“We started to treat the arts program like we treat all the other departments that matter in our school.” That’s what Rose Greco, literacy coach, for MS 223 in New York City says about the reason for the success of the School Arts Support Initiative (SASI) in her school. An article in the February 2011 issue of Middle Ground (the National Middle School Association‘s practitioners’ magazine) features a different kind of educational program. In 2008 the Center for Arts Education launched, “a multiyear research project in four New York City middle schools that provided little or no arts education.” The program began having immediate results. According to the article, “The impact was apparent in improved student attendance and social behaviors. Results on local and standardized tests showed greater overall proficiency. The culture of each school began to change. Faculty members, administrators, and visiting artists noticed the changes… Attendance has improved dramatically… English Language Arts scores improved despite less time devoted to test preparation… Suspensions declined. Students have also acquired artistic skills that have increased their likelihood of being accepted to arts-focused high schools.” In this video from MS 223, staff members reveal the reasons they believe the program works:
Gamers are the Fastest Learners
Dr. James Gee has some provocative things to say about the way learning is changing. This is a trailer for a longer documentary on the subject of gaming and experiential learning. I am fascinated with the subject as all arts teachers might be. Arts is experiential by its nature. You don’t have to play video games to have the experience of learning through experimentation or “leveling up”. As a result of its ubiquity, gaming happens to be the model used in several studies. This style of learning happens outside the gaming world all the time and it proves what creative instructors have known all along: social interaction, a positive culture of failure, assessment through “leveling up”, and experimentation all have a hugely favorable impact on learning. Enjoy the video!
http://www-tc.pbs.org/video/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf
Watch the full episode. See more Digital Media – New Learners Of The 21st Century.
Methods don’t matter.
I really enjoyed reading this post. The blogger describes the difference between the traditional transmission model of learning and the transactional model espoused by literary scholar Louise Rosenblatt. I think you’ll appreciate the blogger’s thoughts on why relationships are important in education. Enjoy!
With Desire, Nearly Anything is Teachable
Until 1980 when he died, Bill Evans was one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the modal style. I used to pretend to be into jazz in college but only recently (and I’ve been out of college a long time) have I really been able to appreciate the improvisational styles of the 1960’s and early 70’s. There were a couple of styles from that period that competed for attention and they are referred to as free jazz and modal style. Evans’ influence is still felt among young composers in the modal style. Evans seemed really interested in teaching young musicians as well as allowing them to discover their styles independently. He also had some things to say about self-teaching after he graduated from college with a teaching degree in 1950. In a 1966 interview with his brother Harry Evans from the television program, “The Universal Mind of Bill Evans”, he described his growth as a musician, “I don’t consider myself as talented as many people, but in some ways that was an advantage… I didn’t have a great facility immediately and in a way it forced me to build something.”
Compare Evans’ statement to the fantastic story of the sudden savant, Derek Amato who suffered a brain injury after diving into a swimming pool to catch a football. Derek recently visited the Mayo Clinic to film a Discovery special concerning his sudden ability to play the piano. According to Derek, before his accident he had “never even touched a piano.” In contrast to Bill Evans, Amato says of his own experience, “I still can’t read music or tell you where the notes are. All I know is the black keys are flat. I don’t even know what I’m going to play each time I sit down… but since my accident, the notes just pour out of me.” Amato can’t seem to stay away from pianos. From the moment he touched one after his accident he could not stop. He plays for hours at a time because now his desire is so great. Although he doesn’t read music, he composes intricate pieces on the fly and plays by ear. It’s as though what he is experiencing is an end run around the conscious brain to the unconscious mind where style and substance meet.
Bill Evans referred to this as a universal mind. Evans discussed the need for intense musical study in order to free the mind to go where it can create freely. “I believe that all people are in possession of what might be called a universal musical mind. Any true music speaks with this universal mind to the universal mind in all people.”
