Phenomenology of Thesis-Writing

Many of you have been asking what my thesis is about, so.... I will attempt to answer that question, even though I keep on changing my mind every few books. Research is not a linear process, that is for sure! Sure, I started off my thesis writing with a table of contents and a specific plan of action, but that plan has quickly been shifting the deeper I get into my piles of books at the Berkelely library. It's kind of dangerous to study in a library, where...when I have a new brainstorm or question, there are suddenly a zillion books that lead me in new directions. I've completely surrendered into the mystery of this project, trusting that as long as I'm following my curiosity, it can't go wrong. So...here's the newest iteration of the table of contents

Introduction (Chapter 1)
Part One: Exploring inquiry from a theoretical perspective
Chapter 2. Critical inquiry
Chapter 3. Body-based inquiry
Chapter 4. Spirit-centered inquiry
Part Two: Integral inquiry in practice
Chapter 5. Theatre of the Oppressed
Chapter 6. InterPlay
Chapter 7. Analysis
Conclusion (Chapter 8)

I like the word 'inquiry' because it suggests that students and teachers are partners in identifying questions about which they are curious, and following the line of their inquiry as far as feels interesting and joyful. I'm starting off with a chapter on critical inquiry so that I can ground my understanding of how to provide students with an intellectually rigorous inquiry process. But is cognitive inquiry the only way that we can inquire? What about the body as a source of knowledge? What about spirit-centered ways of knowing? Do those count as 'inquiry' as well, and do they belong in the classroom? My answer will undoubtedly be "Yes" but I want to ground these answers in sound theory.

The second part of the thesis will allow me to write about my experiences with InterPlay (improvisational storytelling, movement, and sound) and Theatre of the Oppressed (using the body-based games/activities that explore power) and how using elements of these modalities in the classroom might allow for a more integral (aka holistic) inquiry experience. I had initially been hoping that I would observe InterPlay and Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners teaching young people; however, I've been unable to find people who have scheduled gigs with kids right now. That's the down side. The UP side is that, as I've been in the Bay Area, I've taken lots of Interplay classes, and I'm journalling about my experiences as I go. I've also found an INterPlay friend who is also writing her thesis, and we get together once a week to use the iimprovisational forms to support our thesis-writing. It's way fun, and I'm learning ALOT from the EXPERIENCE of doing body-based inquiry. So, even if I'm not working with youth, I'm actually PRACTICING integral inquiry methods, and will write about what I've noticed in part two. I've learned that there's an official word for this process of analyzing my own lived experience: evidently I have a phenomenological research method here. Fancy schmantsy, huh?

What questions do you have about all of this? Please, please post them in a comment!

Settling Down for a Bit

What a relief! This morning I finished emptying out my car, and was actually able to put up the seats in the back, so now I can carry passengers again... For the next six weeks atleast (possibly more), I will be living with a woman named Ann whose husband died about six months ago. She needs someone to help her walk her sweet 1-year-old Cockerspaniel, do some light housework, and help clean out closets. In return, I get a nice little bedroom with attached bathroom, with windows overlooking a lush garden, and a hillside park right out back (if only it would stop raining so I could enjoy the trails...). I've set up my printer and my transcription machine and it will feel GREAT to enjoy the stability while I finish my thesis.

More on Mindfulness

I feel so blessed to have discovered a community of educators who practice mindfulness in education! Yesterday I joined about fifteen educators who are all interested in how to bring contemplative practices into their life as teachers and/or their work with students. Together we sat in the beautiful Oakland home of one of the leaders of the group; we sat quietly, did moving meditation,walking meditation, and Tai Chi together; discussed how we might apply aspects of these practices in our teaching; and also had a chance to engage in Parker Palmer's protocol for his courage to teach model. How lucky that I got to be the 'talker' and my two other group members were the 'listeners'. I told my small group about my quandry about whether/how to look for jobs while I'm working on my thesis. They then asked me a series of open ended questions (questions designed that elicit the teacher within, rather than questions aimed at giving guidance).

How beautiful to suddenly be connected to a fine groups of teachers from elementary school to community college who are committed to helping their students elicit that teacher within, and to use spirit-based practices in order to do so. One of the participants is starting his own charter school with a like-minded group of educators, and invited me to begin attending their planning meetings. The school is called Agape Charter School, and will be located in Richmond California, north of Berkeley. Click here for more information about the school.

