MAIN STREAM EDUCATION
Main stream education is set in a hierarchical power structure, starting with the federal government and the state, working down to the superintendent and the board, working down to the principal and assistants, down to the teachers and aides, down to the students. At each and every step, one has a set limit of power over others. At no place is there egalitarianism. Hence the lack of dignity students like myself feel in their second class status which offers lack of power in decision making or constructing one’s own life.
All the work in schools is based on a reward system. You do not have to really learn to be rewarded, as is evident with many athletes’ education, or when alumni pull strings, or when wealthy persons use their money to buy positions, and by the cheating scandals that expose all the cheating that goes on that we do not know about. The rewarding of gold stars, grades, awards, scholarships, and degrees becomes the driving motivating source for students to climb the ladder. And schools have an intense pressure to give these carrots out because their funding and reputation is contingent upon it. In this system, cheating is common place and rampant, I have been hearing about it from my students for twenty years.
In our schools the pressure to conform, which is the antithesis of development, is felt by every single student, and felt intensely. Independent thinking is not encouraged. To stand out is dangerous and its punishment starts with simple humiliation and progresses to sanctioned suspension and expelling or worse still, violent verbal and physical abuse, which is sometimes fatal. Our schools have one way to educate and are rigid without a diverse set of educational approaches that would serve other kinds of learners. Most learning takes place from memorizing information from text books not from having real life experiences. This kind of learning is short-term and only rarely gets into long-term memory – just think about how much you learned in school that you have forgotten. I have heard many parents shy away from home-schooling because they are afraid they couldn’t teach past fourth grade math. Advanced math becomes part of the short-term knowledge we learned that for most of us, is not necessary or relevant to our adult lives. Even if we developed those neural networks back then, we have lost them from lack of use. Our brains require that we use it or lose it.
The homogeneous setting of same age students from similar economic backgrounds, often racially segregated, does not reflect our world or community, and rarely opens minds by offering new experiences and new kinds of people.
The cutting of arts programs has kept the arts out of the core curriculum and relegated their stature to an unnecessary elective part of education. Often students take these courses only because it is an easy class from which to get a good grade. I have had two students here, both academically well suited, who wanted to create an independent study program to work more in depth in the arts. One student’s principal could not even comprehend the idea, and the other students’ guidance counselor pressured the student to take more classes and stay in school so the district would receive more money.
Often we have really good teachers and administrators whose hands are tied behind their backs by the system. This system advances some students and holds back others. And the artist, who lives and breathes life from a sensuous, aesthetic, irrational, intuitive, processed oriented outlook, will never succeed in this kind of environment.
A contemporary ideal of our educational system pushes students to become involved in many extra-curricular activities. This idea, I believe, has two basic thoughts behind it which we have accepted without thinking. (Much has been written about how we accept rules, laws, regulations and restrictions without thinking. This too, I believe comes from our conformist ways of educating and the loss of independent thinking.) We are led to believe that the more we are exposed to, the better. I hear parents constantly tell me how important it is for their children to be involved in many activities because it is good for the children to be exposed to as much as possible. This, like so much of our ways of living has to do with the economic paradigm we live in: as long as the economy grows, it is good! And just as we have not yet woken up to the fact that all this growth is destroying the quality of our lives through stressing our environment and our selves, we have not seen that the doing of so much activity is too destroying the quality of our lives by stressing our families, our relationships, and ourselves.
