Even
if we recognize the heart of the matter do we know how it can be developed in
other teaching, in our case in holistic teaching?
One of my all time heroines, is the educational drama teacher Dorothy
Heathcote. She is probably one of
the two or three greatest practitioners of holistic education there is, and
probably the only true genius I have met. But
it seems to me she has a problem; and so do we, with her.
The problem is that after nearly half a century of inspiring teaching no
one seems to have captured what she does in such a way as to make it replicable within mainstream teaching.
This is partly because mainstream teaching has become more and more
instrumental, positivistic an mechanistic, but partly it is to do with the
special nature of what she does, and who she is.
Even describing what she does is not easy – even though countless
generations of teachers have been influenced by her.
A relatively recent doctorate by Sandra Heston is an exception to the
lack of good description. Sandra
Heston has also undertaken the monumental task of classifying Dorothy Heathcote
material. Sandra’s web-site at http://www.partnership.mmu.ac.uk/drama/HESTON/default.html
will tell you;
Dorothy Heathcote has been described as one of the
greatest teachers of this century. In spite of being labelled an early academic
failure, she was to metamorphose from "Yorkshire mill-girl weaving war-time
parachutes...to internationally-renowned 'guru'"
She changed the way many teachers thought about both
drama and the school curriculum. Essentially self-taught, Heathcote was a
practitioner and disseminator of a unique methodology based on the use of drama
as a tool to stimulate holistic learning.
Having
watched her work, and having interviewed her, I agree with Sandra that Heathcote
should be seen not just as a great teacher of educational drama, but as a great
educator. However she more
than other great educators, such as Professor Matthew Lipman about whom I will
speak later, has a magic that is difficult to define or imitate or reproduce.
The difference between the merely great and the genius, is that the
genius creates a new reality, and makes you see things differently and not just
better. The genius is much
more independent of what has gone before.
She uses it, but transcends it, and thereby creates a new reality.
There
is also the fact that to understand Dorothy you have to learn her language, she
talks for example about giving children the ‘mantle of the expert’, by which
she means empowering children in dramatic role-playing.
She on the other hand is barely conversant with the language of say the
holistic education community. Effective
translators are called for! I
can’t tell you what her magic is. You
can see it, she still teaches, or via a video from the University of Newcastle.
I will tell you however of what I actually observed.
At the age of 73, this short stocky woman is capable of standing straight
for 3 or 4 long days directing 70 young adults, students with learning
disabilities, some very severe. Added
to the students there was a company of actors, students from a high school plus
other adults. Through continuous
improvisation, she created a magical experience for all.
Out of what? Out of
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar or Midsummer’s Night Dream or some other such
play, or out of real, important happenings in the communities to which the
children or students belong. I
had never even heard of such a feat, let alone witnessed, until comparatively
recently. Yet she
also works with senior managers, the mentally ill, police, and teachers – and,
in his heyday, Marshall McLuhan, so she let drop!