DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 102 609 CS 500 969

AUTHOR Mayhew, W. LairdTITLE Can Prospective Sigh School Theatre Teachers Be

Trained to Utilize Drama-Theatre Processes to DevelopSelf-Actualization in High School Students?

PUB DATE Aug 74NOTE 16p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the

American Theatre Association (Minneapolis, Minnesota,August 11-14, 1974)

EDRS PRICE MP-$0.76 HC-$1.58 PLUS POSTAGEDESCRIPTORS *Drama; *Humanism; Humanistic Education; Personal

Growth; Personal Values; Role Perception; SecondaryEducation; *Self Actualization; *Teacher Education;*Theater Arts

ABSTRACTProspective theater teachers not only can be trained

to develop self-actualization in high school students, but they mustdevelop self-actualization in themselves. Self-actualization, as thecornerstone of humanism, emphasizes the achievable goal of being(rTher than becoming) creative, spontaneous, curious, concernedabout others, self-sufficient, and truthful. Since communicationserves as the crux of developing self-actualization in young people,the drama/theater framework provides the logical set-up for leadingadolescents toward self-actualization. Prospective theater teachersmay be trained to do this through noncompetitive play and Gestaltawareness exercises. Thus, by playing at and reinventing games oftheir own design, prospective teachers both learn to adopt dramatictechniques to fit classroom situations and therapeutically enrichtheir own lives. (A bibliography is included.) (JM)

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Can Prospective High School Theatre Teachers Be TrainedV> Utilize Drama-Theatre Processes To Develop Self-Actualization in

High School Students?

By

W. Laird Mayhew

PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERfAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

W. Laird Mayhew

TO LAIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATINGUNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE NATIONAL IN-t;r,TuTE OF EDUCATION FURTHER REPRO-UoCT:JN OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM RE.QUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHTOWNER

Paper Presented At

AMERICAN THEATRE ASSOCIATIONCONVENTION

Minneapolis, Minnesota

August 11-14, 1974

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Can Prospective High School Theatre TeachersBe 'trained to -Utilize Dfama--Theatre Pro esoes

To, Develop se f-Act zation n oo ents?

My first impulse is to respond affirmatively to the thequestion; but since a perfectly natural reaction on yourparts could well be "So what?" maybe I had better clarifywhat I mean by Self-Actualization, and why it has become soimportant in our teacher training program. Let me begin byquoting from "The Cocktail Party"- -

...They may rememberThe vision they have had, but they cease to regret it,Maintain themselves by the common routine,Learn to avoid excessive expectation,Become tolerant of themselves and others,Giving and taking, in the usual actionsWhat there is to give apd take. They do not repine;Are contented with the morning that separatesAnd the evening that brings togetherFor casual talk before the fireTwo people who know they do not understand each other;Breeding children whom they do not understandAnd who will never understand them...And the other life will be only like a bookYou have read once, and lost...

It has been suggested that Eliot has put his finger on theprevailing attitude of Modern Mans a constant longing forunderstanding and togetherness which seems unattainable, orperhaps something lost rather than never attained.

Self-Actualization seems to provide an answer to Eliot'spuzzle. Self-Actualization is the cornerstone of the mostrecent arrival on the psychological scene--Humanism. It hasbeen defined as an ultimate state, a far goal, Being ratherthan Becoming; the actualization process means the develop-ment of existing or latent potential--in other words,becoming fully human.

This smacks of the fairy tale, doesn't it? After all,haven't we all learned that humans are controlled by rigiddeterminism, that we are not the masters of our fate? Inorder for me to take Humanism out of the realm of fantasy,and place it in its proper perspective, it becomes necessaryto summarize the psychological schools of thought which pre-ceded Eusanism in Western culture, and against which Humanismhas been developed as a defense mechanism.

The modern history of the Western world has been stronglyinfluenced by two schools of such thought: Freudianism andBehaviorism.

The former developed as a reaction against the theoriesof "willpower" and "the rational behavior of Man" whichcharacterized the Romantic Movement of the Eighteenth andNineteenth centuries. To the Freudian, Man was the productof accidental evolution, the religious explanation ofCreation, being a childish delusion. Human behavior wasreducable to chemical and physical dimensions. An irrational,conscienceless Id was the basis of every man and had to be

controlled by the imposed morality of the Super-Ego, whichwas constantly at war with the Id; the resultant behavior

n411111% 118,041( not, 01) w the BOO. Hatred and sex were at the core

*DU tiara UYOU1INK "unu-b ormago vows-suerFor casual talk before the fireTwo people who know they do not understand each ()themBreeding children whom they do not understandAnd who will never understand themAnd the other life will be only like a bookYou have read once, and lost

It has been suggested that Eliot has put his finger on theprevailing attitude of Modern Mans a constant longing forunderstadding and togetherness which seems unattainable, orperAnps something lost rather than never attained.

Self-Actualization seems to provide an answer to Eliot'spuzzle. Self-Actualization is the cornerstone of the mostrecent arrival on the psychological sceneHumanism. It hasbeen defined as an ultimate state, a far goal, Being ratherthan Becoming; the actualization process means the develop-ment of existing or latent potential--in other words,becoming fully human.

This smacks of the fairy tale, doesn't it? After all,haven't we all learned that humans are controlled by rigiddeterminism, that we are not the masters of our fate? Inorder for me to take Humanism out of the realm of fantasy,and place it in its proper perspective, it becomes necessaryto summarize the psychological schools of thought which pre-ceded Humanism in Western culture, and against which Humanismhas been developed as a defense mechani sm.

The modern history of the Western world has been stronglyinfluenced by two schools of such thought: Freudianism andBehaviorism.

The former developed as a reaction against the theoriesof "willpower" and "the rational behavior of Man" whichcharacterized the Romantic Movement of the Eighteenth andNineteenth centuries. To the Freudian, Man was the productof accidental evolution, the religious explanation ofCreation being a childish delusion. Human behavior wasreducible to chemical and physical dimensions. An irrational,conscienceless Id wss the basis of every man and had to becontrolled by the imposed morality of the Super -Ego, whichwas constantly at war with the Id; the resultant behavior(often psychotic) was the Ego. Hatred and sex were at the coreof all human relations. Philosophically, Freud was a logicalresult of the attitudes of Nihilism exemplified by Nietzscheand his contemporaries.

Behaviorism drew upon Freudianism for some basics: theconcepts of accidental evolution, the chemical/physicallimitations of Men, for example. Added to these were the

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concepts that external environmental objects were the primaryinfluencers of development; that conditioned reflexes wereprime stimulators of development; that personnlity was onlythe end product of our habit systems (instincts); and thatthere was no scientific basis for morality. Sensations, per-ceptions, images, desires, emotions, purpose, and affective(abstract) thought did not exist in their lexicon. Philosoph-ically, a direct line of descent can be traced back from thestrict determinists of Behaviorism to Sade. In The Rebel, Camussuggests that the attitudes of negativism, dehumanization andNihilism are exemplified in varying degrees by Nietzsche,Sade and others; with nothing more than statistics to believein, after all, what point is there to optimism? Probably mostof us can see ourselves in Eliot's haunting limes, neitherunderstanding nor being understood. Inevitably this leads toNihilism.

Termed the Third Force for obvious reasons, Humanisticpsychology seems to be primarily a product of the TwenticthCentury. Its advocates have borrowed much that was useful fromFreudianism and Behaviorism. But the element that distinctlydivides the Third Force from its predecessors --the elementwhich increasing numbers of us think bide fair to change thetotal concept of the Western cultural pessimism dating backto Aristotle--is that Man's strengths are more important thanhis weaknesses; that humans are capable of something granderthan war, prejudice, hatred; that aggression is more the resultof culture than heredity. Studying mentally healthy peoplerather than the mentally ill (as did Freud), and studyingindividuals rather than groups (as do the Behaviorists),Abraham Maslow and his constituents have come to the conclusionthat there are significant differences between men and animals;that snbjeetive approaches to the study of Man tell us moreabout the human condition than do objective approaches; andthat both Freudianism and Behaviorism ignore characteristicsunique to Nan, such as self-sacrifice, shame, humor, conscience,ideals, patriotism, appreciation of art, beauty, etc. TheHumanists believe that their approach combines the best ofinternal/intrinsic concepts of being with the most useful ofexternal/extrinsic and environmental determinants. Through aideological stretch of the imagination, the philosophicalroots of Humanism might be found in pre-Aristotelian blendingof Apollonian and Dionysian views of life.

I believe that Western culture is much more stronglyinfluenced by Nietzschian/Sadist Nihilism than we realize.But even Nietzsche believed that such attitudes were notinstinctive to humanity: Nan had achieved positive fulfillment,for example, prior to the state of being in Greece which pro-duced Euripides, and Aristotle is often acknowledged the fatherof modern thought (modern negativism might be a more apt term).Based both on study of the works of the Humanists, and on myown observations as a teacher over a period of twenty years,I believe firmly that it is possible to overcome Nihilisticcravings by placing greater emphasis upon the development ofSelf-Actualization. So, a better phrasing of my title questionmight well have been to deal with the necessity for teachertrainees to learn to use Self-Actualization, rather than themere mossibility that they mi *t.

