Ken Robinson: Do schools kills creativity?

I love this guy. While I was watching the TED talk, I really felt Robinson was reading my mind. I think exactly the same as him. However, it was shocking for me at first, because it was the first time that I saw a well-known with a good reputation man talking about this without any problem and so truthfully. 

Furthermore, people do have an amazing capability for innovation and humans have the gift of creativity, it's part of who we are; nevertheless, I do believe that the education system is destroying this human ability that not only makes us special, but helps us develop as individuals in life and as a race as well.

Moreover, when Robinson said that "creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treated with the same status" it really opened my eyes and helped me analyze the system of education not only in my school but in other schools as well. It is true that schools give a much greater importance to subjects like science and math than subjects like theatre, art, or dance. "Why not?"Theatre, art and does topics in my opinion are in the same level of significant than math or science, even more. It not only develops our creativity, but they give us a chance to express ourselves and to be who we want to be; to act and be however we want to be, leaving out all the prejudices and rules of society.

I found it very funny but tue at the same time that now the education system in schools are there to "produce university professors". They focus on the whole body of students thriving for the same goals, without letting us move away from this and focus on what we love; in my case: theatre.

I have analyzed Roosevelt and this is something I had realized a long time ago. Our school gives us so much freedom to be who we want to be and to follow our dreams IN COMPARISON to other schools in Lima. Here, you can be who you want to be, an artist, a dancer, a singer; you can paint your hair pink if you want and dress however you want to dress and the school will let you. The way people will stereotype you and look at you won't change but that's another issue. But this school gives you the chance; in comparison to other schools. However in general, they do exclude the arts from the program. Well, they dont exclude them , but they don't give them the same importance than they give math. WHY? I really can't understand this and it really annoys me so much that nowadays it is not an option to go to your parents and tell them: "Mom, Dad, I want to be an artist, I want to be a dancer, I want to be a singer, etc". They will simply respond, "You are not going to study that; it's impossible, you will starve to death. THIS ISN'T TRUE. They don't even give you the chance. And it is because of school programs. School have taken out the significance of subjects like Art and Drama, and this influences greatly on the parents perspectives because if the school is not focusing on those subjects or they are not worth the same as Math or Science, then they are not really important for my kids when they do out of school. It is true what Robinson said; this creative subjects have been "stigmatized" and "undervalued".

In addition, children do have a bigger capability of creativity than adults because schools haven't affected them yet. Adults however, they have already been pulled into the education belief that leaves out all those subjects that are supposed to develop your creativity and help it grow and flourish. He talked about a girl that was in a drawing lesson and she never payed attention in class but the teacher was really interested in her drawing and when she asked the little girl what she was drawing she answered "God". And of course, the close-minded teacher responded "But nobody knows what God looks like". And the girl answered: "Well, they will know in a minute". This shows a very exceptional capability that children have and not adults because at their age it hasn't been disturbed yet. They are not afraid of being wrong; they will take a chance and this is extremely significant because as Robinson said: "If your not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with something original". Education is showing that making mistakes is the worst thing you can do; but they are not; they are actually the gateway to creativity and innovation. You learn from making mistakes and it keeps your mind and soul open. People always say: You learn from your mistakes, but this is kind of ironic because what education and society is implying all the time is to not make mistakes, so what are they really trying to say?

Finally he talked about Julian Linn, a famous choreographer and her story and I found it quite amazing, but I had actually heard it before; Adrian had told us her story a long time ago, but I still find it quite exceptional. In the 1930's, people's minds where much more closed than they are now. Because Julian couldn't sit still in her sear and remain concentrated, they told her parents that she had a concentration problem, maybe ADHD. And this didn't stop so she went to see a specialist and what he did in purpose to test Julian was leave her alone in his office, but he turned on the radio. And being already outside he told Julian's mother to look at her daughter through the window and as he had predicted, Julian had start dancing and moving to the rhythm of the music and he told her mother: "You daughter is not sick, she is a dancer; take her to a dancing school". Any other mother would have ignored this and send her back to school and told her to calm down, but her mother was able to break this boundaries that held Julian into a mold and let her fly and be who she wanted to be; letting her creativity grow.

We do have to re think the fundamentals of education and what is really important in life. It is going to be hard; but we have to try. The future depends on the present and the present is looking very uncreative lately  we have to change this NOW.

Ken Robinson:

Link to TED Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY 

Lysistrata Presentation

Our plan for this project was to film ourselves actually doing the scene; but we weren't able to do it because of time and everything going on that week but I personally really regret it because I think it would have been much better if we did a Power Point presentation explaining our vision, but showing the scene in a clip at the end. Not only because the audience could have physically see what we had in mind, but they would have understood our vision better I think. At the end we only did a Power Point presentation explaining our vision.
I think in overall, our presentation went pretty well; it was short and concise, but we went straight to the point and explained the major aspects of our vision and how we wanted to portray this scene however, I do think that we should have spend more time in the "Scene" slide explaining what the scene was about and what major things happened in it because the audience was kind of confused on what has happened in the scene and I think it is quite important because we have projected our vision based on the scene. I know that if we had chosen another scene, our vision would have been totally different, because the actions of the scene totally influence our way of looking at it and what is our vision, even though we were suppose to show it in one scene but it was intended for the whole play.
Moreover, I think what we lacked in this presentation was to go deeper into our vision; we had done it, but we didn't show it in the presentation and that was our chance to really show everything that we had discussed. We had really reflected about our vision and analyze it, our problem was that we didn't quite get it across.
Our idea of the witches was not quite well explained, and I apologize for that because it was my slide. Next time I have to practice more in the mirror to make sure that I say all the things I have to say and get all the significant points across. Basically, we wanted to show the connection between the witches and the women in that time. The irony of doing it from the men's point of view was to highlight how stupid their mentality was and comedy could help in this aspect. In addition, we wanted to explain how through time, witches have always been portrayed as evil manipulative creatures that used their magic of dark and evil things. And we thought this stereotype went very well with our idea of doing it from the men's point of view and portraying the women like the antagonists.
On top of that, I thought that the reason for our point of view was misunderstood. People thought that we wanted to focus on the women, and basically we are focusing on the women, because it's a very important scene for the women because it is when they come up with the idea of ending the war by giving up sex. However, we wanted to focus on the women, but from the eyes of the men. Basically, we wanted to portray this like the men saw it, exaggerating it, of course.
Finally, I thought it was quite interesting what Ms. Morrison told us about how in the past, the women who were considered witches where the first feminist. "Witches" in the past got burned alive because of "manipulating and controlling men's minds" basically. And if you think of this, it has a great connection with Lysistrata and what it is about because something we did talk about in the presentation is how women have a lot of power over men and we can manipulate them in different ways to get what we want, even if they won't accept it. I thought this was quite interesting and we should have looked for more information about witches and their past to be able to talk about this on our presentation and have more knowledge about the past of witches and how it connects to our vision and to the play.
In conclusion, focusing on me and my performance, I thought I needed to practice more because there were a lot of points I didn't talked about that where important. And next time we should act the part or show a clip because those are the types of things that gets the audience attention and we should take advantage of that; it will benefit our presentation and us. And finally, watching at our presentation, I think next time I should be standing up because it helps me and the audience be more engaged with the presentation.

Journal Friday September 16

Today we only had 45 minutes of class but the teacher made time to show us a video about a Chinese oprah tradition where the women talking was saying that she didn't want to expose these to the Western world because she was afraid that they would westernize it and modernize it and that tradition should be preserved. This lead to an argument about wether or not we should modernize or change our traditions or leave them as they were hundreds of years from now. Many people had different opinions. I believe that tradition are part of our culture and they are what make our culture and we should preserve it and best as we can without making any modifications so that is relates more and goes better to the western world. I think that if we change our traditions, for example "Marinera" or "El Baile de las Tijeras", we are deteriorating our culture and could eventually vanish it which will affect us as persons because our culture makes who we are, it affects us in a direct way and if we modify this, we would be completely lost as persons and when it comes to our personalities and who we are. 

This argument had to do with the Lysistrata project; wether we should change it or keep it how Aristophanes wrote it. I think there are two completely different things. Theatre class if all about experiencing and trying new things, being risk takers and showing our vision in our own weird way and I think we have the right to try and modify anything we want in this room because it will help us analyze the text more and understand and evoke our vision to the public. 