Life in the Bay Area

I realize that I've not been great at keeping this blog updated, and so it might be nice to let everyone know, generally speaking, what's been going on over the last month.

I've decided, first of all, to stay in the Bay Area through April so that I can participate in an InterPlay performance that will go up on Earth Day weekend. To that end, I've been taking two performance classes at InterPlay. (I have to laugh at my phrase 'to that end'...can you tell I've been writing a thesis lately?)

Speaking of thesis, I launched into the writing two weeks ago, so now I'm in a downhill snowball. The first full draft is due May 9th, so I've got some hustling to do. It's beena little challenging bouncing around from home to home doing housesitting gigs; yet, I'm so grateful that I have had places to stay alone so that I can spread out on someone's dining table and type type type. I'm a pro at loading and unloading my car. I've learned it takes 20 minutes to move myself into someone's house, and two hours to pack up, clean, and head out again! That's my weekly routine, it seems. Hopefully, though, I"ll settle somewhere for the month of April so that I can spend those two hours a week writing and not (re)packing. When I'm not typing, I'm taking as many movement classes as possible to keep my body happy. Contact improv, NIA, yoga, tai chi, etc. I'll even take an aerial dance workshop next weekend, and see what it's like to fly (I've had day dreams about being able to do this, so now we'll see if my fear of heights kicks in when the day dreams become reality). I'm also spending some time still visiting schools; I'll write more about those events as they happen.

So, life is busy and full here. Seems like a pretty sure deal that I'll choose to stay here for good, but I'm waiting until the end of April to fully commit myself.

YouthSpeaks Poetry Slam

Last night I attended one of the most empowering events ever in my teaching career as far as recognizing how much wisdom, power, and straight talk young people have to offer the world. My goodness! Youth Speaks is a literary arts organization that trains young people how to express themselves through spoken word poetry. In the spring of each year they host a series of poetry slam competitions, the winners of which advance up to the Grand Slam, which I attended. The San Francisco Opera House was sold out, over a thousand people in that audience! All of whom were there to hear 16 young people speak their truth boldly, shockingly with a stunning mix of tears and humor. At the end of the evening, three were chosen to go to New York to join ~400 youth from around the world in the international competition.

Several things struck me about the evening. First of all, the bravery of these young people, to get up in front of thousands of strangers and lay bare their hearts. We heard about fathers in jail, family members who were prostitutes, what it's like to be black in an all-white AP class, the bittersweetness of having to be mother to your brother, what it's like for young women these days to claim their bodies and their sexuality, the intricate pain and love of the mother-daughter relationship, being Jewish in America, the pride of graduating a male virgin, on and on and on...

SEcondly, I was struck by the completely supportive nature of the 'competition'. The judges were boo-ed if any poet was given less than a 9.5, and people roared to their feet at the end of most poems. The MC, artistic director for YouthSpeaks, reminded us over and over that these young people were pouring out their souls to us, so the least we could do was return the energy and the love...and we did! After a beautiful turn of phrase or insightful comment, audience members would gasp, or applaud, or repeat the phrase, almost as if we were at a baptist church.

The critical-thinking inherent in so many of the poems was stunning. How did they learn to do that, these kids, question assumptions implicit in the foundations of our society? There wasn't a stone unturned, from race to class to gender. And teh complexity...some of the poems, truth be told, were rather black and white in their analysis of the issues, good versus bad. But so many were intricate, acknowledging the complex webs that connect the issues together, and the multilple, painful, joyous ways that the personal is political. AS a social studies educator to be, I was so pleased to see this...the YouthSpeaks anthology could certainly become a high school social studies textbook.

Finally, my heart skipped a beat everytime one of the young people referred to themselves or their peers as a poet. Somehow, there is a deeper resonance here than if they called themselves and 'actor' or a 'singer' or an engineer. They are seventenn, eighteen years old and every fiber in their being acknowledges that they are poetry in motion, they are poets.

Body Wisdom

So, since InterPlay is such an important part of my thesis investigation, I think it's time that I tell you all a little more about what InterPlay is. And what better way to tell you than to describe some of the InterPlay experiences I've been having since I've been in the Bay Area.