The other basic thought behind this ideal to do everything is that it will help you get into a better college and help with admissions. Although in some cases this might be true depending on what one is doing, the stress caused by the overextension of activities will null and void any benefit that is to be had. Even summers, our break from the academic setting which could be full of trying new things, are often taken up by school in the hopes of attending better colleges and taking less college classes through the intensive reading required for many AP classes. And now, some educators are asking that teenagers stay in school two more years before going to college because they simply cannot learn all the information there is to know in twelve years. If you want to see the extreme of this kind of planning for the future and forgetting about the present, look at the private pre-schools in
THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF OVEREXTENDING ONESELF
When we stop and consider what is going on it is clear why these kids are not happy and how damaging this stress is to our physical, emotional, and spiritual being. In short it goes like this: First we overextend ourselves, taking on more than we can manage, committing to too much, with the thought that we must do these things or that “we can handle it”, not seeing the pitfalls about to devour us. Soon we realize we are buried, which brings stress, then we begin to anticipate the stress which creates more stress, and soon we are not really doing much of anything very well. Then the people in our lives who are expecting more from us get frustrated or disappointed, and we compound this with our own frustration and disappointment, and especially the need for it to go away so we can enjoy our lives again. By now, our bodies have dealt with stress on many different levels: usually starting with emotional, moving into physical, and on to spiritual and psychological. The stress response in our bodies is a specific physiological process designed by nature to protect us short-term from dangers. It releases very important hormones and chemicals, corticoids that activate our muscles, respiratory system, and cardiovascular systems for action. In the short-term, we can live with this. In the long-term, as with chronic stress, we create hypertension that stresses our systems into dis-ease. Our immune system stops functioning well, and the body begins to break down. We usually are so worried at this point that we do not sleep well, if we get enough sleep in the first place, which most teenagers do not. And sleep is a most important time for the body to repair and regenerate itself. We all know what it is to be sleep deprived and we all know the ill effects it has on us. It is said that 70 to 90% of Americans have a stress-related disorder and end up in a health care facility thereof. And yet we continue to push ourselves and our children with little regard to these ill effects, all in the name of getting into a better college or simply because we need more. The idea of more, in and of itself is a costly frame of mind, more will never be satisfied, it will never end.
One solution is to appreciate what we have, and to want only what we need. We will have less activity and fewer toys, and we will have more health and more happiness.
AN EXPERIENCE OF EXCELLENCE
On the flip side of this picture is the experience of excellence in one activity. To experience excellence is to have true accomplishment; no reward necessary. The inner life that accompanies the experience of excellence is one of exaltation; no person on the outside can offer this. No grade or award can come close to the true inner feeling of self esteem. For deep down we know that the grade, even the wonderful A+, is an artificial construct that we experience given from the outside. The grade can be taken away as easily as it is given. The inner exaltation and self esteem of accomplishing excellence cannot be taken away at all. And this creates radiance: radiance of being, radiance of health and vitality. And this creates a wonderful rapport and relationship with one’s self which always extends out to relationships with others as we are less defensive and more compassionate and confident when we feel well inside. When we experience this excellence we raise our standard, even if only once, and we will forever measure our future accomplishments by this standard until we raise the bar again. For from this experience we have created new neural networks in the brain which will be there for us to activate again. And through the repeated activation of these new networks we will strengthen them and the older networks of lesser excellence will fall away as we stop using them. In short, we will become addicted, through the familiarity and repetition, to the chemical rush of excellence, the rush of endorphins that feels so delicious.
WHAT BRAIN RESEARCH TELLS US
Our brains create intense chemical reactions, and our experiences of these chemicals are our feelings. We relate to these feelings as if they are permanent and unchangeable. Yet, in truth we have choice of which feelings we want to experience. Our reactions are ours, and no one can make us feel a certain way unless we choose to. As performers we learn very specifically how to change our feelings and tap into feelings we desire. We do this through intention. When we repeatedly use the same intention we strengthen that neural activity in the brain. Building a character on stage is the same process as building character off stage. It is, in short, the process of taking control, directing our thoughts, and our actions. When our thoughts and actions follow certain desired paths, we develop character. Our brains are our on board computers that allow us to develop in any direction we choose: towards becoming more fully who we are, following our natural developmental impulses, inclinations, and calls, or towards becoming what others want us to be, conforming to norms and standards set by other people. When we are brain washed we submit ourselves to forceful indoctrination of a fixed set of beliefs that destroy our basic convictions and attitudes. Our brain no know such difference; it simply takes in the information and creates connections thereof. Only with a watchful, vigilant awareness of the vast power of persuasion that the media and corporatacracy indoctrinates us with daily, can we become masters of our own fate and resist the terrible pressure to conform. If we conform, we develop our brains more or less like everyone else and lose the opportunity to think for ourselves.