Finally, we had time at the end of class to talk to our groups. So we decided that our theme would be witches for two reasons that has to do with our vision. First, witches have always been portrayed as powerful creatures. So what we wanted to show was a comparison between witches and women and connect them by a same attribute: power. We want to portray how women have a lot of power over men and intelligence and how in Lysistrata they used this power to make the men listen to them and stop the war. Also, we also decided doing witches because Antonio had this idea where we did it in the perspective of men, portraying women as the dark side, the bad side, as if they are the bad ones, which would be ironic and the idea of witches would help us because over centuries witches have been stereotypically portrayed as bad, evil creatures, so that will help us depict our vision.  

Finally, we decided we wanted to film it because we thought it was much more creative and because our themes is withes, by filming it, it would help us add effects to the camera and to the characters that would represent our main theme and help us create that dark environment. 

Wednesday September 14 Reflection

So today we didn't have time in class to work on our Lysistrata projects because we dedicated the 45 minutes of class (short day) watching monologues and I think this is going to really help me have a better idea of what I am aiming to when I do my monologue. I haven't done any changes to my monologue because I haven't had time, and I really want to focus on the Lysistrata project because it's the one that is due next Tuesday so I really want to center on that by now. So Isabella is new in the class and she is now part of my group which I think it's amazing because she is my friend, I know her very well and now I am not going to be the only girl in the group. We did had time to give characters so now that we have another group member, we can present four characters. Antonio is going to be Lampito, Sebastian is going to be Myrrhine, Isabella is going to be Lysistrata, and I am going to be Kleonike. I didn't want to be Lysistrata because I have already experienced that type of dominant personality and leader personality in roles before and I think Kleonike's personality isn't well defines yet, so I think this would be a challenge for me to experience other characters and to try to figure out the personality of Kleonike.
We had talked about filming the scene instead of acting it which I thought was a great idea because I really like much more acting in a film than acting on stage; I like the process better and it was Antonio's idea, so everyone in the group is up for it; however we are not sure if we are going to film it.
We have made an inbox on Facebook so that we can post ideas and reflect on our vision of the play because I don't think we have deepened in that sense yet. We are going to have two classes were we are going to focus on this project, so we are going to have time in class to figure all this out but from now on, I have already cut lines that are not important and everyone already has their characters; so now we have to focus on what we are going to change to make this scene our own and to portray our vision through the scene.

Reflection on Lysistrata Project First Day- Monday September 12

So today the teacher presented the project to us and it is basically very straightforward and easy to organize and do, if you really put your time on it. So I'm in a group with Antonio Pinto and Sebastian Rios and even though I'm the only girl, it is fun to work with new people because you get to know them better and you get a sense of their style of working and what they are good at. I really wanted for everyone to give ideas and use them because normally I tend to be a control freak and try to do everything by myself the way I think it should be, but I wanted to change that so I had that in mind at the beginning of the project.
We chose the scene were Lysistrata was telling the women about the idea and they make the Oath. The other option was when Myhrrine seduces her husband and I really didn't want to do this part because I don't feel that it is quite significant and because I was the only girl I imagined I was going to be the one seducing Antonio or Sebastian and I really didn't feel comfortable doing that and didn't want to do it either and I know it's good to experience all types of characters but I thought it would be better if we chose a scene where the main character Lysistrata was in it because I thought it was very important to show her character and her way of being.
Even though I chose the scene, I talked to my group if they thought it was alright and they agreed. So Antonio said that our main focus would be when Lysistrata talks to the women and when do the Oath, eliminating the taking over the Akropolis part and when the men come to shout at the women to open the doors, and we all agreed this was the best part to show our vision.
Our vision is to show how important sex is for humans and how it can become an enormous deal to people. Sebastian and Antonio said that it would be better if we didn't change the time frame because that would support our point that sex has been important through the years in all culture and all time, not just recently. I still think we could change the scenery so maybe not the time, but the environment like we could be witched (just a random example, not an idea) instead of women from Sparta and Athens, or maybe not, we will expand this idea in the next class.
So finally, I told them that I would type the scene and next class we would dedicate our time to cut lines that are not important and focus on the important ones. Everyone in the group thought it would be best if I played Lysistrata and Antonio and Sebastian would play Kleonike and Myhrrine but now that I already typed the scene (cutting some unnecessary parts), I think it would be better if one represents the Spartans and one represents the Athenians. So maybe I can be Lysistrata and Antonio and Sebastian can choose between Kleonike and Lampito, the Spartan women. We will expand on this on the next class.