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understanding nor being understood. inevitably this leads toNihilism.

Termed the Third Force for obvious reasons, Humanisticpsychology seems to be primarily a product of the TwentiethCentury. Its advocates have borrowed much that was useful fromFreudianism and Behaviorism. But the element that distinctlydivides the Third Force from its predecessors--the elementwhich increasing numbers of us think bids fair to change thetotal concept of the Western cultural pessimism dating backto Aristotle--is that Man's strengths are more important thanhis weaknesses; that humans are capable of something granderthan war, prejudice, hatred; that aggression is more the resultof culture than heredity. Studying mentally healthy peoplerather than the mentally ill (as did Freud), and studyingindividuals rather than groups (as do the Behaviorists),Abraham Maslow and his constituents have come to the conclusionthat there are significant differences between men and animals;that subjective approaches to the study of Man tell us moreabout the human condition than do objective approaches; andthat both Freudianism and Behaviorism ignore characteristicsunique to Man, such as self-sacrifice, shame, humor, conscience,ideals, patriotism, appreciation of art, beauty, etc. TheHumanists believe that their approach combines the best ofinternal/intrinsic concepts of being with the most useful ofexternal/extrinsic and environmental determinants. Through aideological stretch of the imagination, the philosophicalroots of Humanism might be found in pre-Aristotelian blendingof Apollonian and Dionysian views of life.

I believe that Western culture is much more stronglyinfluenced by Nietzschian/Sadist Nihilism than we realize.But even Nietzsche believed that such attitudes were notinstinctive to humanity: Man had achieved positive fulfillment,for example, prior to the state of being in Greece which pro-duced Euripides, and Aristotle is often acknowledged the fatherof modern thought (modern negativism might be a more apt term).Based both on study of the works of the Humanists, and on myown observations as a teacher over a period of twenty years,I believe firmly that it is possible to overcome Nihilisticcravings by placing greater emphasis upon the development ofSelf-Actualization. So, a better phrasing of my title questionmight well have been to deal with the necessity, for teachertrainees to learn to use Self-Actualizaiion, rather than themere possibility that they might.

For we must change our trend toward negativism in orderto survive psychologically. Barry Stevens has written thatshe considered it to be '...the history of Man to go frombelief (concept) to belief (concept) and each time to getstuck. The beliefs are useful (releasing) for aWbile--a freshway of looking at things, leading to changebut then weaccept them as reality and so don't notice when they become ahandicap, because we have stopped questioning. A final answer

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is the end, and that is death. When the feeling of dying(non-living) becomes too cramping for too many, it takes con-flict and upheaval for a new belief to come into being. But...a new era can happen, as it is happening...in those scientistswho say that there are always alternate theories..." She goeson to approve that these scientists are satisfied With thetheories if they do what they were designed to do; there isno need to prove that they are the only theories possible forthe solution of given problems.

The psyctiatrist Karen. Horney has reasoned: "If therelease of anA.ety causes the patient to become more affection-ate and less hostile, does this not indicate that affection isbasic to human nature, while hostility is not?" AIL, but thatis psychotherapy, one might say, and we are teachers, nottherapists. Let me go on.

As a major spokesman for the Humanists, Abraham Maslowbelieves that Self-Actualization is an achievable state formost of us, and that only a tiny percentage now achieve thisstate because the rest are blinded to their potential by cul-turally imposed strictures; most individuals have the capacityfor creativeness, spontaneity, caring for others, curiosity,continual growth, loving reciprocity and other characteristicsfound in Self-Actualized people. To Maslow, persons who behave"badly" are reacting to the deprftstion of basic needs. Theseneeds he defines as physiological, safety, belongingness/love,aesthetic, knowing and understanding, and self-derterminat:on.Preconditions for basic need satisfaction ho lists as beingfreedom, justice, honesty, fairness, order, challenge (stimup-lotion). And successful achievement of these needs lead towholeness, completeness, fulfillment, spontaneity, richnessof life, simplicity, rightness, goodness, uniqueness, effort-lessness, playfulness, realization of truth, and self -- sufficiency.

Lest this read like a Christmas wishlist, let me pointout that Maslow, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, Gordon Allport andothers in the Humanist movement have uncovered sufficientempirical evidence' of the existence of such Self-Actualizedpeople as to make the possibility quite likely indeed! Theyalso believe that Self-Actualized people can be developed'---andwhat better place to do it than in the schools?