Our brains will be uniquely ours by developing them with independent thinking. Independent thinking and brain development require deep focus and concentration. Brain research shows that strong concentration and attention create deeper learning. The performing arts channel exactly this kind of focus, with one main difference from text book learning; performing requires movement and emotion. And kinetic movement and deep emotion deepen the learning process into long-term memory. For knowledge without experience is philosophy whereby knowledge coupled with experience becomes wisdom.
Performing arts cannot be learned from a book very effectively, even as it can be a supplemental form of learning. For real learning a studio is required and an expert instructor must impart the knowledge and offer the appropriate experience for the students to progress and develop. For the end result of performing is a bodyful experience not a mindful one. Yet, we have lost touch with our bodies in part because Descartes implored us to separate the body from mind in saying “I think therefore I am” and we bought into it. Even my computer spell-check acknowledges mindful as correct and bodyful as incorrect. Dr. Maria Montessori knew that to force children to sit in chairs to learn was a mistaken idea because she knew that movement created learning. Movement is the basis of life: stop moving…and die. Movement is mandatory for a child to develop fully. Through movement we discover our world. The performing arts begin with movement and doing. It cannot be passive, it must be active. And this is exactly how our brains develop. If our brain is passive it will degenerate and will not grow. Take the passivity out of your lives- stop sitting in classrooms and stop sitting in offices, stop watching TV, stop surfing the internet, stop the video games, stop the chat rooms and blogs, and see what happens. I encourage anyone who wants to grow to do this exercise for your self and experience what life gives in return for your attention to it. The addiction to TV in our culture is a great example of uncritical thinking which facilitates groupthink. Turn your TV off and see how your life and thinking changes.
Neurons that fire together wire together, this is a basic axiom of brain activity. And neurons that fire together repeatedly create stronger neural networks. So be careful and pay attention to what you fire. In our performing work, we develop our ability to change ourselves actively. Our bodies, minds and spirits are our instrument to play and express with. We work with this instrument every day and discover the means to retrain our thinking. We use Brain Gym or Educational Kinesiology, meditation, intention, mental rehearsal, and deep emotional experiences to train and retrain ourselves. All of this kind of work is scientifically documented to create neural vitality, deeper learning and stimulate new brain activity. Beyond this science we embody and experience quantum principles in our ensemble training.
QUANTUM PRINCIPLES AND ENSEMBLE TRAINING
We live in a holographic universe where every cell contains the universe. Separate and isolate each cell and discover the universe inside. Divide each particle as far as you can and the whole is contained within. We are all connected in the whole and the artificial separation we have constructed is an illusion that tears at the fabric of our existence. In ensemble training we experience, viscerally, this truth. We become part of a whole in such an integrated way as to feel the fusion of our self with the group, with other individuals. The role of each player is egalitarian. There is no hierarchy, although admittedly a few students and many parents do not understand this way of thinking. Their brains are wired to see more lines as more power and more importance. This is embedded in our economic model of the more the better. It does not matter that more building and construction means less natural ecosystems and that eventually the end result of this thinking is that we will have no natural habitat for the thousands of species we share the planet with, of which we are but one minor species in a huge array of biodiversity on our tiny planet in our galaxy. And if we all want more lines in our plays we will destroy all the smaller lines that are integral to the whole of the play.
When we boil it down to the lowest common denominator we are all composed of the same thing and that thing is energy. Waves of energy, and when observed the very same wave energy becomes particle and mass. Energy is everything and everywhere. When we work with energy and become sensitive to it, verbal communication is less necessary to express what is already known. Performing work teaches this kind of awareness and sensitivity. We learn to shift our energies with the blink of an eye. We learn to express the energy of different character. We know that time is an illusion because we experience, if we are lucky, the timelessness of good performing. Physics shows that time does not exist as we know it, that in the whole is everything: past, present, and future. In our performing arts work we explore this concept and are privileged to see it, every once in a blue moon until we understand it, through the synchronicities, synergies, premonitions and telepathic communication that ensemble members cultivate by working so closely together in trust. It is known that in this kind of collaborative environment our hearts entrain together, and our physiological processes fall in sync, like when the females begin to follow the same menstrual cycle. These are but a few of the gifts offered in ensemble training.