- Weekly play group. There is a group of us that gets together once a week for a group led by Cynthia, one of the founders of InterPlay. Called "InterPlay as life practice", we use the InterPlay forms as a means to reflect on the mysterious workings of our own lives. For example, at the first group I went to, we warmed up for about 20-30 minutes by moving quietly to some beautiful music. Then, because President's Day was just around the corner, Cynthia introduced that the theme of the day's play would be 'vacation'. We were invited to find a partner, and perform for our partner a Big Body Story on the theme. A Big Body Story is simply a story that you tell using words and movement. I was the first to go, and although I had no idea what I was about to say, after sitting on the floor and tracing circular designs across the floor boards I began to tell a story about how I use breath, stillness, and being-in-the-now to take a vacation from my own pain. My partner followed by asserting her desire to take a vacation from gravity! How nice it would be, she explored, if we weren't always being pulled down, down (inevitably towards death) and could actually float freely for a while. There was a moment in her dance when she actually did appear to be floating, and in our noticing time afterwards, she discussed how nice it was to notice that the body really can take sense the leaving of grativity, even if we area still bound by it. After sharing our Big Body Stories with our partners, the entire group gathered in a circle and we spent the rest of the time discussing what we learned about vacations... Surprising things come up when we let the body do the inquiring!

- Wing It! rehearsal and performances. InterPlay has a performance company called WingIt. When I first got here I was invited to one of the rehearsals, and I've also attended a Monday night showing of their work. Although the InterPlay forms are most often used as a personal inquiry practice (like I described above), they can also be used in improvisational performance. For example, the Monday night performance was on the theme "Out About Love," and so all the forms--whether storytelling, movement-related, or song-- related back to this theme. Sometimes a form is called; for example, Cynthia might say "Let's have Sandy and Aaron come out and dance in the background while Simone tells a big body story." Other times they perform a suite, which is a lovely morphing of many of the forms into and out of each other. A Walk Stop Run with all the company members might turn into an improvised song which then might turn into a solo dance, which morphs into two of the performers telling a simultaneous story. Live musicians improvise on keyboard, drum, flute (etc) back the performers up. It's quite lovely, and I've noticed that the more I see improvised performance, the less excited I am by the plays and dances I go to that are pre-set.

- Leadership Program and Focus Sessions. I decided over the summer that I wanted to be trained to facilitate InterPlay, and so I am a member of their leadership program. This past weekend I attended a leadership retreat, and I'll go again next month. One of the things they require from all leadership members is that we undergo three focus sessions. That means that, in front of the group, we have the opportunity to speak about an issue that is 'up' for us right now, and then either Phil or Cynthia suggest a form that would help us explore that issue more deeply. So, someone who has questions about future employment is invited to do a DT3 (dance, talk, dance, talk, dance, talk) investigating possible options; someone who is seeking to know more about their life purpose is invited to dance out their questions; etc. After the form is finished, the person answers the question, "What did you notice about that?" and often there is a new feeling noted or perspective gained. It was surprising to me how frequently the tears flowed, as well as how suprised people often were about what came up for them in the midst of the form...

...which brings me to my I titled this entry 'Body Wisdom'. I am realizing more and more that when we simply try to think through an issue, concern, or an idea in our lives, we are often missing a whole wealth of information that is stored in our bodies. InterPlay, and other forms like it that invite the whole body into the inquiry process, is such a gift because it shakes loose some of that information and allows it to float up to the surface. Sometimes that information is painful, but most often it is surprising, funny, insightful, and helpful! I hope to do more reflecting in this space about what I am learning about wisdom of our bodyspirit.

Digital Bridge Academy, Santa Cruz, CA

Thanks to a listserve that I recently joined (Mindfulness in Education), I found out about Diego Navarro and the Digital Bridge Academy which he helped to found. Talk about a man with a mission! Diego left the IT industry several years ago after purposefully 'apprenticing' in the corporate arena for twenty years. His purpose in leaving was to help at-risk kids, and after interviewing 125 people, forging a connection with a community college, receiving some generous grants, he went about to do just that. Today the program that he started, Digital Bridge Academy, is doing well in Santa Cruz and they are working to expand to five more community colleges next year. Today I went to hear him present to a group of faculty at Laney College, and the entire room was inspired. I'll try and capture some highlights of the program here.

