ESPrit de Corps

I’d heard about this amazing lecture from friends, but finally watched it myself.

I think it falls into the category of REQUIRED WATCHING.  It’s a little long, so let it down load.  It’s totally worth the wait!

As someone who has been a part of every Summer Seminar since 1998, I have some terrific memories from the past 11 summers.   As we build up to this year’s Seminar, the 13th annual, I’ll share a few of my most memorable moments.  I don’t want to monopolize the stroll down memory lane, of course, and I invite all former Summer Seminar attendees to share some of their memories as well.

Sarah Lawrence College, 1998: Playing a Merman

It was my first Summer Seminar, when I was working for the Roundabout Theatre Company’s education department.  Each day,  my teammates and I participated in a working group that included teams from Young Audiences of Western New York in Buffalo, and eba dance theatre in Albany.   The group was moderated by Carol Ponder (a Nashville-based Teaching Artist, who is returning to Summer Seminar this year) and a co-teacher from Nashville that Carol often worked with.

I developed some great professional friendships in that group, and one of my favorite memories relates to a creative activity we developed during the week.  In a small group, we were asked to devise a short play (I’m sure it was based on some pertinent theme, but I don’t remember what it was).  I do remember that the story revolved around a merman– as in male version of a mermaid (not a capital “M” merman, aka Ethel).  Being the only man in the group, I was quickly cast as this man from the sea, who was supposed to have a surfer dude approach to life.  I didn’t mind this obvious casting against type, nor did I have a problem with the ad-lib dialogue or even wearing a makeshift crown of metallic pipe cleaners.   I was a bit nervous about improvising a song, though, since it was a skill I’d never developed or even studied.

We had only a few minutes to prepare our presentation for the rest of the working group.  We might have run through the scene once, but it was hardly a full rehearsal.  When it was our group’s turn to share our mini-play, we all stood up on one side of the classroom.  In my pipe cleaner crown, I listened to my colleagues as they explained the background of the story and our location on a desserted beach.    As my fellow performers began singing back-up in a doo-wop style, I clutched my lyric sheet and made a mental leap of faith.   I tried singing the lyrics we had written, but I could tell that I wasn’t in sync with my other performers.  Then a CLICK happened– something in my mind or my soul or my heart just popped, as if to say to me, “Go with it, Phil!  Let go of your fear.”

I started to listen to the other singers again, but I now was listening for more than the tempo or the key.  I because attuned to the style, to the emotional mood of the music, which was about having fun and being relaxed.  Once I was able to “hear” the music’s style and mood, I instantly relaxed into the character and found myself improvising in a way that surprised me.  Not only was I able to stay within the rhythm better, but I was now singing with gusto and character.   Musically, I transformed myself into a beach dude with an enchanting personality.  When I finished my short section, my fiends and colleagues applauded and laughed.  They might have been appreciating the humor I added in my performance, but I like to think they were acknowledging the risk I took.  I was smiling broadly, because I knew that I was able to take that risk because of the support and confidence of my friends and colleagues.  Since 1998, I’ve come to understand that one of the things that makes Summer Seminar unique is the tremendous support we get from, and give to, one another.

Actually, with my sense of confidence and joy of the expressive qualities of music, maybe I was performing like a capital-”M” Merman!

Yes, it’s true.  The arts are helpful, wonderful, useful, and productive!

Below are two recent blog posts to serve as a bright spot amid the depressing headlines.

*  A Missing Piece in the Economic Stimulus: Hobbling Arts Hobbles Innovation

* Liz Lerman, who spoke at Summer Seminar 2004 offers  A Proposed Job Swatch to Save American  Capitalism

Enjoy!

[Anne Rhodes responded to recent posts on the Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century]

I would like to focus on one area that came up again and again in the Summer Seminar conversations: Many things changing very rapidly.
Here are some of the notes from those conversations:
Speed of change is increasing. We see exponential growth and change in many areas – quickly developing technology, information overload, rapidly growing population, threats to the environment that are escalating. The magnitude of the problems is increasing.
New situations and issues are presenting themselves and demanding attention, such as new diseases, and viruses spreading globally, or banks failing and taking the economy down with them.
There is a lot of movement, motion, and change; there are too many choices. The path out of these messes is not clear.

I am thinking that our young people face a danger (as do we!) of feeling overwhelmed, out of control, of being immobilized by the sheer size and number of problems, or immobilized by fear of what will happen if these problems are not addressed. What do young people need in order to be better prepared to cope?

I think one of the first things they need is the ability to deal with the unknown. To do that they need to be able to keep one’s equilibrium in a situation that is unfamiliar, complex, challenging. They will need a stable, core sense of self; a center that is secure. And they need to know how to take care of themselves to maintain this.

What can we do in the classroom that can foster these qualities? What kinds of experiences help foster these strengths? How can we teach to maximize this in young people?

**Click here to download a summary from Summer Seminar ’08 conversations about the world our students will be facing.

Hello friends and colleagues!

We are now ready to launch this discussion / inquiry / wondering about how best to help our young people prepare for the challenges they will face as this century unfolds. 

I have in mind three broad questions for us to wrestle with, and they are about defining the world we will face, defining what young people will need in order to cope with it, and identifying how and what we need to be teaching to help them be prepared.

I am excited to be thinking about this with you!  And we have a lot of other folks in many different realms who are wrestling with these same questions.  So I hope we can express our own thinking here as well as bring in any other relevant voices.  I will also share the thoughts of people at several workshops on this topic, including two at the last ESP Summer Seminar.

So here is the first question, and I welcome your thoughts:

What are the challenges of the 21st century world that we know, assume, or can guess that our young people will be facing?  What will their world be like?

This past week Phil and I attended an Americans for the Arts webinar called The Qualities of Quality:  Excellence in Arts Education and How to Achieve it, presented by Steve Seidel.  (You can download the Executive Summary here.)  An interesting part of the research findings that Seidel described was that among the people surveyed, quality was very often defined by personal experiences.

Following the webinar, Phil asked me to define quality for myself and I’ve shared my answer below.

How do YOU define quality?
Your answer should apply to all of the following: an artistic experience, an educational experience, a work environment,  a holiday party during a season for which you feel some degree of ambivalence [I don’t know what Phil is referring to here].

I think quality is essentially dependent on personal satisfaction or the ability to guide others to find satisfaction.  For me, a process or experience to be of the highest quality has to include the following characteristics:

-  Relates to the world outside of where the experience is occurring (bigger picture)
-  Allows for self-directed thinking, room for interpretation
-  Utilizes a personal body of knowledge/personal expertise/honors previous experiences
-  Privileges process over outcome
-  Process is evident in the outcome
-  Process welcomes multiple outcomes
-  The outcome shows growth/learning/care but is not stuffy/elitist/exclusionary
-  Promotes interaction and perhaps a sense of community
-  Is authentic in terms of language, materials, hors d’oeuvres
-  Is engaging/interesting/exciting to people with lots of experience in a particular area and also to people who have no previous knowledge of a particular area
-  You can dance to it

So now it’s your turn!  How do you define quality for yourself and/or in your work?

When I need an escape from another reminder that the nation is indeed in a recession, this week I’ve been finding a wealth of discussions on the internet that remind me of the power and complexity of the arts-in-education field.  Some of the discourse is (politely) contentious, but I see contradiction as another opportunity for inspiration.  Do you agree?

First off, I was very tickled to find  a NewYorker article about an event that looked at the intersection of biology and jazz, hosted in an art museum (none other than the Guggenheim Museum, which does indeed have an ESP partnership).

The Association of Teaching Artist is hosting a blog-dialogue (”blogalogue”?) about the nature of what it means to be a Teaching Artist (if indeed, that is the most appropriate title). Full disclosure: I’m a member of ATA’s board, but I receive absolutely NO REMUNERATION for mentioning this event (so read it all you want– I won’t get an extra penny).

Arts Journal is also hosting a Debate on Arts Education, featuring many national experts, several with ESP credentials like Eric Booth and Jane Remer.   The discussion began yesterday, and continues through this week.  Many different topics have come to the fore, and several important challenges have been articulated.  I’m not sure if the esteemed group will arrive at a solution of some sort, but I think it’s important for anyone in our field to have a good grasp of some of the key concepts shaping our work.

The primary sponsor of the Debate on Arts Education blog is the Wallace Foundation, which is sharing its recently published Rand-report “Cultivating Demand for the Arts.”  While the report is not without its critics (see the Arts Journal blog, above), any report produced by Rand is something that people will be responding to.

I’ve been commenting on the Arts Journal site already, but if I’m able to synthesize some ideas from the different on-line resources, I’ll be sure to post them here.

Do you have any thoughts about the current state of arts-in-education or what it means to be a teaching artist?  Are your ideas changing at all due to the current recesssion?

At least we’re rich with ideas, right!

Cheers,

Phil

Yes, I really do read books!  My blog title refers to the fact that I’m choosing to recommend two books that I haven’t read yet– books recommended by colleagues that sound very interesting and useful for arts educators.

Livia Vanaver, of Vanaver Caravan and a co-coordinator of the Hudson Valley/Capitol Region RLLN, told me about Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.”  She read a short passage about how exercise, including dance, can stimulate learning and improve memory retention.  This makes a lot of sense to me: active body can help with active brain.

Here’s a blurb from the author’s website: “SPARK is a groundbreaking exploration of the connection between exercise and the brain’s performance that shows how even moderate exercise will supercharge mental circuits to beat stress, sharpen thinking, enhance memory, and much more. SPARK will change forever the way you think about your morning run—or, for that matter, simply the way you think.”

The second book recommendation comes from Jack Langerak, who has several titles including retired teacher, co-coordinator of the Western NY RLLN, and President of the Board of Partners for Arts Education.   Jack’s been reading Dennis Littky’s book, The Big Picture,  as part of one of his other projects, and he told me that the book explained the ideas of whole-school reform in a very accessible and understandable fashion.

Here’s a blurb from the author’s website: “Dennis Littky explains the principles and rationale of a model for schooling that gives students what they need most. Discover how a philosophy of personalized learning–one student at a time–is the key to creating schools where motivated students are engaged in a meaningful curriculum, and academic progress is measured against real-world standards.”

Have you read these books?  Other books by the same authors?  Other books by other authors– that you find particularly powerful for people in the field of arts-in-education? Please, let me know about them!

Cheers,

Phil

NYSCA is posting streaming video of Council meetings online!  You can view a selection of archived videos here.  If you’re interested in seeing the Council meeting regarding funding of Empire State Partnerships click here. 

Also, the ESP website has put up videos of Mel Chin’s Keynote Address at Summer Seminar as well as videos from student performances that took place at C.W. Post.  Click here to view the Keynote Address and other images of gatherings at Summer Seminar and here to view student performances as well as images of the student and educator art exhibition.

How are you exploring the topic of Habits of Mind?

Which Creativity Lab and Workshops are you taking and way?

What questions about Habits of Mind do you have?

What do you hope to learn about Habits of Mind?