial reality and the mindset of the policy makers: it’s going to take a lot to get new programs in the arts going in schools. This has happened before, and it will happen again. The arts are among the first things to get cut when things get tough, and when education is attacked.

Test scores become the only means of assessment that mean anything to the policy makers. Scores are fairly tangible. They can be put into statistics. They are understood by business minds. They present pretty graphs and charts and can be easily defined. The policy makers don’t have to work hard to understand anything other than numbers and line charts. They don’t see the value in other means of assessment.

 They do need their eyes opened to other ways so the children in our schools today are not harmed further.

Until we get back to the practice of supporting the individualistic arts in our public schools (and bless the school leaders who have retained the treasures they do have in place and have kept them), Arts Integration should be on the minds of all parents and educators.

Most teachers already do art integration without acknowledging it or realizing it’s part of their plans. How many dioramas, Readers Theater, play readings, recorder lessons, science fairs, etc. has your student gone through. Presentations are often accompanied with fine art, music accompaniment, dramatizations and more. It’s more prevalent in Elementary school. Role playing in discussions happens in the later grades as well, as does art. Dance is subjective, but a good physical education program incorporates body movements (synchronized anything).  Dance incorporates Math and  easily explores literacy as another means of interpretation.

The core subjects are enhanced and reach more students when introduced in interesting ways. When I was leading the American Voices project for the NYC Department of Education (integrating Theater Arts into 8th & 11th Grade SS curriculum), I personally heard students say that this was the first time they actually enjoyed learning Social Studies. I saw students in many schools interact and show great interest in a subject that they normally were not engaged in. That last from the teachers who participated in the program.

They were introduced to the time period they were studying, the socio/economic/political structure of those eras, through great American plays of the time or that spoke for that time. They had art, music, dance, theater, history, literacy, math and science tied into the units.

The best part: they learned and were interested.

“We need people who think with the creative side of their brains—people who have played in a band, who have painted…it enhances symbiotic thinking capabilities, not always thinking in the same paradigm, learning how to kick-start a new idea, or how to get a job done better, less expensively.”

–Annette Byrd, GlaxoSmithKline

There are a number of sites that have lesson plans for educators already set up. The best, in my opinion, is ArtsEdge from the Kennedy Center. When I was just starting out and planning my curriculum map for the year, ArtsEdge proved to be among the best. It gave me units to work with, lesson plans that were easily modified for my individual classes, source material, printable diagrams, and more ideas for other projects. I used a number of them, and a number jump started me into creating my own curriculum ideas.

What’s great is it has lesson plans for ALL grade levels, extending into Middle and High School ages. The range is extensive and can help any teacher who feels they want to try something new.

I strongly support trying new things, for yourself and for your students. It’s a new school year. Find a new way to engage and still work towards the goals of the test. I think you’ll be happily surprised.

Do you have other Arts Integration sites you love? Share them here. I’ll be happy to post a follow up.