In "Transcendent Yunctioning," Gayle Privette has put itbetter than I could. As Privette points out, unfortunately,our schools make a sizeable contribution to our blindness toour potential. In schools, "...not only is little done tofoster curiosity or the pursuit of fascination, but measuresare taken to put a stop to wondering about unexplored possi-bilities by indoctrinating the student with belief in theinfallibility of the printed word...students come to expectnot to understand things that are well within the realm ofunderstanding. The assumption that answers can be graded asright or wrong is treated as a certainty by many teachers.And students come to define "improbable" as meaning "impossible,"and thereby dull their sensitivity to superficially coveredpossibility." And, as Bruno Bettelheim has stated time aftertime, if a child's efforts to get a response from the worldand the people around him fail more than a very few times,he may well decide that there is no use in trying further.

More often that not this leads to a withdrawal akin to that

continual growth, loving reciprocity and other characteristicsfound in Self-Actualized people. To Maslow, persons who behave"badly" are reacting to the depriVation of basic needs. Theseneeds he defines as physiological, safety, belongingness/lovv,aesthetic, knowing and understanding, and self-determination.Preconditions for basic need satisfaction he lists as beingfreedom, justice, honesty, fairness, order, challenge (stimu-lation) . And successful achievement of these needs lead towholeness, completeness, fulfillment, spontaneity, richnessof life, simplicity, rightness, goodness, uniqueness, effort-lessness, playfulness, realization of truth, and self-sufficiency:

Lest this read like a Christmas wishlist, let me pointout that Maslow, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, Gordon, Allport andothers in the Humanist movement have uncovered sufficientempirical evidence. of the existence of such Self-Actualizedpeople as to make the possibility quite lik 'v indeed! Theyalso believe that Self-Actualized people a oe developedi--and

what better place to do it than in the schoL.Ls?In "Transcendent Functioning," Gayle Privette has put it

better than I could. As Privette points out, unfortunately,

our schools make a sizeable contribution to our blindness to

our potential. In schools, "...not only is little done tofoster curiosity or the pursuit of fascination, but measuresare taken to put a stop to wondering about unexplored possi -.

bilities by indoctrinating the student with belief in theinfallibility of the printed word...students come to expect

not to understand things that are well within the realm of

understanding. The assumption that answers can be graded as

right or wrong is treated as a certainty by many teachers.

And students come to define "improbable" as meaning "impossible,.

and thereby dull their sensitivity to superficially covered

possibility." And, as Bruno Betteiheim has stated time after

time, if a child's efforts to get a response from the world

and the people around him fail more than a very few times,

he may well decide that there is no use in trying further.

More often that not this leads to e. withdrawal akin to that

which Matthew Arnold refers to inD"The Buried Life:"

I knew the mass of men concealedTheir thoughts, for fear that if revealedThey would by other men, be metWith blank indifference, or with blame reproved.

I knew they lived and moved,

Tricked in disguises, alien to the restOf men, and alien to themselves...

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What can we, as teachers, do to minimize this problem?I believe that teachers must learn to develop Self-Actualizationin their students--but in order to do this, they must know theprocess themselves. In his lectures on "Love in the Classroom,"Leo Bascaglia warns, "One thing we're not teaching the kids ishow beautiful it is to be alive--and we're not teaching itbecause we don't believe it ourselves. We are so mired in theugliness, so caught up in the degradation and muck that wecan't look up and see the stare. In order to teach someone howbeautiful life is, you've got to believe it yourself."

According to Carl Rogers, there are attitudinal elementswhich the teacher must reflect in order to create a growth-promoting climate: Congruence, which he defines as the teacherbthee i ng

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him; empathy, permitting the teacher to experience accurateempathic understanding of his students' private worlds, alongwith the ability to communicate to the students that he doesunderstand; positive regard for each of his students as persons,which includes continuing belief that each student has worthregardless of particular behavior at any given. moment (thisequates with Agape, a kind of love that has strength, yet isnon-pAssessive and non-judgmental); and finally, Rogers stressesthat unless these attitudes can be communicated to and perceivedby the students, they do not exist 7.717TEM57,Fceptual world,and, so cannot be effective.

