Activity Work

After Marj visited Australia in 1986, I totally switched my teaching. I made a decision, quite clear cut, that I would: 1.Do no more table work 2.Do no more chair work 3.Insist that my pupil choose the activity of the lesson It was a simple plan, but for the next year I stumbled about in total confusion and disarray. Although I had been teaching for 7 years by this time, this 8th year felt like I had reverted back to my 1st: I was a novice teacher all over again. It is easy to justify what we do, find merit in it, want to continue our familiar way because we already have developed sufficient skills to help others and do a good job. I could have thought that way - and it is beyond reasonable to do so - but Marj ruined that for me… I had glimpsed something else, something beyond my understanding, and I wanted to be a part of it. Marj was 86 years old then, and had been teaching for 53 years. As I watched how she transformed a group of 40 people, I realised I didn't need to figure it all out by myself. She had saved me half a century of research: all I had to do was figure out for my Self what she had figured out for her Self. In those days I was still confused by how to move into group teaching. In my mind, I kept thinking: how can I get my enough of my hands on them all? What do I do with the others while I am working with each one? How can I engage them all at the same time, and still deliver the experience that I deeply believe each of them need? Next month, in my experimental online teaching workshop, I will walk through this journey with you again, offer up the kind of experiments I undertook, the insights that arrived. If you are interested in a refresh and update - don't join this course. If you are interested in a revolution - sign up. I will tell you how later. There's a simplistic notion that activity work is just about, well - doing activities. That is true, but it misses the point as to the difference between the two. What's at stake here is not "activity work verses chair work" that is a spurious division: it is actually about the balance between feeling and thinking: constructive conscious thinking. I have written extensively about that in two papers I delivered at International Congresses in Oxford and Lugano. You can download and read them from this link. One of the features of Marj's teaching was that she constantly asked you questions, specifically related to what had just happened. Marj wanted you to develop your own conscious, constructive thinking. It worked like this… Take Your Hands Off And Ask A Question

Marj would give you some information with her hands, then take them off and ask "What did that do for you?" or "Does that bother you?" or "How is that different?" As a student, you would convey to Marj whether you had understood and integrated into your thinking the kinaesthetic information her hands had invited you into. It was interesting to watch Marj's response to your response. If you nailed it, and could precisely reflect back that change that had happened, she would open your door to more. If you fuzzed it, and could not precisely reflect back that change that had happened, Marj would do one of several things. She might repeat it, she might try offering an alternative experiment, or she might simply dismiss you with: "OK - why don't you think about that a little more?" and your lesson was over. All of these methods work on the thinking of your student, not on their experience of their movement. The experience is there to stimulate thinking. Your primary purpose is not to use touch to convey feeling guides (which is how I taught before I met Marj) but to build confidence in thinking. It's another reason I am so big on blogs, exercises, written explanations: the secret to leveraging your ability to touch is to be able to describe accurately - as Marj would make us do - what your touch is precisely aiming to do? Your mission (if you choose to accept it) is to increase your focus on this moment in a lesson: taking your hands off after a student has made a change and ask them: "What did you experience happening to you just now?" And listen. Listen to how they understand it. And choose a course of action based on that response. Give us feedback! https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers/