"Miss, miss, best lesson ever!" shouts one of my 10th graders. The lesson: Augusto Boal and power in the Theatre of the Oppressed. We began with an activity called "chairs and power" in which each student placed their chair and their own body in what they considered to be the most powerful position in the room. One by one the students and their chairs mounted bookshelves and tables, even the concrete overhang above the classroom door. Once all the chairs and students were in place the discussion on power exploded - I simply facilitated by asking who in the room held the most power. From time to time I quieted everyone down, particularly when the overlapping voices were too intense, so that each student could be heard:
"Miss, power is the ability to hurt others."
"No, no, it's the ability to manipulate others."
"Manipulate others in any way."
"How about just the ability."
"It depends on what you mean by power: strength, unity, intelligence, numbers, money..."
"Power is to be remembered after you die."
"No one person can have power alone."
"Yeah, power is union."
"We have no power as students."
"But if we all got together couldn't we have power?"
"Those two have the most power because they look like a king and queen on the throne and all the rest of us are the snipers protecting them."
"Why do we keep refering to this as a dictatorship? Couldn't the room be something else other than a kingdom?"
"Miss, power is an illusion."
Our activity/discussion lasted 40 minutes. I realized had some other teacher or administrator walked in to see the students literally climbing the walls and arguing over power and oppression it might have been the end of my career as a teacher - it would have been worth it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
OMG. Fantastic. Wish you had photographed. Perhaps an artist rendering by one of the kids
xo
Auntie Carole
and once again i think, oh what i would have given to have had you as a teacher. ... and then i smile and think about how much i learn from you everyday. i miss you lady.
Hehe. You go girl! What a fantastic story.
Does it weird you out to be called, "miss, miss!"?
Great exercise and the responses are indeed profound. I am so glad you wrote this down as I know it will be of value for others. Another one you might try is a quick asking what does it mean when someone says "I love you" - this worked amazingly with the Forum group but indeed they were 19 years and older but the variety of comments was astounding - from "what do you want from me?" to "what did you do" and "You mean you want to have sex with me" and more.
righteous!
Post a Comment