Monologue Rough Draft

So I did a very quick rough draft to have an idea of what I want to talk about. I think I have to cut a lot of "my son" because I repeat this a lot of times; it is good to repeat them, but not this much, but this is just a rough draft so it's okay; I am expecting on doing a lot of changes to it on Monday. I have added there a lot about before and after that I feel is not quite important and I can cut down, but for now, it is a good start. I like the end of it and I like the sound of desperation in her words at certain moments because that was her; she was a very introvertive person that didn't really stand up for herself, so she is quite calmed down, but there are certain parts where it is good to see the desperation she is hiding within her. I am not a fan of my monologue right now and I know I have to made a lot of changes, but it's a good start for now and I hope on Monday I can perfection it much more and really condense it to what is important and to what is going to affect and emotionally transmit to the audience which is what I want, and I do not feel I have reached this yet.


Here's my rough draft:

My name is Christine Collins. On March 10^th 1928, my son, Walter Collins disappeared. I had promised him that I was going to take him out that day, but my job called me at the last moment and I had leave. I felt something was wrong from the moment I shut the door behind me. When I came back, he wasn’t there anymore. I called the police but they told me they had a policy that you had to wait 24 hours for the police to look for him. I stayed awake all night; but he never came. A 5-month investigation led to a boy being found in DeKalb Illinois. They told me and all of you that this boy was my son; he is not my son. When I first saw this boy I knew he wasn’t my son but the agent insisted that I was in shock and that the boy had changed in this past 5 months because of the trauma. He told me: Mrs. Collins, he has nowhere else to go. So I convinced myself that I was in shock and that this boy was my son, but when I took him home I noticed that this boy was circumcises while Walter wasn’t. I put him against the wall to see his height; I measured Walter every month and this boy was inches smaller than the last time I had measured him. I went directly to the police, but they weren’t listening to me. They told me that trauma could affect the growth of children and his spine could have shrunk. I didn’t understand why they weren’t listening to me; that boy was not my son. They kept telling me that I was running away from my responsibilities as a mother. No I am not, I am even taking care of that boy there, but they had stopped looking for my son. I have given the L.A pd every opportunity to admit their mistake and renew the search for my son since they refuse to do so it forced me to bring my case public and I hope this will make them open their eyes and bring my son home to me. The department has made a terrible mistake and they have to please help me find my son before its too late. They are wasting time when they could be looking for my son; I don’t understand why they are ignoring me; why they keep telling me that that boy is my son when I am the mother; I know who my son is. When I finished with the press, that’s when they called me and told me I was a troublemaker and a liar and out of nowhere they took me to the L.A psychopathic ward calming that I suffered from paranoia, delusions of persecution, and dislocation from reality. I couldn’t believe what was happening; I felt so betrayed, so useless. But after some weeks passed the pastor of my church was able to get me out. I am here because I wanted the truth to be known and what this police department has done to me and to my son. But the only thing I care about now is finding my son; I beg them to please renew my case and start looking for my son. I can still feel him, please, I beg you, I just want my son back.

My 

Monologue Notes

So before starting and writing by monologue, I thought it would be very important for me to watch the movie again and look for certain quotes or importants points that the characters touch upon that I could use in some way in my monologue. So I made the decision of doing the monologue from the point of view of Christine Collins, the mother because of many reasons. First, there is a part in the movie where she stands up and tells the press what it is really going on; that's what I am looking for; I want to do my monologue as if I am talking to the press about everything that has happened concerning the disappearance of my son and all the things that the L.A police has done. However, I also want to add the whole story because in the movie, she talks to the press and then she gets placed in a mental hospital and then the agent in charge of her case says a lot of things that I thought would be very interesting to add to the monologue, and being placed in a mental hospital also adds up to the main theme of these monologue, the disrespect of human rights. Also, I thought this part of the movie was like a turning point and was really emotional and shocking if you look at yourself as one of the press. Of course, you have watched the movie and you already know everything that's going on with the police and what they have done so you already know everything that Christine Collins is telling the press, however the press are going to be like my audience and if you put yourself in the position of the press, everything that has been happening and all the cruelty and irresponsibility of the police, they didn't know of; so I think it is going to be very impacting for the class (my audience) to listen to all this for the first time, as it happened with the press. Also, by talking from Christine Collins perspective, everything becomes much more personal and the emotions are much more tangible and real which makes the general performance much better. 