Each semester a cohort of about 26 students ages 16-50 come together to engage in a 9-day foundation course designed to teach self-knowledge and self-discipline and prepare students (many of whom never thought they could go to college because they hadn't finished high school!) to be ready for college-level courses. Through visualization, focusing activities borrowed from contemplative practices, acclerated learning practices, guest lectures by Hewlett Packard's organizational development team, and more...students truly have a fire for learning lit within. Diego said that, in his early research for the program, and based on his own experience as an at-risk youth who eventually went to college, the pain of getting their skills up to par can be great, and so students need a powerful fire to propel them through that pain. When he recruits, Diego is very up front with the students, telling them "You are joining a community of suffering. What I've learned about suffering is that it is easier to suffer when you're with others." Evidently the learning community built by the 9-day foundation class is so strong that students are rarely using faculty's office hours because they're calling on each other for support.

After the 9-day foundation, students complete the semester, taking writing, reading, and math classes that build the skills they need to be ready to be successful in college. He has students taking a 16.5 credit semester (full load!) because the research shows that students who are full time are more likely to stay in school. The research also shows that at-risk students need accelerated learning, not remedial learning; therefore, all courses are taught at college level for the students. As Diego says, "If you can't see where you're going, you can't get there fast."

I haven't been to visit to observe a class, but I will next week, hopefully. I am very inspired by the holistic nature of this program, as well as the research in which it is grounded. I'll definitely be looking to see if there's a way I can be involved in its growth!

Housesitting Abundance

Sorry about not posting lately, friends! I've been distracted by 3 weeks of city life, and I guess I've lost my momentum. But I'm learning that when I don't reflect online, it's a sign that I'm not reflecting, period! So...I have a renewed intention to be more regular about posting about my experiences.

Along this journey I've been journalling answers to the question, "When do I stay and when do I go?" I've noticed that, even though I keep on thinking it's time to move on northwards towards Portland, opportunities keep on opening up here that encourage me to stay for another week. Lately, those opportunities have been coming in the form of housesitting requests! This weekend I will care for a couple of parakeets; then I will have ten days in an apartment of a friend of a friend; then four days for two other friends; and finally, another week caring for the dogs of a friend who'll be in the Grand Canyon for a while.

Notice that I've said 'friend' a lot here. I suppose most of these opportunities are for acquaintances, except that I feel a strong connection to several of them, and should I choose to stay here, they'll definitely be friends! I'm amazed at how connected I already feel to the area... I have family here (my cousin Eric); friends from Macalester College (Sarah and Norm, Jeannie); a colleague from my graduate program (Napaporn); an ex-boyfriend (Theron) and friends from our dating days (Sharon and Randall); many people from the InterPlay community...

Talk about abundance!

Stairs in San Francisco

Perhaps I overuse the collage function of picasa, but I love how easy it is to get up to nine related images in the same picture.

This is a set of pictures of a stairway project that my friend Sarah worked on. These steps lead up to a hill overlooking San Francisco. A group of people decided it would be nice to employ an artist to create a mosaic on the steps, and voila! Sarah, if you're reading, please fill in the gaps of the story, and remind me the symbolism. And here's the view from the top of the hill (sorry it's a bit small...still figuring out stitch assist).

Swingin' Good

Well, I have to say that I have just had one of the best nights dancing ever!  Last week I went to Lindy in the Park on a lovely sunny Sunday, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Everyone was friendlier than I have EVER seen in the swing scene before…asking each other to dance regardless of skill or experience, always asking the name of the person with whom they were dancing.  One of my frequent dance partners on Sunday suggested that I come to the Blues dancing evening tonight, and I took him up on it.  As much as I love lindyhop, there is something that resonates deep within me when I hear blues music.  And a whole evening with nothing but the slow, wailing blends of voice and trombone…and the arms of men who know how to hold their follow just right.  Not too close, but not too far either, foreheads leaning on each other, arms snug around the back or maybe a reassuring hand cradling the back of the head, a soft focus in the eyes as we listen deeply to the other person’s body vocabulary.  I suppose it sounds a little risque when I describe it like that, but no, really, it’s the most lovely thing.  They purposely have it in a dance studio rather than a bar, so that people can’t drink and dance.  This evening I noticed I was more comfortable in my body than ever before, and my dances were so satisfying.  Gone was the perfectionist who usually critiques my every move.  I think because the music is so slow, the quality of the listening between lead and follow is that much more intense, deliberate.  And that kind of listening and being listened to, atleast in me, unleashes feelings of safety and comfort…and I dare say my partners and I felt beautiful together. 