The riches of great stage work begin with ensemble interrelatedness and interaction, just as the quantum principles elucidate. Even a one person show will not exist unless it has an audience to make it real through the interface of interaction. It is the interrelatedness of partners working off each other and the reactions that ensue which create the fireworks that make a great performance. We do not sit in an isolated lonely chair by ourselves answering questions while learning. We are collaborating with other persons. We are gaining sensitivity and compassion towards others through the trust we work to develop in the process. We live and die together. We succeed or fail together. We are responsible to the whole through our individual actions. Just like the delicate balance of family life, finding just the right amount of individuality combined with sensitivity to other family members is a key to harmonious family life. This takes generosity.
Performing is an act of generosity. It is not the attitude of look at how great I am which our TV shows along with many unknowing teachers and directors espouse. It is not the simple act of taking the stage with no prior training and performing to show off which High School Musical depicts. Performing is an offering of one’s heart and soul to an audience. The development of this comes from training the instrument.
WHY TRAINING MATTERS
We have established that training one’s instrument in the performing arts means being in a studio and with an expert teacher. It simply cannot happen from a book, an instructional video, or a computer. The live interaction is paramount to training. For training in this regard implies a person in the know instructing and coaching a novice towards the desired proficiency.
In a developing young person performing arts training offers an experience to engage all of one’s senses and imagination and actively develop one’s self by reaching beyond what one has already accomplished, delving deeper into the self, uncovering what lies beneath the awareness.
Training, through routine and repetition, develops a strong mind and body. The old Russian expression in ballet for instance, is “the first day you miss class you feel it, the second day you miss class everyone sees it”. What they see is what everyone sees, that you are not as sharp or fit to master the class work after missing two days of class. And every dancer knows this truth. But why is this, why is it required to practice so much and so hard to achieve becoming a performing artist? One answer lies in the extensive studies done about what makes the difference between being good at something or being great and achieving excellence. They data and results are surprising: it has nothing to do with talent and has everything to do with practice. The more practice put in the greater chance of achieving greatness. It is estimated that is takes ten thousand hours of practice to get to the level of expert. That is approximately twenty hours of practice every week for ten years. Or four hours of practice a day, if you take weekends off, for ten years straight. This takes unyielding commitment. To stay with an activity that long requires perseverance, dedication, concentration, endurance, love, talent, enthusiasm, sacrifice, awareness, and self-reliance. It offers all the highs and pitfalls of a long marriage. Complete with the vulnerability of being hurt in the process.
Hurts are bound to happen. And how valuable they are when they happen. To be wounded from a poor performance, an undesired casting role, a humiliation or embarrassment due to one’s ignorance, etc, - all of these experiences offer chances of growth. For growth only happens through the discomfort of the unfamiliar and unknown. Often it brings pain. If we do not allow our selves or our children the good fortune of staying with their pain and facing their fears, we have most certainly done a disservice to them. We have interrupted their development. So often I see adults and parents thinking they are helping a child or young person when in fact by making a choice for them, for instance, they are robbing them of the opportunity to practice decision making skills. Or by speaking to the teacher for them, they are enabling the child to be dependant. Or by giving into their hurts and taking them from the pain they are interrupting the natural process of growth. Or by buckling their seatbelt because it takes too long to let them figure it out themselves, they lose an opportunity to practice important motor skills. We have teenage kids now who do not know the most basic of skills of cleaning, cooking, etiquette, etc. that all teenagers are most certainly capable of. We have a new psychological term called post-adolescence to label those twenty and thirty somethngs who still live at home. We have postponed adult self reliance into the twenties when it used to be that puberty signified a transition into adulthood. In training, we cannot baby our children: the challenges are too tough, and the sacrifices too extreme. The rewards of accomplishment means we have faced our fears alone, through introspection and making new choices. No one can do this for us. And we do it if and only when we are ready. Some folks are never ready. The younger one starts the more hard wired this process is in the brain. The more familiar it is and the less difficult it is each time we practice it.
The joy one discovers from training and accomplishing is ecstatic. Early training, if in a balanced life of wholeness, not the frantic overextended life, creates an orientation to life of joy and hard work. Training offers ecstasy, which is instinctive when one accomplishes great things like new growth. This is an inner journey taken alone, even as we work with others in the process. In fact, having others witness and support our accomplishments and inner joys validates our worthiness and lovability. This is a key component to ensemble training. We grow together, we laugh together, we scream together, we cry together, we fail together, we get up together, we argue together, and we love together.