So we come to communication as the crux of developingSelf-Actualization in young people...and what better place toexpose youngsters to the elements of communication (bothnonverbal and verbal) than within the spiritual birthplace ofcommunication, the drama/theatre framework? This is why I coxeseider the development of the characteristics of Self - Actualization(or its close relative, Transcendent Functioning) to be so,important in the training of prospective teachers of drama andtheatre. And it isn't too late for the teacher trainee toregain those childlike aspects which permit for both scientificinvestigation and Self-Actualization: "Growth is a process offulfillment, realizing, emerging and becoming. Fundamentalchanges can and do occur at any age in personality, innermotivation, life style, and ways of coping with the world,"say Jack and Lorraine Giblh.

tos you must have noticed by this time, most of my examplescome from the world of psychology. I really am suggesting thatwe, as teachers, should indulge in conscious therapy in ourclasses. Many of us feel distinctly uncomfortable with the con-cept of therapy as it is popularly used. Without the extensivetraining so necessary to the therapist, we ask, what righthams we to dabble in it? The fact of the matter is that we doinfluence our charges therapeutically all the time; every wordwe utter, our body language, our very presence in the samespace with young people (or our absence when they expect us tobe there) is bound to exert some influence whichfor good orill--can only be seen as therapy. 1 think that it is importantthat we acknowledge our effect upon our students, prepare our-selves to make use of that effect in all possible ways forthe good of the students.

Formal training in psychotherapy, while desirable in theh hi

which includes continuing belief that each student has worthregardless of particular behavior at any given moment (thisequates with Agape, a kind of love that has strength, yet isnon- posseesive and non-judgmental); and finally, Rogers stressesthat unless these attitudes can be communicated to and perceivedby the students, they do not exist in their perceptual world,end so cannot be effective.

So we come to communication as the crux of developingSelf-Actualization in young people...and what better place taexpose youngsters to the elements of communication (bothnonverbal and verbal) than within the spiritual birthplace ofcommunication, the drama/theatre framework? This is why I con-sider the development of the characteristics of Self-Actualizatiam(or its close relative, Transcendent Functioning) to be soimportant in the training of prospective teachers of drama andtheatre. And it isn't too late for the teacher trainee toregain those childlike aspects which permit for both scientificinvestigation and Self-Actualization: "Growth is a process offulfillment, realizing, emerging and becoming. Fundamentalchanges can and do occur at any age in personality, innermotivation, life style, and ways of coping with the world,"say Jack and Lorraine Gibh.

As you must have noticed by this time, most of my examplescome from the world of psychology. I really am suggesting thatwe, as teachers, should indulge in conscious therapy in ourclasses. Many of us feel distinctly uncomfortable with the con-cept of therapy as it is popularly used. Without the extensivetraining so necessary to the therapist, we ask, what righthays we to dabble in it? The fact of the matter is that we doinfluence our charges therapeutically all the time; every wordwe utter, our body language, our very presence in the setae

space with young people (or our absence when they expect us tobe there) is bound to exert some influence whichfor good orill--can only be seen as therapy. I think that it is importantthat we acknowledge our effect upon our students, prepare our-selves to make use of that effect in all possible ways forthe good of the students.

Formal training in psychotherapy, while desirable in theideal, is seldom possible for the teacher trainee in actuality.But perhaps this is not as important as we may think. I amcertainly not advocating non-directive (and untrained) experi-mentation with young lives, but I agree with Carl Rogers whenhe states that "...therapy (like tee) has to do with therelationship, and has relatively little to do with techniques,theory or ideology--it is the realness of the therapist inthe relationship which is the most important element ...our

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experience (in therapy) has deeply reinforced and extendedmy own view that the person who is able openly to be himself...as he is at the deepest levels able to be, is the effectivetherapist. Perhaps nothing else is of any importance...Asthe members of my class of prospective teachers learned, gen.oral principles are not as useful as sensitively discriminatingreactions."

But still, some form of training is essential. Prank M.Whiting, was referring to the director of children's theatrewhen he wrote, "Stanislaysky implies that those who are coup-tent with artificial flowers can manufacture them in a fewhours using the direct approach: wire and crepe paper. Those,however, who prefer real blossoms must follow a much slower,more complex and devious route. They must prepare the soil,plant the seeds, remove the weeds, spray the pests, andfinally with patience, wise effort and good luck they may pro-duce some prize-winning blooms. It would be foolish indeed tosuppose that one of the more complex living organisms, a skill-ful children's theatre director, could be produced with lesscare, cultivation and indirect control than a plant." And ifthis be true of the preparation of a theatrical director, canit be any less true for the prospective clpssroom teacher?

