“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?

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part 3)

National Guild for Community Arts Education

Brooklyn Conservatory of Music Awarded Creative Aging Grant

Arts for the Aging, Inc.

Lifetime Arts: Creative Aging Online

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part One)

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part Two)

Teaching Artist Tool Kit

Respect your elders.

I’ve heard that since I was a child, and a statement that was reinforced not only by my parents, but grandparents, teachers and mass media (although, in the early 60’s, mass media was nothing like it is today).  Elders used to be those we looked to to run the family, supply support and leadership, hear the history of the family, and to pass along traditions, both familial and often religious ones.

Now, we need to fight for respect for any elder, more times than not.

Vitality, purpose, health (both physical and mental), self worth, connections with others. These are only a smattering of things that can be accomplished when our older citizens are not talked down to or dismissed.

In Part Two, I wrote about the other group that presented during the Open Opera Conference: Creative Resurgence. Today, I’d like to present the work that I was honored to be part of:

Presentation: OPERA America: Music and Memories (pilot project)

Zach Redler (composer/pianist) and I (creative drama/creative writing) were brought onto a grant funded project by Laura Day Giarolo, Director of Learning and Community Engagement  for OPERA America. Working in conjunction with Project Find in NYC, Zach and I were brought together  on creating an ensemble  musical experience, stemming from the life stories of our participants.

We discussed our program: at a senior center in the upper west side of NYC,  for sixteen (16) weeks, we were allotted an hour and a half, once a week, to meet with our group. In May, we had a culminating “work-in-progress” performance of songs and short personal story bites as performed by the elder group we had worked with.

What was lovely were the connections the group made with each other. In sharing their stories, both in small groups and large, they found commonalities: this was not a homogenous group in regards to nationalities, only in age group. New friendships grew out of the process. Many, if not all, were asking when we would be coming back, doing this again, continuing the work we started. That, to me, is the success. They were energetic, bright eyed and happy…and in the end, that should account for a lot.

The beginning sessions were split in half between music and storytelling/writing.

Zach introduced musical concepts and structure that served our performers well: he gave them not only rehearsal material, but strove to deepen the understanding of what was being created, how it all fit together, and how it can evolve. As the process continued, many of the participants continued to contribute, offering key or tempo changes that only strengthened the songs. Zach was gracious throughout, adding what worked and then building on it. During the rehearsals, Zach modified his conducting style for the comfort of the group, finding new ways to bring them all together when they were getting nervous as the performance date got closer.

Starting off with a story game the first week, we dove into writing personal stories the following week. From there, I introduced a Japanese poetry form, a Tanka, that I felt would help them self edit their stories to the story beats. A Tanka is where Haiku’s came from: a longer piece, it has five lines instead of three. In American English syllables, a Tanka form is 5-7-5-7-7. This was a challenge for some of the elders, but the majority worked well with it. By this point, we had them working in small groups; Zach would then take these works and, with the whole group, start creating the songs for our performance.

Zach’s musical safe environment to work was continued in what I did. Seeing that some judgements were being made of others in our first session, I introduced the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process, which I’ve used with just about every age group I’ve worked with. If you click on the link above, you’ll find the full details: you start off with positive affirmations (“I liked…”; “I appreciated…”), and the only thing the presenter/performer can say is “Thank you.” Other sharing critique is asked for or garnered, creating a very different form of peer level support and notes.  Critique is to help each other grow, not to tear someone down, and for the most part the members of the group were diligent in following these rules.

Time was our enemy in that we didn’t always get the full allotted time scheduled (due to other programs going on in the center) and in the way Zach and I planned out the program. We needed more rehearsal time then we thought we would, and I know I should have better time management in getting the stories to poetry. Hopefully we will get the chance to do this again and learn from it.

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In Part Four of Creative Aging and the Arts, I’ll be discussing the responses/reactions of the attendees from the full day seminar,  reactions from these posts that I have received, and ideas of where to go from here.

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ATTENTION:

I am available for consulting on Inter-Generational Program Development

as well as Project Management/Facilitation

Please contact me at:

stuart.nager at gmail dot com

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

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part 1)

National Center for Creative Aging

Lifetime Arts

OPERA America

Project FIND

Arts For Humanity

What is your first thought when someone mentions a Senior/Elder Center or Nursing Home?

Did you envision the elderly sitting around, doing little, just passing time until…? Did you see them as audience members at a performance, or just sitting around large round tables eating? Were they napping, or just gazing off into the distance,  seemingly not connected to their surroundings?

Hopefully those days will be behind us as a new awareness is sinking in. Actively engaging the growing elder community is key to the growing number of organizations that work with this population. Inter-generational programming (from the 50’s and up, as the baby boomers join the elder sector) is being spoken of across the United States in all areas of the arts.

I was invited to be a Guest Speaker for OPERA America‘s Creative Resurgence conference, speaking to those opera companies (from Canada and the US) whose education departments reach out now to the centers, nursing homes, group homes and special organizations that cater to the older adult. A number of them make partnerships with libraries as well, helping build connections in their communities.