Evans’ theory is similar to what Stephen Nachmanovitch has to say in his book on creativity titled Saving the Cat in one way: They both believe artists are especially adept at tapping a part of the mind where creativity lies. Nachmanovitch makes the case that the spark of creativity comes first and can be followed by intense study of the medium, “The important thing is to start someplace, anyplace. Then we can play with, refine, elaborate the original statement until it pleases us. Before the dance of inspiration and perspiration can begin, there must be some raw material, some spark of inciting energy.” Although both believe in allowing the language of creativity to lead the way, Evans suggests the intense study of technique must precede the creative event while Nachmanovitch believes the creative event must inspire the desire to study artistic technique. I tend to lean toward Nachmanovitch’s theory but at some point the two, technique and creative expression, begin to tumble downhill one over the other, picking up speed until together the two take flight as one creative event. Technique informs expression which inspires the artist to hone his technique.
In Amato’s case of sudden savantism, his expression has inspired him to begin to study song structure, music theory and technique. But his condition allows him to create endless amazing compositions without knowing anything at all about music. He creates freely without the hindrance of a lack of skill. For the rest of us though, there seem to be two pathways for creative expression: to have a germ of an idea and pursue it passionately, learning the medium as you go or to imagine a desired outcome and learn the medium necessary to achieve the vision. Ultimately, it will occur as a holistic experience. In fact it might be difficult to determine where one approach ends and another begins. In fact, the immersion in the creative pursuit makes the division unnecessary. It really doesn’t matter how you do your art when you’re in your element. The same artist may approach different projects in different ways. It’s the joy of creation that ultimately informs the effort. The freedom an artist experiences makes her want to continue to pursue the art. Although their styles and approaches to music are different, Bill Evans and Derek Amato have in common their creative freedom and desire. And as a teacher I have learned my most useful tool is a student’s desire. With desire, nearly anything is teachable.
Good Teacher Gone Bad
I am recommending an entry I read today on Huffington Post. I am totally on board with the Timothy D. Slekar. As both a parent and a teacher I understand the frustration of teachers who have the life and learning sucked out of their classes. It’s no fun to teach uninspiring material. Many teachers were drawn to the profession not for their love of the status quo but for the excitement of the Aha Moment! If we have that taken away, both teachers and students will burn out and on a large enough scale this can lead to more sinister outcomes. Thanks for your post. DEEP BREATH and… BLOG!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Honest Fiction
All culture is based on stories both true and fictional. No group’s history is without its perspective. But perspective can be skewed for a variety of reasons. Skewed or not, the telling should be honest. As artists, we are taught that our stories don’t have to be factual to be honest. By honest I mean the moment of creative expression is genuine even if the artist is fictionalizing an event. Children are the best examples of this honest expression. They often tell meandering stories with no obvious point. But they tell their stories with so much passion using the tools available, there is no doubt they are being completely honest in their expression.
Artists have a responsibility to tell stories with childlike honesty. Artists can use this to powerfully influence whole societies. Their stories can have greater influence than anyone else’s including generals, politicians and scientists. That is not to say that those fields do not have their fair share of story tellers. Politicians are especially adept at telling powerful stories that move populations. People in all fields from medicine to garbage collecting have the potential to contribute to cultural stories. But of the artist, it is expected.
Storytelling is the primary role of the artist. Interpreting events and expressing ideas in relation to her environment, exploring other environments, fictional and factual; these are the responsibilities of the artist. But what is the value of story telling? Story telling provides perspective. It organizes our jumbled culture into a cohesive whole. There is an old Norwegian saying (I know because I Googled it), “It is the duty of the present to convey the voices of the past to the ears of the future.” The ears of the future depend on us to be as honest as we are able to be.
Four Rules of Failure
I am a huge fan of failure. I believe there’s no better instructional tool than a solid F. The reason I do not support grades as a teaching tool is because we have trained our students to view an F as something to be avoided. As a result of this pseudo achievement culture, we have created generations of scaredy-cats. Fear of failure makes students dishonest. They cheat on tests, allow their parents to do their homework and make themselves sick with stress.
Don’t misunderstand. I am all about achievement. I want my students to push past their limits. The only way I see to really break through is to be willing to fail, and fail extravagantly. Here are my top four classroom strategies to support student failure and discovery:
Guide your students by telling them the result you expect but not how they should get there:
As a drama teacher I spend some time having my students learn to read a script. Giving a line reading is when a director speaks the line for the actor with the preferred inflection. People do this all the time. It’s faster than having the actor work through the process of understanding. But it has no more value for professional actors than it does in educational settings. Giving a line reading keeps actors from owning the lines. There is no discovery, no depth of understanding, no honest expression that happens when you are simply mimicking your director. It works against the objective of telling a captivating story. If you give your students a short rubric of expectations including the things you need to see as an instructor and then let them create out of their own experience, the result can be breathtaking.
I know, I know; what about the student who can’t do a project if they have to come up with too much of it on their own? I have said many times that teaching middle school is a cross between herding cats and pushing chains. They either bounce around like a high points pinball or lie there like a lump of lead. That’s why I have three more strategies.
Ask a lot of open-ended questions without a “right” answer in mind. Listen to their answers and be prepared to learn from them.
This is one of my favorite strategies. It turns students into teachers and vice versa. When I ask a question in class, my students know by this point in the school year that I am game for anything that comes out of their mouths. Even the inappropriate stuff can provide opportunities for learning appropriate social behavior. The trick is never make them wrong. “What if they are wrong?” You say. There is no wrong way to learn. If your math student gives the wrong answer, it is an opening to look at how he got there and is there another way? I know several math teachers who are brilliant guides in the world of numbers. Rather than hearing “nope” when an answer doesn’t solve the problem, students hear phrases such as, “let’s look at that”, or “let’s think about how you got there and see if you can modify your approach.” The word “wrong” never shows up in the classroom. It’s only the learning process that gets the focus, not the failure. If we take away the stigma attached to failure, we will have an educational revolution on our hands.
The second part of this strategy has to do with keeping the teacher engaged. On days when I don’t have a 5-Hour Energy drink handy I have to work extra hard at listening. But as soon as I let go of listening for a “right” answer, my students tend to rock my world. If what they say becomes valuable to me not as their teacher but as another human being, I will walk away from the exchange a richer person. Kids say amazing stuff to me every day. I have a group of 4th grade students who enter my class without preconception. They know that what they imagine is only the beginning and I am willing to listen to their ideas even if it means inviting them to elaborate. “But there’s no time for this fiddle-faddle” you say. There are ways to make this sharing of ideas more efficient, and it is vital to their learning. Break them into small groups and allow them to share ideas with each other, put a time limit at the beginning of class on all shares, give them a prompt and have them write in a journal for a few minutes at the beginning of class. Most importantly listen to your students rather than the conversation in your head that tends to provide the running commentary.
Push them to their point of failure and beyond but lightly and with a sense of fun.
When first confronted with the idea of pushing to fail, students will often react with a confused expression. This was my experience as an adult when I was working with a trainer. She had me attempting to lift weights that were just outside my ability to complete a set. I remember that she would say, “push to the point of failure.” Why not “push to success?” Because lifting weights that are too light for you to fail means you will experience little or no muscle growth. The same is true of our brains. If we already know we can succeed, what’s the point? Isn’t it more exciting to try something that has an air of possible failure? For kids who treat school as if getting good grades is the objective (not so far-fetched), the only danger is burn out or boredom. If you put classroom focus on the grade, learning will move at an unendurably slow pace.
It’s possible to become too serious about pushing your students to their point of failure. Failing for fun means you attach no significance to the failure, only to the learning. When the focus is on the learning, the grade loses its power. Some might say this is a bad thing. The grade is a motivator. But when the grades fade into the background, the motivation changes. The motivator becomes curiosity, or discovery or the challenge of mastery; all of which trump the motivation of a letter grade. Make the challenges interesting, add a failure component, and success becomes sweeter and more lasting.