And so, how do we go about providing therapy-orientedtraining for the teacher trainee in drama? I say, let'a goto draw the needed water of inspiration from our own well.The experiments of Stanislaysky were, after all, reallyexperiments in human motivation and behavior. A starting pointfor those of us in the business of training prospectiveteachers might be found in some of the recent developmentswithin our own field. John Sharpham, Jerry Miller and LeonHymovitz, Dorothy Heathoote Brian Wayall combine effectiveteaching and therapy in their dramatic activities; why notapply the same sorts of approaches which they use with childrenand adolescents to clesses of teacher trainees? From Pestalozzito Piagetaaewey and Briksonr--knowledgible people have beentelling us for years that people learn significantly morethrough experiencing than through more cognitive techniques.Rogers might almost have been speaking of the traditionalway of training teachers when he wrote: "If we distrust thehuman being, then we must cram him with information of ourown choosing, lest be go his own mistaken my." Rogers' nextthought relates to more enlightened possibilities: "But ifwe trust the capacity of the human for developing his ownpotentiality, we can permit him to choose his own way in hislearning."

In our attempts to help prospective drama teachers under.stand Self-Actualization--and hopefully become able to strivefor this blessed state themselves--we work with a processwhich was once referred to as Creative Problem-Solving, butwhich I now call Creative Opportunity Development (problemand solving having negative linguistic potentialities). Underthis umbrella, trainees are exposed to opportunities to explorecreative processes which they might adapt to their own develop-ment, through noncompetitive play, through Gestaltist awarenessexercises --in short, through the direct experiencing of manyprocesses which they can later modify for use with their ownstudents. In the playing of non - competitive games, Spolinse

,e, 4i PI 44 F ad, A

it be any less true for the prospective classroom vet:Loner?And so, how do we go about providing therapy-oriented

training for the teacher trainee in drama? I say, let's goto draw the needed water of inspiration from our own well.The experiments of Stanislaysky were, after all, reallyexperiments in human motivation and behavior. A starting pointfor those of us in the business of training prospectiveteachers might be found in some of the recent developmentswithin our own field. John Sharpham, Jerry Miller and LeonHymovitz, Dorothy Heathcote, Brian Way--all combine effectiveteaching and therapy in their dramatic acti7ities, why notapply the same sorts of approaches which they use with childrenand adolescents to clpsses of teacher trainees? Prom Pestalozzito Piaget,ljewey and Erikson--knowledgtble people have beentelling us for years that people learn significantly morethrough experiencing than through more cognitive techniques.Rogers might almost have been speaking of the traditionalway of training teachers when he wrote: "If we distrust thehuman being, then we must cram him with information of ourown choosing, lest he go his own mistaken way." Rogers' nextthought relates to more enlightened possibilities: "But ifwe trust the capacity of the human for developing his ownpotentiality, we can permit him to choose his own way in hislearning."

In our attempts to help prospective drama teachers under-stand Self-Actualization--and hopefully become able to strivefor this blessed state themselves--we work with a processwhich was once referred to as Creative Problem - Solving, butwhich I now call Creative Opportunity Development (problem.and solving having negative linguistic potentialities). Underthis umbrella, trainees are exposed to opportunities to explorecreative processes which they might adapt to their own develop-ment, through noncompetitive play, through Gestaltist awarenessexercises--in short, through the direct experiencing of manyprocesses which they can later modify for use with their ownstudents. In the playing of non-competitive games, Spolin'sterms (problem-solving, point of concentration, aide-coaching)are useful. But even here the basis for ideation becomes thestudents' discovering the need for these aids themselves,rather than having the aids imposed on them before they seethe need for them. Presenting situations which have thepotential for prompting participants to ask for or to reinventfor themselves, devices with values similar to Spolin'edevices permits them to make the process uniquely their own.

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The motivational value of their feeling pride of creativeownership is obvious--the complexities of the ways in whichminds work are much more subtle. Yet a growing body of empir-ical evidence supports the contention that (for most people)the mind retains and uses in valuable ways a much larger per-centage of what it perceives as its own creation than of whatis baldly imposed upon it by outside sources, no matter howauthentic those sources might be. To learn, the student--behe child, adolescent or teacher trainee--should be helped,encouraged, and allowed to reinvent. Piaget states, "Anythingis only understood to the extent that it is reinvented." inactuality, the objective characteristics of Spoliate techniquesare much like the techniques found in Carl Rogers' Client-Centered therapy. In my own adaptation of these techniques,after each "experiencing,' participants go through a processof evaluating, followed by a repitition of the activity (thistime, utilizing the newly perceived information growing outof the evaluation). This procedure is akin to the "Experiencing,Analyzing, Synthesizing" steps of the California Drama/TheatreFramework.