I was asked to attend this conference due to my recently completed pilot project with a senior center in NYC. We had worked on creating a musical experience crafted from the personal stories of our participants. I will talk more about this in the next part of this series.

Ms. Susan Perlstein, an advocate for the creative aging movement, led the day with the credo “Embrace This Moment!” Ms. Perlstein is the Founder Emeritus for the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA). By the year 2030, it is anticipated that there will be over 70 million people over the age of 65, and that the number of those over 85 will double. There is also the chance that many will have to work, if possible, past what we normally determine as retirement age due to the economic realities we face.

There is evidence based research, as first conducted by The Research Center for Arts and Culture (RCAC) that has shown that interactive, participatory arts programs with the older person promotes a vitality in the aging process, helps to build vibrant communities, and has positive results in both the  physical and emotional states of the participants. Dr. Gene D. Cohen, the primary investigator of the research, stated that “Art is like chocolate to the brain.”

Entering into fairly new territory in the arts is exciting in the different challenges it gives to professional teaching artists and arts organizations. The methodology we’ve used for youth programs has to be modified, and in many cases whole new approaches have to be discovered for successful programs for those participating.  Understanding the various cognitive and physical changes that go on, and embracing the life history and stories that the elders bring with them are only the tip of what needs to be explored.

In Part 2, I will discuss more of my work in the field, and some observations from the conference attendees.

**************************************

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.

 

One Lovely Blog Award…Yes It Is

It was the 2012 Memorial Day Weekend, and I get a pleasant surprise: I have been honored TWICE with the One Lovely Blog Award, as passed on to me by Allan Douglas of Simple Life Prattle and The Write Stuff (and fellow Triberr buddy).

How could he bestow this upon  me twice? One is for here, Born Storyteller; the other is for my creative fiction blog, Tale Spinning.

The “rules” are simple:

1. Thank the person who awarded the award (Thank you Allan) and link back to their blogs: Click HERE and HERE
2. Tell SEVEN things about yourself that no one knows (but two blogs… 14.. but…14? TMI)
3. Pass on the award to (15) blogs you follow and like/admire/wish they were yours.
   1. I’ll do as many as I can.

So…

Seven Things :

1. I’ve lived on the East Coast of the USA all my life, but have visited more than half of the states now.
2. I read SciFi, Fantasy, Thrillers, Mysteries, and then the occasional other book. Existentialism, anyone?
3. I wish  the lyrics to John Lennon’s song  Imagine were achievable.
4. People find me unfocused in my field of interest (the arts); I find myself versatile.
5. I believe in ghosts, but not vampires and werewolves. Especially not shimmery vampires.
6. I like both cats and dogs; I do NOT like fish, as pets or otherwise.
7. I have never gone to a demolition derby or a monster truck thingy; I’d like to, at least once.

In no particular order, blogs I pass this along to, and you should give them a look/leave a comment (tell ’em I said Hi):

Woman Wielding Words

The Eagle’s Aerial Perspective

Ghost Cities

My Rivendell

ZenCherry

The View Outside

David Powers King

Cherie Reich-Author

No Wasted Ink

Sweepy Jean Explores the (Webby) World

Daily (W)Rite

Raising Amelie

Sonia Rumzi

A French Yummy Mummy in London

Rock the Kasbah

Dumb Down Your Resume? (Creative Job Search)

Is It Smart to Dumb Down Your Resume?

The New Resume: Dumb and Dumber

Pros and Cons of Dumbing Down a Resume

 

You’ve reached a certain level of achievements in your life, professionally and personally. Awards, schooling, life work, great reviews…and you still find yourself out of a job, for a variety of reasons: many of them not your fault.

Now add to all that some great, if not excellent, recommendation letters. Resume is up to date, all the relevant material is there. You know you have to adjust your resume to job requirements, and writing that cover letter that has all the right buzz words and terms from the job posting…

…and still no job. Many times, not even an interview, let alone even an acknowledgment they received your material. Follow ups are often met with the same silence.

I have heard too many times that I am over qualified for jobs I have applied for, the few times I am able to actually communicate with someone. We see things differently: obviously, I am looking to work, and my I feel my experience will only enable me to be great at the job, not just having to learn things but can bring my talents and skills for the benefit of all concerned; their viewpoint is (verbally told this) that I’ll be bored doing this work, or the ultimate fear of my just biding my time until I find the “right” job.I was told by one person that the job was so far “beneath someone of my caliber.”

I’d rather work in my field, in a “lesser” position, then not work at all. THAT is something they (human resources people) don’t seem to get.

I have two MAs and a ton of experience. Dumbing down my resume, to even just get that foot in the door, has come up a lot lately. I’m off to an interview for a job I am overqualified later this afternoon. It’s slightly to the side of what I’ve done for so many years. It’s definitely in the realm of “beneath my caliber.”

After this, I’m going to try the resume editing gambit: I’ll remove both Masters for a start. Then, we’ll pare it down even more, if that doesn’t work. I could take it all the way back to my first job: Chinese Restaurant buffet staff (I filled the smorgasbord dinner table after school and on weekends in High School).

Might get a ton of offers then.

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.