Gratitude for Oreo

For the last week I’ve bee housesitting for Sarah and Norm, two dear friends from college.  How lucky to have had my own apartment to try out San Francisco life for a while.  I will certainly miss their apartment, but I will also miss their cat Oreo, for whom I have been caring.  She’s sitting on my lap right now as I type.  Usually, she likes to rest her forepaws on my arm, but that makes typing a tad difficult.  I’m not a pet owner, so this warm, purring weight on my lap is a new sensation, and I like it.  Thank you, Oreo, for your companionship!

Morning meditation at the Bay School.

This morning I hightailed it out of my apartment to make it to www.bayschoolsf.org in time for their morning meeting. The Bay School is located in San Francisco's presidio, which used to be a military base. It is filled with open green areas, beautiful white buildings, and plenty of parking...a breath of fresh air in the otherwise congested city of San Fran. The school day at the Bay School starts with an all-school meeting in their great room. With sun streaming in to the large open room, about 150 students, teachers, and staff sat on the floor or at tables around the room. A gong announced the beginning of the gathering, and everyone quieted immediately. The school chaplain, a Buddhist nun, spoke a few words about the confusing emotional reality of Valentine's Day (yesterday), as students gave and received Valentines from people they liked and/or didn't like (or conversely, didn't give or receive Valentines). She then asked us all to sit up straight, close our eyes, and--like scientists--take a few moments to watch the energy-we-call-feelings and the related thoughts as they pass through us. Ever since I first experienced community silence at Quaker meeting, I have loved the moment of 'settling in' during which the energy that connects us to each other becomes palpable as we embrace silence together. This morning was no exception, although extra special to me because it involved a community of learners, young and old. Yesterday when I met with Teah (the chaplain), she explained that she doesn't really care whether students actually meditate, or think quietly to themselves. The important thing is that they take this time to connect silently to themselves and each other. She hopes that eventually students take up a regular meditation practice for themselves, and as the school gets older (it's in its second year now) she'll be able to find out more about the effect this morning sit has on students' personal practice.

Five minutes later a chime indicates time to come out of the silence. Teah then introduces Roberto, a hispanic student who has agreed to speak this morning. Evidently each morning a member of the school community speaks about one of the school's precepts (which are actually Buddhist precepts rewritten by Teah for a student body, very beautiful, click here if you want to read them). Roberto chooses to speak on the precept of care for the environment, and reveals some highly personal information about his poverty growing up, and the family's need to recycle to make extra money, and to compost so that they save more in garbage fees).

As I think/feel through what "spirit-centered inquiry" is and how we might foster it in an academic setting, I am struck by how the Bay School incorporates two important elements: silence and personal story-telling. At the very beginning of the day, students are invited to connect deeply to self and community through silence, and then they are asked to witness each other as they tell stories about how their personal lives make manifest the precepts on which the school is built. Such beautiful interweaving of what Jean Houston calls the personal/factual ("This is Me"), the mythic/symbolic ("We are") and the unitive/source ("I am") (p. 79, A Mythic Life)...all at the very outset of the school day.

Among other gifts, the morning 5-minute sit becomes an act of school culture that can be transferred to the classroom. Teah told me of a teacher who encountered a particularly squirrly class, and suggested that they all sit in silence for 5-minutes. Immediately, students settled their bodies, closed their eyes, and went into silence without discomfort or question. At the end of the five minutes, they were centered enough to continue with the class.

Questions of the Mythic Life

I'm reading Jean Houston's The Mythic Life right now, and in her chapter title "The Mything Link" she asks a series of questions I find intriguing and helpful. These questions are a means of reflecting where each of us is on the hero's journey (ala Joseph Campbell).

- Have you heard a call to the larger life?
- Have you refused it, and if so, why?
- Have you accepted the call but then met with monsters of recalcitrance who refused to let you pass across the threshold to your own deeper capacities and possible life?
- Did you finally outwit these monsters and get across?
- Are you caught in the belly of the whale through despair, depression, or just plain sloth?
- Have unusual allies or helpers show up?
- A telephone call at the right time?
- A book falling open at an important passage?
- Do you find yourself in the midst of the road of trials, and if so, do you experience it as full of adventures or as just one just one damn crisis after another?
- Is there awaiting you a sacred marriage or a transformational friendship?
- Do you feel the yearning for the inner beloved of the soul?
- Are you seeking atonement or attunement with your father or mother for what that person may or may not have odne to you?
- Do you require recognition from a parental or authority figure?
- Are you finding a boon, an insight, a project that may bring some healthy solution to your own and the world’s problems?
- Have you crossed the magic threshold and come back into ordinary life with a sense of accomplishment?
- Are you planning to rest for a while, or are you raring to start the journey all over again? Or perhaps you find yourself, like the rest of us, in several different stages of the journey at the same time?

