Katarsis

The fire is gone, the clouds of smoke have disappeared

The heart regains its previous rhythm

And the hope has been awakened again

When after the night comes another dawn

 

Katharsis, meaning setting free of energy abreacting the tension that is blocked inside us, our suppressed emotions and thoughts. If there is no outlet for these whirling troubles, something called stress is born. In spite of all the endevaours, there is no doubt that a school is the place where, since always stressed teachers have met equally stressed students – a ticking bomb just about to explode. Paulo Coelho wrote that “only somebody who is happy himself, can radiate happiness” By analogy we can say that this is the teacher's, as a person surrounded by the school community, inner peace and balance, together with the reserves of positive energy that make a chance to weaken the wave of emotional disorders of the charges. Quite a tough task but with the knowledge of appropriate techniques one can help both himself and others to regain his inner harmony. This conceived an idea of incorporating tai chi, being a form of physical activity whose positive influence on our physical health is undeniable. However, its direct and the most spectacular effect is the improvement of mental condition like calming down, mood upswing or betterment of concentration. It happens owing to the fact that the activity of telencephalon focuses around tiny motorium areas, while the other areas of cerebial cortex are apparently dimmed. Another example of applying unconventional relaxation techniques is dance, as an ancient form of expression. In this aspect it cannot be treated as a sequence of steps but as a platform for improvisation and releasing emotions. It certainly does not mean that from now on we want to master some of tai chi sequences on math lessons, nor that geography will start from dancing with the maps. Nevertheless the awareness of existence of these emotion releasing techniques allows the choice and application of these elements,  which in a concrete situation will seem the most effective. In other words, which will successfully help  in achieving so much needed for all of us, the state allowing to undergo katharsis..

 

Theater

All the world’s a stage

And all the men and women merely players

They have their exits and their entrances

And one man in his time plays many parts

 

Theater is a kind of performing arts, in which the actors give a live show to a definite audience. Here comes the mutual interaction between all the participants, something that influences the final shape of the performance. Owing to this various course of interaction each show is different. Again it is not difficult to find some analogy between theater and school., while in both everything is going on here and now, with the participation of defined actors and audience. Therefore,  holding constant suspense is a crucial aspect of the teacher's work, as it is him who usually initiates  most of the interactions. He needs to be on continuous standby, prepared for an immediate reaction, just like a stage artist who cannot remain indifferent to, whether it is ovation or disapproval. And here  even thorough substantial knowledge of a given subject is not enough if it is not supported by some acting skills. So all the exercises that we happened to learn dealt with the effective usage of the potential of our own voice, body language and all the range of nonverbal ways of communication. We not only learnt about the history and theory of theater but also had that unique chance to peep a real theater from behind, as we could watch professional actors during their rehearsal for William Shakespeare „Midsummer Night's Dream”. Highly emotional turned out all these tasks where we had to play certain roles. And even stronger the emotions were when we had to improvise incorporating some unpredicted circumstances that were appearing neanwhile. How many times does it happen  that we seem to have a well elaborated  lesson plan that turns out brilliant in one class and a total disaster in another one? An actor must be prepared for the audience reluctant to collaborate. He also needs to be aware of what is going on around, by no means can he let himself ignore the surrounding reality. Similarly, a teacher is not allowed to such ignorance like  continuing with his masterly prepared lesson when the communication, in terms of receiving the message is disrupted, using the metaphor when the audience somehow leave the theater before the play is over.

 

Nature

 

Everything on Earth has a soul, whether it is a rock, a plant, an animal or even a thought.  Everything is being continuously transformed because the Earth is alive and it has a soul. We are part of this soul, though we rarely recognize that it is working for us.

 

 In this context nature is understood as the wildlife that surrounds us with all its phenomena. Direct contact with nature is absolutely essential for the proper physical and emotional development. It is a kind of paradox that despite our raising awareness on this subject, this contact is gradually vanishing. Especially in the urban centers it is becoming forgotten. Let's imagine that one day this modern world is deprived of its comfort and suddenly one cannot get everything from the shop. How would a primary school graduate survive? Which real skills do we teach at school? And immediately comes another question – would this child be able to take advantage of nature in a clever and sustainable way? During our training we approached to different aspects of nature – from never-ending discussion on theory of sound and natural wildlife rhythms, to such primary activities like grinding flour. The mere location of the workshop on a farm together with the open-air activities, far away from the civilization hustle-and-bustle transformed us into a different, slightly  forgotten world. It was like  returning to the roots, present in traditions like baking bread, the substantial food for many people for ages or learning about unusual features of the plants that in everyday life we notice only as annoying weeds. It was also the stories of old trees told by those passionate people whose life has been designed by the rhythms of nature. It was also the trips to the beautiful places, including Barsento, Conversano, Matera, Polignano or breathtaking Alberobello, where we had a chance to admire not only human creativity but, like in  Grotte di Castellana, also the masterpieces created by nature itself This provoked reflectiion both on its beauty and its power and on how much we, the people depend on it and how easy we are to be manipulated if this relation .is weakened.

 

Fatalamanga experience

Though this be madness, yet there is a method ...

It is really impossible to say in a few words what  constitutes the strength of the Fatalamanga impact. Is this name only a  well resounding  but meaningless word that just happened to appear in one of the Dadaist poems? Undoubtedly this is the place that allows to fantastic freedom in terms of artistic expression, especially the one that seems to slip out of the widely-held stiff frames. For sure, it is a place that enables  taking off the mask that everyone wears according to the role he plays. Certainly it inspires to reflection and verification  of what is the most important for us and our surrounding. However it does not mean that the spirit of anarchy entered into our minds, yet sometimes rejecting some traditional patterns gives unexpectedly positive effects. And this is just what we are willing to try. We saw so many different places and did numerous different things, from exercises focused on concentration and inner equilibrium, through building the trust of another person, to various ways of expressing emotions, that it all really goes beyond  our ability to summarize everything here. Therefore we are planning to create a compilation of  various exercises addressing various individual needs. First we will share our „Fatalamanga experience”  with our colleagues and then, step by step according to the assumptions of our project,  we will implement all these novelties into the life of our school. After all order is born from chaos...