HOW TRAINING IS FACILITATED
Now to get to this wonderful experience, there are prerequisites. First and foremost, there is attendance. One cannot gain anything if one isn’t participating. Talent is second to attendance. Full participation must be offered to the work. There is no commitment when one knowingly misses the training. And it is a mistaken idea to think one can be dedicated to a genre, say theatre for example, and commit to five or six theatre programs all the while not being one hundred percent committed to any of them. If you do not make it a point to be available for your classes and in good health for each training session, you are not exercising full commitment. The great things you will gain from true commitment require you have those dreaded days of not wanting to attend class and not wanting to see your director. Sticking to something and overcoming hardships can only come if one is truly committed. To intentionally miss classes is to not know the depth of the work. Depth is only known through completeness and fullness, seeing and experiencing it all.
Once one is committed to full attendance, preparation for each and every class further facilitates training. In performing arts work there is work to be done outside class each and every day. If one fails to do this work one holds one self back. To have the time and energy to do this outside homework one cannot be overextended. I have seen my best students fall by the wayside and lose leadership skills because they did not prepare for class or rehearsal. Their work takes on an air of mediocrity. What was once special is now average. And I have seen students with little talent demonstrate great preparation for their classes and succeed wonderfully. Training is facilitated when one is enthusiastic, committed, and healthy. Performers, like athletes, have a responsibility to maintain health. And we learn in our classes and training how to stay healthy. It is a vital part of the training in fact.
All of this work is terribly demanding, which I am sure you are seeing. It requires great vulnerability. And we haven’t even touched on the deep emotional honesty that is necessary to do this work. Students who live in households with open, honest, and direct communication will have an advantage as they will be used to acknowledging their true feelings. Students will work with vulnerability when they are in an atmosphere of trust and support, and every training center must offer this. By trust and support I mean that the students trust they will be treated with dignity, even in the rough and tumultuous times of struggle and growth. And they will feel at all times the director is on their side, even as they are hearing a barrage of criticism. Students learn how to take notes, what we call criticism, without defensiveness. They learn that the notes are for their growth and not to be taken personally. This training facilitates maturity.
Where we do this work has a large impact on the work. A training facility must be professional in standards. Everyone has probably had the experience of walking into a building and instantly feeling that the facility is sub par. The work space should be considered a sacred place and should be treated accordingly.
Of course one of the most important aspects that facilitates training is the level of the director and faculty. How can you know who is an expert teacher or director? Find out the background and experience of the teacher. How many years of real life experience in the career has the teacher had? Going from learning in college to teaching is a sure dead end in the performing arts. First of all, many of the highest professionals do not consider college training very good. Colleges are interested in all the exterior rewards and motivations I have listed above. College training is chock full of teachers who have little profession experience or experiences in the lower levels of the profession (although this may be changing as more artists are taking up the secure positions colleges offer and the college programs are expanding rapidly – we will wait to see how it unfolds). And lastly, colleges are corporations that are part of the corporatacracy that breeds conformist ideals. I know many talented performers that have left colleges, even prestigious institutions like Julliard because of their limited boxed-in attitudes that stifled the artistic instincts of the student.
Secondly, if one learns in college and goes right into teaching all one can teach is from the limited knowledge and experience one gained in one academic institution; which is not the same as learning from the experiences of working in the real world and gaining from the diversity and variety of other directors, choreographer, musical directors, teachers and cultures. Nothing can replace the training and learning from the real world experience.
Besides working in the real world, look to see how many years and what kinds of experiences does the teacher have in training students. Certainly a seasoned teacher will have more to offer than a green one. Also very important to look for: can the teacher demonstrate the material taught, especially if a young teacher. An older teacher must be able to impart the knowledge without always demonstrating.
Does the teacher have a proven track record of accomplishing their mission? This would be an indication of reliability.
Is the teacher open to discuss the work and answer questions with students and parents? Inevitably there are misunderstandings and miscommunications that are part of any relationship because we all filter our perception from our own unique neural networks which leads to different interpretations. So having a teacher that will explain him or her self and discuss the work is an indication of generosity and open mindedness.