(From page 93 of The Mythic Life by Jean Houston)

As I read this book, I'm considering how I might teach a high school humanities course that is focused on world history, world religions, and art. It occurs to me that Campbell's framework might be a great spine for such a class. If at the beginning of the semester we learn about the hero's journey, then as we study different historical eras we can consistently reflect how a) the people of that era were manifesting the journey in their unique time/space b) the religion of that era made sense of life by mythologizing that aspect of the journey, c) the art of that era expressed that mythology in creative form, and d) what we the students of history are learning about our own hero's journey by being respectful, curious witnesses of the journey of our human ancestors. I would LOVE to hear comments, questions, concerns from anyone reading this, as several job applications are asking me to submit a syllabus, and your comments will help me do this.

Environmental Studies Academy, Martinez, CA

This morning I visited the classroom of Rona Zollinger, who runs www.environmentalstudiesacademy.org. What a pleasure this little trip was. The Academy is located at a small complex in Martinez, CA that houses an alternative school, an independent study school, and then the Academy. The Academy has a capacity for 20 students, who must apply and interview to join the group. The interview is conducted by the current students, who remain in the Academy until they graduate. Today there were quite a few absences, given that it is Valentines Day, but the approx 8 young men and 2 young women that were present were a lovely cross-section of the students to meet.

In this program, students join one of three environment-related jobs. Two include watershed restoration projects, and one is an environmental education piece at a local elementary school. Rona asked the students to describe the program, its values, and what they get out of it to me. I was most impressed by some of the young men who talked so easily about their feelings of gratitude for the program. One mentioned that he loves how many engaging conversations they have; another said that, because every student is always invited to share information about him/herself on a daily basis, they know each other very well and it feels like family. The students were very attentive to me, as well, which is a surprising characteristisc in a high school student. They made a point to clarify terms and names that might be foreign to me, and asked me at the end what my impressions were.

One of the young men expressed how much they trust each other and Rona. Clearly, she has a masterful presence with them. Just the right amount of joking and sternness and gentle perseverence through their resistance. She led the entire group in doing some sun salutations, and also led us in a short meditation. During the first hour we journalled quietly for about 30 minutes, and then she asked us to rip up our journals and put them in the recycling. This prompted quite an interesting discussion about attachment, as several of teh students were so attached to what they had written, and especially the emotional content of it, that they were unwilling to part with it.

Rona is currently getting her PhD. through the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is purposefully including elements of transformative education, integral education, and place-based learning in her work. She is purposefully trying to mix spirituality with social/environmental education. We didn't get to talk much, although I hope to meet with her sometime to debrief what I've seen.

Today I'm very grateful for the Bay Area, and for the mindfulness in education community who are so committed to trying to bring mindfulness practices into the schools in some capacity.

Wing It!

Yesterday I was invited to attend the Wing It! rehearsal. Wing It and I had a lovely time. There is something very precious about a group of people who are trained to work in ensemble together. The quality of the deep listening that is present, and the love they feel for one another is palpable. I was honored to be in their presence, even for a short while, and it confirmed for me my desire to join a community like this.

For those who don't know, Wing It! is the performance company for the form InterPlay, which I am studying for my thesis. InterPlay combines improvisational storytelling, movement and sound/song to create compelling, beautiful, heart-felt, fully embodied performance pieces. I'm noticing how much I love improvisational work. There is something so delicious about this work, because it meets me EXACTLY where I am in the moment, and asks me to express all of that.

I went to lunch with Cynthia, one of teh founders of InterPlay, before going to the rehearsal. As we were talking she mentioned a few things that I wanted to capture quickly.
- she suggested that adolescents are often more about form than content. They take great joy out of perfecting their ability to practice a skill well. Therefore, she posited, they might be less interested in teh opportunity to tell their story, and more interested in the abiltity to master an improvisational technique.
- she also strongly recommended that, as I move forward with my research, I build the theory based on my own practice and experience, starting "where my feet are." Yes, this is important, and I'm grateful for the reminder. I can get really heady, and this is a gentle prod to notice my own experience. I will try to journal more about my experiences in teh midst of all teh InterPlay experiences coming up...maybe I'll even do it on the blog.