Give plenty of opportunities for them to choose to trash a creation. Students should become accustomed to the idea that anything they create is able to be re-created even better. There’s always more where that came from!
In the last decade there was a Doritos commercial that stated, “Crunch all you want. We’ll make more.” If we could approach ideas with this same mentality, the willingness to let go of the preciousness of a thought or a project or a paper would be liberating. It would increase a student’s desire to write a 2nd or 3rd or 4th draft, look over the answers more completely and start over again without any tears. We have to learn how to improve with gusto if we want to learn and grow.
I have been sewing since 7th grade when Mrs. Hulsey gave me a C in Home Ec because my stitches were so sloppy. I know I really hate it when I sew and I realize I have sewn the wrong sides of a garment together. I have to take out the stitches, read the instructions and try again. Inevitably, I learn what to notice and I hardly ever make this mistake anymore. But it took a few badly sewn items to learn this lesson. Interestingly, not only am I better at avoiding this mistake, the care I take while avoiding the error keeps my stitches from looking sloppy. Even though your students may balk at first, don’t be afraid to challenge them to do it again. And, as always, keep it light.
Humor and a friendly attitude will keep a frustrated learner from going ballistic. As teachers we have the responsibility to challenge our students to take the work seriously without taking themselves too seriously. Guide, listen, push and encourage them to try again… with a smile.
Hungry for Ideas
What education in general has been saying to our students is: “You’re here to learn about your culture but not impact it.” But the progressive educator is saying to his students, “Go out and make a statement, make a difference, interpret, inspire and elucidate!” The mentor is all about inspiring his students to make an impact. Albert Einstein once said, “I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”
One of the assumptions of the past is that the more knowledge we collect, the more educated we are. This is a form of education but, unless students draw conclusions and really think about and link these bits and bobs of information found on tests, there is no real learning. Despite the fear mongering concerning our students’ test performance, there is, and always has been, a basic human hunger for learning. This is most evident in the meteoric rise in popularity of TEDtalks.
If you haven’t seen a TEDtalk yet, I invite you to take a look at one of the more than 700 15-20 minute talks on every subject imaginable. It is very likely that you will find more than one TEDtalk to feed your brain. I treat these nuggets of delicious learning like mind candy. You shouldn’t view too many in a row, they are so rich with information, your system might get overstimulated. But one a day or a couple a week; this is good for your soul. I recently viewed a TEDtalk by TED Media Director, June Cohen. In her presentation she notes, “In the last 4 years TED has put 700 talks online for free and these talks have been viewed 300 million times.” This really speaks to the hunger we have for good ideas.
If life was only a fact-collecting expedition we would lose interest before we hit puberty. We are hungry, but not for facts. We are hungry for ideas. Because TEDtalks are a forum for the spread of ideas, in 2006 TEDtalks went online free of charge. The single stated goal was “to spread ideas.” On the website there is a list clarifying this goal:
* An idea can be created out of nothing except an inspired imagination.
* An idea weighs nothing.
* It can be transferred across the world at the speed of light for virtually zero cost.
* And yet an idea, when received by a prepared mind, can have extraordinary impact.
* It can reshape that mind’s view of the world.
* It can dramatically alter the behavior of the mind’s owner.
* It can cause the mind to pass on the idea to others.
The goal of the foundation is to foster the spread of great ideas… Core to this goal is a belief that there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea.”
This interest in ideas gets at the core of being human, alive and on the planet. What is the purpose of education? Currently, it is an institution based on a cultural-economic model whose time has come and gone, yet we cling to this format as though we are waiting for Godot. Unlike libraries, schools often point to a small collection of core knowledge and tell the student to “memorize that”. While I believe in mentoring and providing educational focus, I also think schools are not the last word in learning.
