Fill in the...Gaps
Teaching: the vital “missing” ingredientTHE SPECIAL QUALITY IN GOOD TEACHING
Recently I read a review of a book by US poet W.S. Merwin. A comment by the reviewer reminded me of what is special about Feldenkrais teaching (or, in fact, any good teaching). It is a special something which stimulates the thinking of the student, creating enjoyable and productive learning. Conversely bad teaching, lacking this quality, bores and alienates the student, stifles their curiosity resulting in inefficient learning.
The particular quality in teaching I’m thinking about is INCOMPLETENESS, or a measure of VAGUENESS. I’ll explain what I mean (in a vague sort of way) in a moment. First let me quote the reviewer, beginning with the poem he comments on:
CAESAR
My shoes are almost dead
And as I wait at the doors of ice
I hear the cry go up for him Caesar Caesar
But when I look out the window I see only the flatlands
And the slow vanishing of the windmills
The centuries draining the deep fields
Yet this is still my country
The thug on duty says What would you change
He looks at his watch he lifts
Emptiness out of the vases
And holds it up to examine
So it is evening
With the rain starting to fall forever
One by one he calls night out of the teeth
And at last I take up
My duty
Wheeling the president past banks of flowers
Past the feet of empty stairs
Hoping he’s dead
My shoes are almost dead
And as I wait at the doors of ice
I hear the cry go up for him Caesar Caesar
But when I look out the window I see only the flatlands
And the slow vanishing of the windmills
The centuries draining the deep fields
Yet this is still my country
The thug on duty says What would you change
He looks at his watch he lifts
Emptiness out of the vases
And holds it up to examine
So it is evening
With the rain starting to fall forever
One by one he calls night out of the teeth
And at last I take up
My duty
Wheeling the president past banks of flowers
Past the feet of empty stairs
Hoping he’s dead
The apocalyptic tone together with the anonymity of the speaker and the lack of specificity about time and place are both memorable and obscure. Readers and critics can be classified by how much vagueness they can tolerate in a poem.
- Charles Simic in The New York Review of Books, July 18, 2002 (reviewing The Pupil and The Mays of Ventadorn by W.S. Merwin)
I have read this poem several times now and I must admit that I have absolutely no idea what it means. However, like the reviewer, I do find it memorable though obscure. As I read it the vivid language stimulates my imagination, creating half formed images and feelings- which is the subtle pleasure that good poetry provides.
The relevant comment which reminded me of Feldenkrais, and learning in general, was: Readers and critics of poetry can be classified by how much vagueness they can tolerate in a poem A good poem leaves some gaps for the reader’s own imagination to fill in. And a "good reader" can appreciate those gaps, enjoying an exercising of their creativity in filling in the gaps. And this is the connection to Feldenkrais teaching, and good teaching in general- there are gaps left in which the student’s thinking is stimulated.
Similarly a "good student" (i.e. one who gets the best result from a learning situation) is one who enjoys that stimulation to their thinking. Simic continues: Undoubtedly Merwin’s images make their impact- like that one about wheeling the president past banks of flowers…At times more, at times less, the poet in us collaborates with the poet in the creation of such a poem. The poet’s imagination temporarily becomes our imagination. It is a powerful experience and one that cannot always be readily accounted for and conceptualised. I may love an image while being clueless about what "my shoes are almost dead" and " waiting at the doors of ice" actually mean…Merwin reminded us how much can be left out of a poem.
THE GOOD STUDENT
The late Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) said "You’re getting old if you’re unable to cope with a new idea." The "good" student, the creative, intelligent individual, is receptive to new information, always eager to learn something new. So they can enjoy the gaps that are left, the leeway allowed for the imagination to work.
They are willing to consider two or more sides to a question, or to leave a question unanswered for a while longer to allow time to explore many possible answers. [Can you recall a responsive student- some time when you were teaching / explaining something? What was it about that student that made them a "good learner"?] Conversely many other students are uncomfortable with "gaps", they just want the facts and don’t want to do any work of their own. This type of student- either unwilling to think, or just not used to it- usually finds Feldenkrais classes disturbing or unsettling, at first anyway. This is because in Feldenkrais we deliberately create some uncertainty, to encourage thinking. One very obvious way we do this is that we don’t demonstrate how to do the movements (unlike nearly every movement / exercise discipline such as, for example, Yoga, Tai-chi, aerobics, ballroom dancing etc.) The student waits for the teacher to show them "the correct way" to do the movements ("should I turn my head with the knees or oppositely?") but the teacher never does!
