Hi all,
Today’s post will be like last month's post about teaching lessons from Ken Johnstone’s Impro. The focus will be on his insights into education.
Good luck, reader.
Tim
*********
Insisting on categorizing and selecting is a form of violence. Is one flower out of many more beautiful than any other?An intriguing insight. I suppose most people go through life perfectly unconcerned about their insistence on creating and sorting people, places, or things into wholly arbitrary categories. It’s perfectly natural, they might say, before going on to apply another needless label. Then, one day, they are shocked when acts out of its nature.
They also find it difficult to grasp The Advanced Concept of not making comparisons. It’s perfectly natural, they might say, before going on to make another needless comparison. Then, one day, they are shocked when something better is still not good enough.
I always resist whenever someone places me into a category or compares me to something. I’m not sure exactly why I respond in this way. Though I never feel like I’m under attack, I do wonder now if my response is partly related to this idea of violence Johnstone brings up.
*********
Being an artist is difficult because it requires going against the instincts honed through education.I often hear variations on this theme. It makes sense to me. I’m not sure why any of what I learned in school would help me in writing. I know less about other creative pursuits but feel a similar dynamic applies for musicians, painters, and so on.
But is the statement true for professions? I think all working people learn on the job; not everyone applies their lessons from school.
There are also a host of life skills that do not benefit from classroom instruction. It does occur to me, however, that these skills like saving money, optimizing health, or building relationships might benefit simply from better classroom instruction. I guess this area remains an open question.
There is a degree to which going against instinct is essential for survival in modern society. When I woke up this morning, my instinct was to remain in bed. When I walk past the ice cream stand later, my instinct will be to go inside. I’m sure married people sometimes have ‘instincts’ about new people they meet.
The difference between people and all other animals is our ability to acknowledge instinct before doing something different.
*********
Watching someone come up with a spontaneous response reveals the degree of education’s influence. Instead of just saying the first thing to come to mind, this person will pause until a context for naming 'the right answer' is created. This is, after all, how the concept of 'answers' has been taught in school.This one seems to go pretty well with the prior quote.
I recall struggling with various versions of this over the years. I remember trying to write a short story in third grade and worrying about the effects of using certain friends’ names for characters. Would I offend the friends I left out? Or would I perhaps reveal which friends I thought most of through their relative prominence in my nonsensical tales? (Back then, I assumed everyone I knew would read my stories.)
I think a lot of people worry about others reading into their innocent answers. If someone asks me to name a color and I say ‘orange’, well, does this mean I’m about to order orange juice? Or perhaps this is a subtle hint that I want a new basketball for Christmas? Somewhere way down the list is the reality: I was asked for a color and I said orange. Next question.
*********
Are children immature adults? Or are adults atrophied children? It is worth questioning whether the bitter, uncreative, or hostile adult is a natural result or merely a person damaged by upbringing and education.This quote brings to mind an insight I read earlier this year about how adults interact with children. The basic idea said a lot of adults act warmly towards children because they do not fear a child’s ability to hurt them. I absorbed the idea and considered how it applied to me.
I decided to ask myself anytime I wasn’t automatically warm with another person - a 'fellow adult' if you will - whether my demeanor hid an underlying fear of being hurt. I found much to my surprise that this indeed was almost always the case.
If I consider this above quote in reverse, what it seems to suggest is that adults who are hostile towards me fear the possibility of imminent hurt. Hostility is a defense mechanism.
My role in these interactions becomes creating an immediate sense of safety. If I fail to do this quickly, the conversation is going to peter out.
*********
The more direct or obvious someone is, the more original it appears to be. Trying too hard to be ‘original’ often shows someone who is worried about perception. These people should simply say what first pops into their head. The key is to stay true to the self. From the self, originality follows.I’m reminded of the storytelling insight I shared in my first reading review for this book. A good story, Johnstone suggests, explains how a routine was interrupted. A good storyteller focuses on the interruption while a bad storyteller gets caught up in trying to make the routine more interesting.
I have some friends I consider authentic. These people have a directness to their approach that brings out their originality or creativity. When they tell a story or share a funny anecdote, they talk about an interruption in their otherwise mundane or obvious routines.