Learning happens wherever there is an open mind. Take, for instance, libraries, those repositories of learning where a person can choose independently what to learn. Anyone from anywhere can walk into a public library and take a book off any shelf and read it. Before the Internet, this was our main public access to ideas. Providing public access to ideas sometimes creates anxiety for people in power. Recent troubles for Google in China illustrate this still exists. Fear of public access to ideas did not start with Google, however.
David Greene of National Public Radio tells the story of an age before libraries were common: “There was a time in Britain, say 160 years ago, when some in Parliament didn’t believe in public libraries at all. The worry was, if the working class read books, it would get dangerous ideas and rise up against the government.” This dire prediction, of course, never came to pass. People want access to learning for reasons that supersede politics, domestic life and work. People want access to ideas in order to grow.
Albert Einstein had quite a lot to say about education and learning. His opinions may be based on the fact that his grades in school were so poor that a teacher told him he would never amount to much and he dropped out of school at age 15. He later said, “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” There are so many examples of great thinkers being told by their teachers they would fail. The very people at the heart of the education institution have misidentified some of the greatest minds in history. Isaac Newton faired poorly in grade school and also failed at running the family farm. Ludwig van Beethoven’s music teacher once said, “As a composer, he is hopeless.” As a child Thomas Edison’s teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade. It seems obvious to us in hind site these teachers were mistaken. They noticed a child thinking differently and labeled the child as “wrong thinking”. We are so often quick to judge the flexible mind. It is, somehow, easier to call a child ‘slow’ when they might be thinking so fast we are unable to keep up with them. Let’s encourage these crazy ideas and look for ways to make our teaching relevant. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Race to Nowhere
At my school’s professional day this morning, the entire faculty from pre-K through 12th grade, watched the movie: Race to Nowhere, a Reel Link Film by concerned parent and filmmaker Vicki Abeles. I felt very fortunate that my school administration thought it was important enough to create a mandatory faculty viewing time for what I think is a crucial message. The theme of the film is: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture. It would be a challenge at best to recreate the film’s impact in a blog so I encourage anyone interested in knowing more about what this achievement culture is doing to our nation to see the film. There is a link in my blogroll that will take you to the film’s website.
Watching the movie reinforced an impression I already had: We should absolutely encourage our children to achieve great things, but we may not know the recipe for achievement anymore. Our children will not succeed in their future using models from our past. Future generations will be faced with the challenges of a very different economic engine. We are no longer a production-oriented society. Yet we perpetuate a factory-based education model. So much depends on young people being able to make decisions about events we cannot imagine.
Our national emphasis on tests, standardization and information regurgitation means we are not educating for creativity and problem solving skills. Maybe we never were. This lack of a creativity teaching model means we are flying blind when it comes to emphasizing the skills they will actually need to survive, let alone thrive. Of course, because I am an arts teacher (or maybe I am an arts teacher because of this) I believe the model for arts education is as close to ‘educating for the future’ as we have available in the current system. Right-brain thinking, self-expression, large motor movement and non-verbal communication are all part of the arts experience. One student interviewed in the movie makes the point, “There’s no standardized test for art or different ideas.” One activity rarely associated with arts classes, other than practicing an instrument, is homework.
In Sara Bennett’s book, The Case Against Homework, she cites Duke Professor Harris Cooper’s Review of Educational Research (2006) that looks at over 180 studies considering the correlation between homework and achievement and notes, “too much homework may diminish its effectiveness or even become counterproductive.” She further points out, “Many countries with the highest scoring students on achievement tests… have teachers who assign little homework.” Conversely, “countries… where students have some of the worst average scores, have teachers who assign a lot of homework.” There is, however, a basic flaw even in this line of reasoning. The achievement review is based on success in testing. Testing is given so much power over how children are educated as to make any other teaching values pale in comparison. The move toward portfolios and non-graded classes may be going the right direction but it is difficult to know when the assessments seem like comparing apples to kumquats or when there are no standard assessment tools.
