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Teaching.
Teaching Philosophy.
Learning is a “full person” endeavor. Certainly it is an intellectual pursuit that thrives on rigorous challenges. Intellectual rigor, however, is a house built on a foundation of socioemotional understanding and support.
I, therefore, always try to approach my teaching from a place of joy. Sometimes that does mean the joy that comes from intellectual pursuits. Sometimes it comes from acknowledging as a class the way that a particular activity is making us feel foolish (lots of theatre exercises involve rhythmic clapping or unfamiliar vocalizing). Sometimes it comes in the form of me pointing out an oversight I’ve made with a self-deprecating comment. Sometimes it comes in the form of acknowledging circumstances that make joy difficult to find and providing a forum for expressing those thoughts and feelings.
Neurologists tell us that in high stress situations, the amygdala can hijack the brain’s ability to process and prioritize input rationally. Instead, it crashes into red alert mode and loudly insists that we address a single piece of input RIGHT NOW. We’re primed for this to be the case in school by our experiences outside of it. Most of the messaging we all receive on a regular basis in our daily lives aims at using this instinctive fear response to manipulate us. A significant portion of advertising, for example, boils down to “If you don’t buy this product / vote for this candidate / try this diet, you will be undesirable to others.” There have been studies on the impact of existing in this “fight or flight” mode for extended periods of time. Spoiler: it’s not good for us.
So, what calms down the amygdala and allows us to properly contextualize our emotions, simultaneously creating the ideal circumstances for the brain to think critically and integrate new information (aka lean)?
Play. And what discipline uses play better than any other? Theatre.
Viola Spolin talks about the personal and educational benefits of play in Improvisation for the Theater and Theater Games for the Classroom. Augusto Boal talks about mitigating the “cop in the head” in Theatre of the Oppressed. Theatre, in addition to being a worthy and laudable component of core curriculum, is a discipline rooted in mimetic presentation of narrative—what we used to call “make believe” before getting master’s degrees.
I, therefore, always try to approach my teaching from a place of joy. Sometimes that does mean the joy that comes from intellectual pursuits. Sometimes it comes from acknowledging as a class the way that a particular activity is making us feel foolish (lots of theatre exercises involve rhythmic clapping or unfamiliar vocalizing). Sometimes it comes in the form of me pointing out an oversight I’ve made with a self-deprecating comment. Sometimes it comes in the form of acknowledging circumstances that make joy difficult to find and providing a forum for expressing those thoughts and feelings.
Neurologists tell us that in high stress situations, the amygdala can hijack the brain’s ability to process and prioritize input rationally. Instead, it crashes into red alert mode and loudly insists that we address a single piece of input RIGHT NOW. We’re primed for this to be the case in school by our experiences outside of it. Most of the messaging we all receive on a regular basis in our daily lives aims at using this instinctive fear response to manipulate us. A significant portion of advertising, for example, boils down to “If you don’t buy this product / vote for this candidate / try this diet, you will be undesirable to others.” There have been studies on the impact of existing in this “fight or flight” mode for extended periods of time. Spoiler: it’s not good for us.
So, what calms down the amygdala and allows us to properly contextualize our emotions, simultaneously creating the ideal circumstances for the brain to think critically and integrate new information (aka lean)?
Play. And what discipline uses play better than any other? Theatre.
Viola Spolin talks about the personal and educational benefits of play in Improvisation for the Theater and Theater Games for the Classroom. Augusto Boal talks about mitigating the “cop in the head” in Theatre of the Oppressed. Theatre, in addition to being a worthy and laudable component of core curriculum, is a discipline rooted in mimetic presentation of narrative—what we used to call “make believe” before getting master’s degrees.
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