Cultivating the Kraken

Cultivating play is serious business. 

I arrive in each classroom with an intricate and strategic lesson plan that is a complicated intersection of the students' needs, the lessons they need to learn to hone their craft, the ideas they need to grasp, as well as tools to build confidence, self and community awareness. 

I'm ready to work.

Naturally, chaos ensues.

Why?

Well first, chaos and rambunctiousness comes naturally to children.

Second, I am a theatre teacher and my job is to cultivate chaos and within that chaos find a focus, stretch that into an idea, and then form it into a tangible moment. 

However, I am not always successful. 

Sometimes, I simply get chaos. 

I start saying "no" and "stop

I get frustrated. I get angry

Students get frustrated. Angry. And worse, they shut down. 

Nothing gets done. 

A world in which we all ran into with unhindered excitement at the possibilities becomes a dark world of bleh. 

I leave sighing and mad at myself. 

While pondering these occurrences, it dawned on me:

I am an AFTER school teacher. 

All day long my students have been sitting behind desks, accomplishing tasks, being asked to be quiet, be still, raise hands, stop touching, please listen, behave, stop that, don't do that, no, no, no. . .well the list goes on. 

(A side note: Adults hear the same thing, only we've heard these phrases for so long, we naturally tell ourselves these things in our work lives.) 

After 8 hours (give or take), the student walks through my door with the promise of imagination and unhindered play. They are encouraged to lose their indoor selves and be loud, run, have lots of energy and play. 

Basically, I'm asking a room full of tiny people to release their inner Kraken. 

Within an instant I find myself among tiny Kraken, and suddenly, all I want to do is control them.

Control. Within this tiny word my epiphany lies.

Danger lies in Control. 

Frustration lives in Control. 

Limitation thrives on Control.

Disconnection resides in Control.

Every artist knows this.

There is no controlling the Kraken; instead the Kraken must be guided, nurtured and cultivated. 

Simply put:

Instead of saying "No"

We say, "Huh, I never thought of that."

Instead of getting angry, and say "Stop"

We laugh, and say "not right now, but let's try that at the end of class."

Instead of forcing the lesson

We look and see where the students are and meet them there. 

This is a hard fact, especially when I am simply having a bad day, and all I want to do is phone it in. 

Oh, those days when I just want to revel in my bad mood. 

But that's not allowed. 

I have to be ready. 

I have to be excited. 

I have to On. 

I have to perform. 

The Kraken needs me, and our culture needs the Kraken. 

And when that doesn't cut it, I simply remember my bottle of red wine waiting for me at home.