If the goal of secondary education is college preparation or even preparation for the workplace, it seems that teaching to the standards of these institutions is appropriate. But with students spending the bulk of their waking hours in school, there is little time left for kids to address the more basic quality of life issues. The reason we want good educations is to get good jobs that lead to good lives. But what if a good life can be had without spending a king’s ransom? We have collapsed money-making with improved quality of life. Once you make enough to pay the bills, the two really don’t have much in common. Time with loved ones, good health, pursuits involving self-expression, being part of a community; these things can be had without spending any money and they provide the foundation for happiness. In our current direction we spend family time in the car on the way to other activities. Playtime is squeezed in or lost altogether. And sleep, what some researchers believe is the most vital adolescent activity is, at best, inadequate. We are teaching our children we value something other than a great quality of life.
As a parent in the movie points out, “People get caught up in this race to nowhere.” Students interviewed in the film confirm what we think might be true, “How are you expected to do well when you can’t even make mistakes?” Another student admits, “I stopped trying because if you don’t try you can’t fail.” Rather than sounding absurd, this student’s comment resonates for many teachers as we see it repeated in the classroom. A child who struggles with the expectations of the adults in his life will either rise to the expectation or give up. In some cases, “giving up” will look like “getting by”. A student who is resigned about his ability to succeed might be performing at an average level that gets him under the radar of parents and teachers.
Films such as Race to Nowhere bring this issue to light. Rather than provide a solution, it gives us a springboard for conversation. The sooner this conversation becomes a priority, the sooner we will be able to make a difference in the lives of all children and eventually, the world.
A Dinner Party with Sir Ken
Lately I’ve been crazy for anything Sir Ken Robinson has to say. I’m reading The Element, his book subtitled, How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. Although it’s a very different kind of writing, the title reminds me of my book, From Martyr to Mentor: Creating Passion From Within (available at Amazon.com be sure and click on the link in the blogroll on the right sidebar to order your copy today!) Sir Ken focuses on the ways in which our education systems do not serve our most vital needs of creativity and self-expression. He does this while celebrating the great creators of our century who overcame or, more appropriately, circumvented traditional education because their need to express was so great.
I find myself pushing my students to dig a little to discover what it is they need to say. If we don’t address the needs of those children unable to find the hidden routes to self-expression, we doom them to a life of frustration and ultimately, resignation. As Sir Ken notes in one of his TED talks (look for links on the right sidebar blogroll) “We are educating people out of their creative capacities.” He makes some very compelling arguments about the way children have creativity squeezed out to make room for testing and assessment. “We don’t grow into creativity, we are educated out of it.” This resonates powerfully with me as an arts teacher. There are some compelling reasons education has evolved (or devolved) into its current iteration: Ease of assessment, social discipline, classroom management, standardization. This is what some have called factory learning. We say that in order to do more we would need more money, more teachers, more stuff. This is a myth. What we need is a new mindset; something so far from our indoctrinated way of thinking about education that many teachers and administrators cannot even imagine it.
It’s clear that individuality is not embraced or even encouraged. It might even be a hindrance to social success for kids who are not self-possessed. It will take an army of thinkers such as Sir Ken to move us toward a new way of thinking. But one person crying in the wilderness can definitely pave the way. We have at least a dinner party’s worth of people who are dedicating their careers to making this difference in education. I think my perfect dinner party would have to include Sir Ken. It would also include my friend Suzy Griffin with whom I am writing a book about arts education. She says, “What education in general has been saying to our students is: “We’re here to learn about our culture but not impact it.”” This thought strikes me as particularly on point. We are keeping kids mired in creative expressions of the past rather than using these examples as a springboard for the future. It’s useful to study our past but not at the expense of bright minds and that is exactly what education has been doing. We are afraid to trust the ideas of new generations forcing them to take their ideas outside the system. What if they do it wrong and mess things up? After all, this is the way we’ve always done it. As Sir Ken notes in The Element, “This stratified, one-size-fits-all approach to education marginalizes all of those who do not take naturally to learning this way.” Considering how things are going, the way we’ve always done it is due for an overhaul.
SallyPAL 