Moreover, what I did was see the movies and take some notes or quotes that I could use or get inspired of and thats what I did:

• Movie starts on March 9 1928
• Policy that's says you have to wait 24 hours before the child disappears for the police to look for him.
• Found “her son” in DeKalb Illinois.
• “Your are in shock, you haven’t seen him in 5 months, the boy has changed, you have to give yourself time to recover from the shock, and with time, you will see this is your son. If you have any problems come talk to me. I give you my word. Mrs. Collins he has nowhere else to go.”
• “My son was inches taller than you”
• “Why are you not listening to me”
• “You are running away from your responsibilities as a mother”
• “I can take care of this boy, but you have stopped looking for my son”
• “ I appreciate what this department has done, but you have made a terrible mistake and you have to please help me find my son before its too late.”
• Dr. Earl Tarr was send to look at the child and try to convince her that it was her son
• Change in height: Trauma can affect the growth of children, given the stress of the past 5 months, his spine could have shrunk.
• “You are wasting time when you should be looking for my son”
• She refutes the report
• Police wants to avoid that they made a mistake.
• “This police department doe not tolerate descent or contradiction or even embarrassment and you are in a position where you can embarrass them and they do not like it”
• Dentist: not your son
• Teacher: changed enormously didn’t know her name, didn’t know where his seat was. “That is not your son”
• Press conference: “My name is Christine Collins, on March 10th my 9 year old son Walter Collins disappeared. The 5 months investigation led to a boy being brought to L.A from DeKalb Illinois. They told me and all of you that this boy was my son; he is not my son. The L.A Pd made a mistake. I have letter from his teachers and doctors saying that that boy is not my son; I’m having them reprinting now and I will have them for you tomorrow
• “I have given the L.A pd every opportunity to admit their mistake and renew the search for my son since they refuse to do so it has forced me to bring my case public and I hope that this will persuade them to finish what they started and bring my son home to me”
• Called her and took me to the department from the back door
• Caused quite a bit of trouble.. Embarrassment to the police try to make fools out of this do you enjoy this.. Responsibilities of a mother
• “You are a liar and a troublemaker
• Took her to a mental hospital, L.A psychopathic ward
• Suffers from paranoia delusions of persecution and dislocation from reality
• Photo of you at the train stations welcoming home your son, didn’t say anything.
• “Certify that you were wrong when you say the boy was not your son... it further stipulates the police where right when they send you here for observation and it absolves them from all responsibility.”