So, by playing at, and reinventing games of their owndesign which might be applied to varied living situations,and by learning to adapt the process to these varied situations,the prospective teachers induTirrri two-fold form of develop-ment: they learn to adapt dramatic techniques to fit classroomsituations for their future students; at the same time, theirown lives are enriched therapeutically. Again quoting Rogers:"...the goa.s. of education must be to develop individuals whoare open to change, who are flexible and adaptive, who havelearned how to learn, and are thus able to learn continuously...people who can live more comfortably with change than withrigidity." Thus, rigid determinism has no place in the learn-ing process.

Incidentally, I believe that the ultimpte outcome ofHerbert Kohl's project with his Thir -six Children was sediscouraging to him because, as much as sir llves had beenenriched in his class, the children were not prepared to adaptto the unknown educational world outside that haven; therefore(it is assumed) they later became discouraged about using whatthey had learned from Kohl. Adaptability is a key element,therefore, in the training program of our prospective teachers.

Should we screen teacher trainees before opening our pro-grams to them? Rogers describes such a screening process:",..we would endeavor to select individuals for...training whoalready possess in their ordinary relationships with otherpeople, a high degree of these qualities: people who ars warm,spontaneous, real, understanding, non-judgmental. We wouldplan the educational program for these trainees so they wouldcome increasingly to experiente empathy, and liking for others,and feel it increasingly easier to be themselves, to be real.By feeling understood and accepted in their training experiences,by being in contact with genuineness and absence of facade intheir instructors, they would grow into more competent teachers.There would be as much focus in such training on the interper-sonal experience as on intellectual learning. It would berecognised that no amount of knowledge of tests, measures, orof theory, or of diagnostic procedures could make the traineemore Affective in his versonal encounters with his mails.

time, utilizing the newly perceived information growing outof the evaluation). This procedure is akin to the "Experiencing,Analyzing, Synthesizing" steps of the California Drama/TheatreFramework.

So, by playing at, and reinventing games of their owndesign which might be applied to varied living situations,and by learning to adapt the process to these varied situations,the prospective teachers indUlgrrire. two-fold form of develop-ment: they learn to adapt dramatic techniques to fit classroomsituations for their future atudents, at the same time, theirown lives are enriched therapeutically. Again quoting Rogers:"...tile goal of education must be to develop individuals whoare open to change, who are flexible and adaptive, who havelearned how to learn, and are thus able to learn centinuously...people who can live more comfortably with change Ulan withrigidity." Thus, rigid determinism has no place in the learn-ing process.

Incidentally, I believe that the ultimate outcome ofHerbert Kohl's project with his Thirty-six Children was sodiscouraging to him because, as muds as the -0-"IIWe had beenenriched in his class, the children were not prepared to adaptto the unknown educational world outside that haven; therefore(it is assumed) they later became discouraged about using whatthey had learned from Kohl. Adaptability is a key element,therefore, in the training program of our prospective teachers.

Should we screen teacher trainees before opening our pro-grams to them? Rogers describes such a screening process:"...we would endeavor to select individuals for...training whoalready possess in their ordinary relationships with otherpeople, a high degree of these qualities: people who are warm,spontaneous, real, understanding, non-judgmental. We wouldplan the educational program for these trainees so they wouldcome increasingly to experience empathy, and liking for others,and feel it increasingly easier to be themselves, to be real.By feeling understood and accepted in their training experiences,by being in contact with genuineness and absence of facade intheir instructors, they would grow into more competent teachers.There would be as much focus in such training on the interper-sonal experience as on intellectual learning. It would berecognized that no amount of knowledge of tests, measures, orof theory, or of diagnostic procedures could make the traineemore effective in his personal encounters with his pupils.There would be heavy stress on the actual experience of workingwith pupils, and the thoughtful and self-critical assessmentof the relationships formed."

I do not believe that Rogers is minimizing the importanceof knowing how to administer tests, or of diagnosing studentproblems--but neither is he giving them the undue importancewhich seems to be given in many of our colleges of education.

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The important observation of this quotation from my point ofview is that we have found that nearly everyone who goes throughthe experience which Rogers describes begins to develop towardSelf-Actualization, so the screening process becomes of lessimportance. Mutual trust between students, and between studentsand their teachers seems inevitable in such a framework. Alongwith mutual trust grow mutual support, use of intuitive reason-ing, and adaptability. As a result of the federally fundedCAREL Project on the Atlantic seaboard several years ago, pro.gram director Robert Alexander found that "Once a mutual trustis established, the evaluative process can be cooperative ratherthan competitive." Imagine no longer finding evaluation a threat!We find the the teacher trainees (as well as the young peoplein their charge once they leave us--a result of follow-upstudies of our graduates) more open, more willing to acceptvalid criticism once an atmosphere of mutual trust has beenfirmly established.