We prefer to let the students find their own way to do the movements rather than copying the teacher’s way. As a lesson proceeds each step is an invitation to explore, with no right or wrong answers, just a "what if?" "What if you roll your head to the left? ...what if you roll your head to the left but keep your eyes in the middle? …what if you keep your head in the middle and turn just your eyes to the left?” …and so on, the teacher asking a question and the student processing, finding the answer in their own body.
Gradually, with practice, the student becomes comfortable with the uncertainty and explores more freely (within clear parameters- it’s not a creative dance class- there are specific positions and a structured sequence of movements and there are gaps for the student’s intelligence to fill in).
The tolerance for uncertainty developed in the ATM class enhances the life skill for handling creatively the problems and uncertainties of the world outside the classroom- moving house / job loss / the change in computer systems in an office / an injury, to give some examples. It’s interesting to observe people (and ourselves) in these situations of change- some respond creatively, constructively while others may respond out of fear or anger. Feldenkrais , I believe, makes people better learners , more comfortable with uncertainty or change and able to respond more productively and successfully. The qualities of a good student are opposite to those of the fundamentalist. The fundamentalist fears uncertainty, it’s uncomfortable for them. They want absolutes, no shades of grey. These people find it difficult to cope with change (and poetry).
There are also those who are injured, in pain, traumatised- they crave safety, security, certainty. A visiting American Feldenkrais teacher, Deborah Bowes presented a workshop in Melbourne this March entitled "Pain and Curiosity" on the subject of Chronic Pain. She said that those in pain lose their curiosity to explore as each movement outside a restricted range causes more pain. She said the role of the Feldenkrais practitioner is to gently, safely lead the person into a greater range of activity including regaining their curiosity, their tolerance for uncertainty.
The eager learner can even intentionally create his/her own incompleteness. The great pioneering hypnotherapist, Dr Milton Erickson, did this in his early days as a psychiatrist working in a mental asylum. Before reading a patient’s case history he would observe them and then invent a case history. Later he checked how much his invented record accorded with the actual history- in this way he sharpened his skills of observation and diagnosis.
THE GOOD TEACHER
Unimaginative teaching simply pours out the facts, making the student a mere recipient of the information in a completely passive role. If there are not any demands on the student’s thinking, less is understood, less is retained (this is why television is such a poor teacher). A good teacher teaches the facts but an even better teacher will give some of the facts, then credit the student with some intelligence and pause, leave a gap for them to do some figuring out, to be actively involved. A good teacher may leave the student impressed with how clever the teacher is but a really good teacher, I believe, is one who leaves the student impressed with how clever the student is. [Can you recall some examples of poor teaching? Do you remember good teachers and what it was that made them good?] Actually it’s all too easy to find examples of poor teaching, I have to think a bit to remember good teaching examples (apart from Feldenkrais)…oh, yes! There was my cricket coach: He explained where my front foot should be when I played the on-drive. He asked me to play the shot again, then said "Where was your front foot?" I had to admit I didn’t know. He didn’t tell me either but instead taught me to "freeze" after playing the shot and then check where my front foot was. So I could know what I was doing and change to do what I wanted (as Moshe used to say.) And, more importantly, I could do this anytime without needing my coach there to tell me what I was doing.
And there was my piano teacher who, in my very first lesson, invited me to experiment with playing "just the black keys, they are a pentatonic scale, you hear it in Eastern music…" And so I found, right from the beginning, I could create interesting, even beautiful sequences of notes, just by playing around a little. Also my ear and thinking were well prepared then for the more structured learning of notes, scales and pieces of music.
Now I should say all of the above is not excusing sloppy teaching- that is teaching that is simply vague because the teacher is vague about what they are teaching (just as a poem that is complete gibberish is merely boring.) In leaving "gaps" the teacher needs to be very clear about what is to be said and what is left out, carefully judging how capable each student is. Anyway, I think I better stop here, following my own advice, and let you think on all this a little yourself, as you please. For, as the comedian said, there are 2 secrets of good comedy:
1. Always leave them wanting more.