Dramaturgy 101 Assignment

Amy Steele wrote an excellent article on dramaturgy called "Dramaturgy 101". I like this article because it is personal and at least I, have more interest in things when they have a personal sense to them because it makes them more real and appealing. Moreover, Amy Steele writes in a very organized way where she goes step by step and explains to you thoroughly what dramaturgy is and all the concepts that a dramaturgist has to take in consideration, which is a lot. Before reading this article, I thought dramaturgs where only in charge of looking at the historical background of the play; however, they are in charge of much more that this. A dramaturgists has look look at the play from a "literart and performance standpoint... but also... investigated the social political, cultural, and historical contexts of the play's world. You have to be able to know everything about this play and really go deeper into the world of the play to be able to understand it and look at it from another perspective; from the perspective of the characters and of the time and be able to portray this findings to the actors and to the director because the actors are the one who are going to present this play to the audience and to portray everything that the dramaturgs see, and to be able to do this, the dramaturg has to taken them inside the world of the play with them. I thought that it was quite interesting and creative the way Steele did this by playing music of the time in the rehearsals and giving the actors food of the time because it's a way of emerging ALL senses into the story and it makes it easier for the actors to be able to become their characters and really walk like them, talk like them, BE them. Furthermore, what I like about Steele's way of writing is that she starts with a hook that really helps the reader become interested in the article. When she says "Through her multidimensional understanding of the dramatic material, she was able to help me appreciate how truly rich the play was", she is helping you see what the main idea of the dramaturgists really is and what they help you see. Because they analyze every concept that has to do with the play, it takes you into a deeper layer and gives you a knowledge no one else understands and that the actors have to show the audience. Dramaturgs help you see the play in other eyes and to be able to really get inside it and appreciate every aspect of it and all the metaphors that are expressed in it and to be able to dig deep into them and know their real meaning. All of this helps the actors to do a better job in becoming the character because they are able to understand thoroughly the secrets and aspects that are inside the story. In addition, I found it very effective that at the end Steele gave some ideas on how to do dramaturgists activities with the students because it expands our knowledge on what dramaturgy is all about and when she gave a specific list of all the concepts you have to go through, it helps the students be able to get organized and do a better job. Also, I thought her idea that you have to "encourage them to find their own hook into the play- something that really interests or speaks to them" was very effective because students won't do a good job if they are not really interested in the project. In many occasions I have found myself presenting and doing a better job in a presentation when I had to present a topic which I thought was interesting than one that I didn't really care about so helping the students find something that talks to them or really interests them about the play or the subject will help them do a better job. Finally, I really liked Steele's article because it helped you enter the world of a dramaturgists and also helped you become one. Not only that, but she wrote in a deeper more psychological way, which made you analyze more the concept and what it really means to be a dramaturgists. This article has helped me a lot to perceive dramaturgists in another way and to really appreciate their work because they are the ones that have the key to the door that leads you to the mysteries of a play.

Picture of Amy Steele:

Monologue

So, when Mrs. Morrison told us we has to write a monologue where we had to express a situations where human rights where not respected, I first was kind of thrown back a little bit because I have never written or acted a monologue before, and the fact that it is our monologue we are presenting, makes it much more nerve-racking but challenging as well. So at first, I thought of doing the typical skit where a child gets abused or something in that matter, but then I remembered a movie I saw recently that I loved. Loved doesn't really express how I felt about this movie; it was INCREDIBLE, AMAZING, I absolutely loved it. It is called Changeling and Angelina Jolie as well a John Malkovitch act in it. It is not based on a real story, but actually a real story; they haven't changed anything from how it was in reality and that is one of the main reasons why I found this movie so intriguing, personal, and interesting, as well as emotional. Basically, it talks about how this mother's son disappears in the 1920's, and how the L.A police was not were efficient and organized at that time and how they trick her by giving her another child that was not his and trying to convince her that that was her son. Because at that time, women were not strong and they didn't fight for their selves, they manipulate her and control her so much that at one moment, she actually believes that maybe that is her son and that she is just in shock. However, later on you can see a struggle between wanting her son and her own personality which is very fearful and very hold back, which makes it much easier for the police to manipulate her, even placing her in a mental hospital just because she was telling the world what was going on and how the L.A police was not listening to her and not helping her find her son. What I found very irritating throughout the movie was that there were times where people attacked her, shout at her, or try to tell her that that was her son when it was obvious he wasn't, or  acuse her of something, where she was completely introvertive and didn't stand up for herself. In this parts I was just going crazy and shouting because it was so annoying that she wasn't fighting and that she wasn't getting stressed that this people were saying that this kid was her son when it wasn't and everybody was treating her like she was crazy. If I was her, I would have screamed and shouted to them to make them understand; this parts of the movies are so stressful and annoying I can't even begin to tell you, but that's what makes the movie so good. It makes the audience feel what that woman was feeling at that moment; so useless and completely alone. Moreover, that is why I wanted to do a monologue about this, because it's not only unique, but I really feel connected to it and I think this will help me to perform it better in a way; and it is a clear situation where the rights of this woman are not being respected and while the police was doing nothing about this, her real child was being kidnapped by a serial killer, which makes everything in general much more infuriating. Finally, I am not sure yet if I am going to do the monologue from the point of view of the mother, of a spectator, or of one of the police guys who knows the truth. I am fighting between this and I am going to ask people what they think I should do because right now I have no idea what's my next step.

Here there's the link of the trailer with commentary of the movie so that you are more aware of what I am talking about:
Changeling Trailer and Commentary

Here there are some pictures of the real Christine Collins and her son Walter Collins: