This weekend I spent three days in Boston participating in a workshop dedicated to the philosophy and training style of Augusto Boal. His son, Julian, ran the workshop, Oppressed: Forum Theatre Workshop.
It was fascinating to work with so many different people from all over Boston and surrounding area. Boal's goal is to teach people how voice their ideas in a public forum through acting and audience participation. He mainly works with people who are oppressed by their government, factory bosses, family, religion, etc. We played all kinds of fun games where one person was the oppressed and one the oppressor, and as we did this, we tried to find ways out of oppression.
Though I enjoyed the workshop, I came to realize that working in a group is difficult because there are so many opinions. If one person is extremely outspoken, she might bully the group into going along with her idea. Now I know how difficult it is for kids to work in a group and try to solve a particular problem - they must listen to one another and share ideas before coming to a conclusion.
I have been trying some of the warm-up exercises in my acting classes, and the kids are having fun.
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Killer blog post! It's helpful to be reminded of the way students might feel when working in different situations in the classroom, groups or otherwise. And particularly online!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a cool-sounding workshop! And, I agree with Susanne that it's helpful, as a teacher, to be reminded of how students might feel when they are overpowered, confused, etc. (I was thinking about that a bit on the first day of this course. . . :-) )
ReplyDeleteThis teachers me that naming the "oppressing" barrier is the first step toward liberation. It could be a person, a situation, something internal that is preventing me from feeling free. Step two is asking the question, what do I do about it to free myself?
ReplyDeleteNice lesson for adults and children alike.
Thank you for this insight.
Interesting on the heals of our family visit with my wife's cousin that I wrote about in The Sharon Weekly on Monday. His whole life has been devoted to serving the oppressed poor of Bolivia and advocating for the oppressed throughout the world. Someone I admire very much.
Dennis