Even after you look into all these area and find a teacher that fulfills these qualities, it is still a matter of chemistry. You must find the right teacher for you, and sometimes, for me always, intuition is the best source of knowing.
KNOW YOUR GOALS
In your training you must keep in mind your goals. You must revisit them and reevaluate them as you grow. Goals change and evolve. Staying true to your goals is paramount. Get to know your goals, and careful not to have a goal to have something to fall back on. Performing is too demanding to try to prepare for another career as well. Medicine is a demanding and competitive career choice and many pre-med students do not make it. Yet we would never dream of asking a pre-med student to have something to fall back on.
Write out your immediate goals in the performing arts. Write your 1 year goals and then your 1-3 year goals. And write your further goals be they in college or career. Write other goals you have in other areas as well. Now under each goal write your resource for fulfilling those goals. See where your priorities are. If you are in a quandary about a decision to do one thing or another write out what advantages and disadvantages each choice would offer in regard to achieving your goals. Usually doing this will make the decision clear, not easier, but clear as to what is to be decided. The hard part of following through with your decision is part of your training.
If you want to perform in the school play, for example, and yet you want to perform at a training center like The Gate, do this exercise. I hear students wanting to do the school play because of social reasons, for social relationships. This is a wonderful reason to do a play in school. Yet it will not get you the training you need to compete in the larger arena of getting into the college of your choice. Also, do not neglect the relationship[s with your friends at the training center. In fact, they may be longer lived because of your common career goals and the deeper commitment you share with them to the work. Always ask yourself: what is the best way for me to achieve my goals. Performers who perform without training are at a distinct disadvantage to performers who train and also perform.
We help our students and children perform better when we allow them to be self-directed. This is the path to true development. Doing what others want of us, taking orders, pleasing others, are all ways to sabotage our own development. Young people learn responsibility by practicing being responsible. It is learned experientially, not conceptually. When kids are treated as adults they almost always rise to the occasion and act as adults.
When teenagers are working along side adults, like they have for ninety-nine percent of the history of mankind, they cultivate adult tendencies and choices. When teens are only embedded in teen culture, they act like teenagers. The gifts of the multi-age learning environment are well documented and are demonstrated here at The Gate.
Children are natural learners. They only need a guide once in a while to jumpstart their work, or assist in the process. They do not need to be coerced into practice, attending classes, or any other facet of learning. All that accomplishes is taking the natural learning instincts out of them. Nothing can replace being really listened to and the feeling of worth a child feels when an adult heeds what is told to them by a child.
WHY YOUNG PEOPLE ARE SHORT-CHANGED IN OUR CULTURE
Yet in our culture, children are discriminated by their age at every turn. Rarely can they practice the responsibility they desire and actually need to grow by. They are overwhelmed by the ever growing restrictions we place upon them. And they are over extended in their activities because we have not pointed out the ill effects of stress and instead have impressed upon them that they should be doing it all.
The corporatacracy aims their consumer strategy at young kids and robs them of their inner dreams as they become driven to be cool. The arts are not cool in our culture, sports are. The arts are made into competitions, we learn to dance to win, not to experience they joy of dance. We sing to win, not to enjoy the freedom of vocal and musical expression.
In our result driven culture, process becomes something to get through as fast and as easily as possible to get to the end – the joy of doing is unknown.
The arts are transformative because they offer experiences of irrational, demanding commitment. In this work we are trained to follow our impulses, be available for our partners, work off our partners, open our hearts and minds and every pore in the body, be specific, work in soft focus seeing nothing in particular and seeing everything, honor what others bring to the work through an enthusiastic “yes”, listen to our bodies, let the work do us, plant seeds and work organically allowing the creative process the time it needs to develop fully and naturally, be in the moment, development character with our actions, and offer all of our work in a spirit of generosity.
Life is to be lived in ecstasy and the arts are a door in. Children embody the secret of our nature and are our best teachers. The dark material that is inevitably part of growing is to be celebrated and valued. There is no right or wrong, good or bad, it is all an illusion we have created through dualistic thinking and dividing up what is whole. The child is indeed the father of the man, as Dr. Maria Montessori pointed out.