"It seems clear that if we prefer to develop flexible,adaptive, creative individuals, we have a beginning knowledgeas to how this may be done. We know how to establiahin an edu-cational situation, the conditions and the psychological climatewhich initiate a process of learning to be free," writes Rogers.He goes on to consider the "...dramatic evidence of what allof us have learned--that behind the curtains of silence andhallucination and strange talk and hostility and indifference,there is in each case s person, and that if we are skillfuland fortunate we can reach that person and can live in a directperson --to- person relationship with him. It says something aboutthe nature of Man and his craving for, yet fear of a deep humanrelationship. It seems to say that human beings are persons...I know that these moments of real relationship with these realpersons have been the essential reward for all of us..." Rogerswas, of course, referring to a psychiatric client, but in atruly satisfying learning relationship, cannot the same besaid for teacher/student, or for instructor/teacher traineeencounters as well? And because of the nature of the dramaticexperience, the teacher of drama and theatre has a uniqueopportunity--if not responsibilityto help his studentstoward Self-Actualization.

BibliographyAlexander, R. Theatre: (Central Atlantic Regional EducationalLaboratory Project

Arnold, M. "The Buried Life," English Prose and PoetryBascaglia, Leo, "Love in the Claseroom4)4 (lectures at U.S.C.) .

Camue, A. The RebelEliot, Tog. Vhe docktail Party,Gibb, J. & L. IlLeiaerless Groups," Ways of Growth, H. Otto, ed.

Goble, P The Third ForceHeathcote, D., "improvisation," (paper presented to the Ohio

Conference of Children's Theatre)Holt, J. How Children LearnKohl, H. 'hi =fix ChildrenKiller, ymo is, *Therapy Through Drama," Educational

11L4gE4412, Feb. 1969.NieWiTal,77, The Collected Writ of F. Nietzsche.?rivette, 4., ranee en o are o rowth.

"It seems clear that if we prefer to develop flexible,adaptive, creative individuals, we have a beginning knowledgeas to how this may be done. We know how to establidhin an edu-cational situation, the conditions and the psychological climatewhich initiate a process of learning to be free," writes Rogers.He goes on to consider the "...dramatic evidence of what allof us have learned--that behind the curtains of silence andhallucination and strange talk and hostility and indifference,there is in each case a person, and that if we are skillfuland fortunate we can reach that person and can live in a directperson-to-person relationship with him. It says something aboutthe nature of Man and his craving for, yet fear of a deep humanrelationship. It seems to say that human beings are personsI know that these moments of real relationship with these realpersons have been the essential reward for all of us... " .Rogerswas, of course, referring to a psychiatric client, but in atruly satisfying learning relationship, cannot the same besaid for teacher/student, or for instructor/teacher traineeencounters as well? And because of the nature of the dramaticexperience, the teacher of drama and theatre has a uniqueopportunity - -if not responsibility--to help his studentstoward Self-Actualization.

BiblioEraphyAlexander, R. Theatre Oearal Atlantic Regional EducationalLaboratory PTTP7Treport)

Arnold, M. "The Buried Life," English Prose and PoetryBascaglia, Leo, "Love in the Classroom," (lectures at U.S.C.) .emus, A. The RebelEliot, T.S.ne cocktail PartyGibb., J. & L.1kLeadeiless Groups," Ways of Growth, H. Otto, ed.Goble, F. The Third ForceHeathoote, D., "Ymprovisation," (paper presented to the Ohio

Conference of Children's Theatre)Holt, J. How Children Learn.Kohl, H. 211rn114.1g14X2RMiller, ::yntIviuTherapy Through Drama," Educational

Leadership, Feb. 1969.Nietzsche, P. The Collected Writings of F. Nietzsche.Privette, G., qranseenAsa Vunotioning,-iir Ways of growth.Rogers, C., "The Interpersonal Relationship,Ifterson to person,

B. Stevens, ed.-----"Learning To Be Free," Person TeWersan.Salisbury, L. "The Games Actors Aay,m Traolgio Speech Journal.Spolin, V. Improvisation for the Theatre.Stevens, B. Verson to Person.Way, D. Devalopment thraug4Drimna.Whiting, IX., IllareainglMliaren's Theatre," Children's Theatre

and Creative Dramatics, G. B. Bike, ed.

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