Readers of the Lost Arts

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Okay, I'll admit that this entry has a cheesy and almost nonsensical title, but I didn't want to say "Raiders of the Lost Arts" because, according to Dictionary.com, raider is "a person who seizes control of a company, as by secretly buying stock and gathering proxies." (Okay, that's definition #4, but in any case, raider is not an appropriate term for the atmosphere I want to create.) So, I am justifying my title choice by pointing out that my students are both literate andartistic, sometimes even in the same class (like today, but more on that later).

Sorry I haven't been writing too much, but classes have been busy, and I have been gathering materials to show all of you what's been happening. Basically, these past couple of weeks have been marked by the resurgence of the arts in my life (and the life of Shanti Bhavan). They (the arts) returned with a vengance, and I have to admit that at times they have already kicked me in the tush. This is what I've been training for, what I CAME for, and it's still proving to be more challenging than teaching English. But I think the rewards will be double-fold, too.

It started with the unsteady return of theatre classes. We had a couple before these past weeks, but International Day of the Girl-Child made it nearly impossible to keep a regular schedule. Originally, I wanted to have two groups: 8-12 grade and 4-7 grade. But the 8-12 graders didn't come, I think because they would be missing PT (the only time they get to play outside). And the 4-7 graders? It's a MASSIVE group of about fifty kids, so I split them up instead, but even twenty-five is hard to handle because my theatre class is scheduled right after their academic classes. I am flattered that they choose to do my theatre class, but the 4-5th graders especially lack focus at that time. A couple weeks back, we gained a new volunteer, Rebecca, who is also a theatre artist, and I immediately recruited her to help me because I had already held the first class (with all fifty students, heaven help me!) and knew that I needed support. It runs far more easily with her, and the kids are more responsive with two sets of eyes.

That said, here's what we're doing: I am really interested in exploring the basics of devised theatre with the students (a theatrical method of creating a performance that is used by the Children's Theatre Company Theatre Arts Training program quite a bit). We invited students to come in with folk-tales that they have heard and tell the folk-tale to the class. Then we broke into groups and during the next class put together small skits based on the folktales. The ultimate goal is to pick a folk-tale and bring everyone together to make the folk-tale come to life. Depending on the 6-7 graders' interest, we may then play around with the story, asking and answering questions onstage that are left unsaid in the text. I'm looking forward to creating a piece, and I hope that this may help them get beyond their various "blocks"--whether it's fear/derision of the opposite gender, or embarrassment, or lack of collaborative experience.

Choir, too, started these past couple of weeks. Cathy and Vinceya, two of the dedicated choir seniors, maintained the choir while there was no teacher. I'm not sure how long this teacher-less period was, but I get the feeling that they are grateful to relinquish the class to me. They are still wonderfully helpful--I am still struggling with non-11th and -12th grade names, and so they act as my extra eyes when it comes to keeping everyone on-task. This is very much appreciated, especially because I am asking a lot more of the students than they are used to. As far as I can tell, they have not done harmonies in years, if ever. So, I'm starting them on a simple Jay Althouse arrangement of "Homeward Bound" (not the Simon and Garfunkel, but similarly folksey) with two parts. It is slow-going, especially with only two 45-minute rehearsals a week, but they are starting to pick it up, which is exhilarating. I've also started to teach them solfege exercises, and soon hope to add warm-up songs with built-in harmonies (thirds and fifths). I've been told to start anticipating Christmas, so I'm thinking of buying them (with my remaining fundraised-money) "Carol of the Bells" or some other simple Christmas piece with enough copies for each of them to actually see the music. I also need to find something German, apparently, which is tradition for the Christmas party.

I'm also really excited to say that I will be starting an Advanced Choir this weekend, which will be exclusively for the 11th and 12th grade choir folks. AND I will be starting four private and two small-group lessons on the side. I cannot express how anxious but delighted I am to have this opportunity. Some of you, my readers, may have noted that I recently put up a Facebook status that said, "...Maybe I want to become a music teacher." Maybe it's just the "newness" of the experience, but I feel invigorated when I leave choir rehearsal, and I hope that my students are enjoying their little victories as much as I am. I was recently helping one of my choir students with her vocabulary in morning prep (which is basically study hall), and she came to the word "vivacious." She looked at me and as her homework dictated, put it into a sentence: "Miss Lynn is a vivacious teacher." In a situation where I can't really poll the people I am serving about my effectiveness, I am taking that as a sign that I'm doing alright.

I've tried to pull the arts into my classroom, too, and this week a lot of that effort came to fruition. You see, in English, I am teaching under the idea that there are three levels of literary analysis: Level one is the gut reaction; level two is the critical analysis, and; level three is applying the literature to the world. We have been working steadily through piece after piece at the first and second level, and today I introduced the third. For my 11th graders, this came while we were studying Walt Whitman's "I Sit and Look Out." Here is the text, for those of you who have never read the poem:

I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all
oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with
themselves, remorseful after deeds done;
I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying,
neglected, gaunt, desperate;
I see the wife misused by her husband--I see the treacherous seducer
of young women;
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be
hid--I see these sights on the earth;
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny--I see martyrs and
prisoners;
I observe a famine at sea--I observe the sailors casting lots who
shall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon
laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these--All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look
out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.

I was unsurprised but slightly disappointed by the anthology's choice of using this, of all of Whitman's poems. Sure, I'll admit that teaching the sensual "Song of Myself" would have been uncomfortable with my students (who titter when I ask if someone had fallen "in love" or "in lust"), but why does the alternative to sexuality always have to be painful and depressing pieces? My students agreed that they were sick of all these disheartening poems, and so we decided to re-write the poem, and "Please, with happy things" (as MK, one of my students, put it so eloquently). Each student wrote a line about what they see in their lives, and then we combined them. Of course, there was a disagreement regarding whether to show a progression from the negative to the positive or to intermingle the two, but we split the class according to preference (which actually turned out to be according to gender) and ended up with two beautiful pieces. Here is one, entitled "We Sit and Look Out," written by the four gentlemen of the class:





We sit and look out upon the bittersweet world of pain and sorrow overpowered by love;

We look at the outside world and see slavery and poverty;

We see a priest performing his rituals while a beggar sits right in front, begging people for money to live her life;

We witness gunshots in response to the voice fighting for a cause greater than our own;

We see a father playing with his children, forgetting his sorrow and troubles;

We hear laughter as the children are entertained by the things they love;

We see a small plant no bigger than a pinky become a big, undefeated tree;

We sit and observe a brother caring for a sister, showering love upon her;

We see the world changing for better or worse cause;

All these—All the nightmares and sweet dreams are the things that make up human life.



Have I mentioned recently how much I love and admire these young people?

In any case, after we completed our poem, we also had a brilliant period of comparing Whitman's piece to Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence." We must have listened to the song five or six times, and by the end we were all singing and creating venn diagrams and generally feeling very literary. And then I got to repeat the process with the 12th graders, but with a short story called "The Fly" and Mumford and Son's cover of "The Boxer."

All in all, a good day to end a good couple of weeks.



P.S. The video uploader is being difficult right now, but I do intend to upload a small snippet of drama class for your viewing pleasure.

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Photos

Theatre Games
A riotous game of "WAH!"

Choir
A fuzzy/dark picture, but here's the choir.