blog : This Blog is for you Mary (Mary Scruggs April 16, 1964-January 12, 2011)

04/04/2011

Reading Sir Kenneth Robinson’s blog this morning about creativity in the classroom reminded me of the many conversations that we had on the same subject. Robinson’s blog can be found here.

We wrote in our book, The Second City Guide to Improv in the Classroom (2008)

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO PLAY?

If play is the conduit for learning, what happens after preschool? Play is often lost in the educational agendas, and what preschoolers think of as play gets split into two categories: “ recess ” and the more serious, academic- sounding “ fine arts, ” which includes visual arts, music, and drama. Most states have laws mandating recess and physical education, acknowledging that children need this kind of play for good health. But the fine arts rarely receive such support. Because fine arts are often misperceived as “ soft ” subjects, they are often the first to be sacrificed when budgets are tight. In this volume, we present ample evidence to support the assertion that this utter disregard for the arts is misguided, because the arts are central to the proper development of cognitive and social skills. This disregard for the importance of the arts in our lives isn’t restricted to children. People of all ages have lost their connection to the arts, because most consume far more art than they create. A century ago, people had more opportunities to sing together than listen to professional musicians, more opportunities to tell stories than watch them, more opportunities to create something visually pleasing such as a quilt or a woodcarving than purchase one. In this digitized age, we buy our music, we buy our stories, we buy our images. We have fewer occasions for simple artistic expression and therefore fewer experiences of the authentic communication that comes from participation in the arts. As a result, we are drifting farther and farther away from one of our most essential needs as human beings: to create.

Like any field of knowledge, the arts are a way to understand ourselves and our world. Like any discipline, be it biology, composition, or geometry, the arts have rules and rigor that a participant must engage in and master in order to be successful. All of the arts require content knowledge; discipline; practice; collaboration; and critical, analytical, intuitive, and creative – thinking skills. Theater is no different from any of the other arts, and improvisation is a specific discipline within the broader context of theater study. At its core, improvisation taps into our deepest, most elemental urges: the desire to play, pretend, and connect. Theater games satisfy our desire to make real what exists in our imagination, whether what we imagine is a fantastic spaceship, or the memory of our grandmother ’ s smile, or the sensation of walking through freshly fallen snow. Improvisation quells a longing we all harbor: to gather round the fire at nightfall and share our experiences. The art form is as old as humanity; it has roots in the first time someone tried to communicate through acting out, rather than explaining, something that happened.

Whenever I read about creativity in education (especially within the context of the standardized based education system that dominates current educational discourse) I take great comfort in the memories of the many conversations that Mary, my sister and I had, usually over some coffee, or over our cell phone headsets as we picked up our children from school. I miss those conversations with my sister, but I am committed to our collaborative work on education and creativity. If you believe in creativity in schools as Sir Kenneth Robinson, my sister Mary Scruggs, and I do, then let your voice be heard.

Creativity is rigorous work and is the heart of our humanity and intellect.


Mary and the blogger in 1970

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