This is a ten minute read
Back in April 2022, as you may or may not have read, I had
what I felt was my first real gig back in-person for a long time. It was
certainly the first time since March 2020 where I was not 20 feet from the
first row. It was certainly the first time since March 2020 where most folks
were maskless and I was not wearing a mask, or a face shield. It was the first
time I had had three large presentations to different groups of kids since the
pandemic began. There was this wonderful, euphoric feeling of togetherness. It
felt like a normal presentation – well three! The kids had been
prepped on behaviour, there was some silliness, as it was the first event at
the school with “an outsider” since March 2020, and it all felt wonderful and
thrilling!
Since then, I have done a number of other first events
as a visiting guest. Some have gone really well, others have been a little
challenging. I am writing this because there are some folks, some performers
out there who have not physically visited, in-person, a venue since March 2020,
and
things, I believe, have changed since then.
The amount of time people have been actively engaged in
technology – screen time since the pandemic began, the amount of time people have been distracted by
virtual meetings and calls, children who need help, and not being able to go
outside and play to a large degree, has been huge, and at the end of the day
many of us just vegged in front of a box or device. This has had a severe
effect on not just kids, but everyone. I think we need to participate in a lot less digital engagement.
AND I THINK WE NEED TO ADDRESS THIS WITH PARENTS AND CARE GIVERS WHEN WE HAVE
ACCESS TO THEM! We need to take time out for ourselves as humans, to disengage
from digital content and seriously get back to analogue.
I am not a Luddite! I am NOT
calling for people to throw out their devices, or run into schools and
businesses and destroy computers and the like! I am suggesting that we step
away from them for a while, go on a digital vacation, to some degree! Put
devices in a time-out box!
I have been in
schools on and off since the pandemic began, and since the beginning of 2022,
have been regularly back in, in-person and I am seeing a difference in
child behavior. This is at the elementary level, and middle school
level. I am also seeing this with my own high school aged daughter and her
friends - she is 17 and will start her final year of high school at the end of
the summer. When I originally posted this as a letter to listservs I am on, I
have heard back from others, including Milbre Burch who said: “I’ve seen what you describe from first graders to Masters
students.”
I have presented Gilgamesh to
sixth graders at a local school many times prior to 2019. The kids were
spellbound by the story (and hopefully the telling). I presented it (at the
same school) virtually, via streaming media during COVID. Because it was streamed,
I have no real idea of how students were engaged those two years.
This April of 2022, I took
Gilgamesh back to the school, in-person, in front of 6th graders. Same school
with the same teachers, although in a different space. The reception was
totally different. Lack of focus, getting up, whispering to friends next to
each other were all happening which never happened in 2019 and
the years prior to that. I had worked on Gilgamesh, probably more this year
than in the past, and put a lot more work into being as engaging as possible,
both with physicality and with word choices. And dramatic action! What I
found was that the 'same' 6th grade students were behaving like 4th graders.
This is not my
only experience this year. I have been into a number of schools, and performed at community
events and found, to more or less a similar extent, children, students
in elementary and middle school, have little attention span at all. I
put a lot of this down to being remote for two years; having parents working
from home, trying to work and engage the kids, and help them where possible. I
imagine there was a lot of - go play on your device, go watch a
movie. Being stuck indoors for much of the first year, there was little
play, little reading, just a lot of screen time. Habit forming, addictive
screen time.
By doing what we do, analogue
storytelling in front of warm bodies, we need to start with shorter stories, build up to longer ones, get the span of attention
longer, larger, more resilient. The attention muscle has
atrophied! It needs retraining. I believe we need to tell folks to
read to their kids more often. Start with short stories, get into longer ones,
combine stories. Heck, read them anything they will listen to. Discuss things
with them. Get magazines like the Smithsonian or National
Geographic and find articles to engage the kids, Mountain
Bike Action magazine - anything! I think we need to be like that - try
on multiple different fronts to engage young people, and retrain adults, quite
possibly, based on a recent experience!
As storytellers, I feel this
year, we need to be far more "accepting", maybe tolerant, way
more patient with young people. It's Not Their Fault. We will, in my experience
thus far, need to take more deep breaths, show patience, and try to work to
gather them into the stories we tell, like a blanket on a cold day. From what I
have seen this might be tough, and also not needed everywhere.
We do need to be the fireplace where young people can gaze and lose themselves
to their imaginations (which are being stripped from them by technology). They
need to learn (for the little ones) or relearn (for the older ones) that the
imagination is a wonderful (and much needed) tool and place. We need parents to
realize that reading to kids, telling them stories, is so, so important right
now. The tv and devices need to be Put Away. A
return to analogue. And when we face children, young people this summer at
libraries and camps, etc., we need to give them space and be tolerant of
their behaviour, and guide them back gently.
Karen Chace on a 12-week class
she led this year (and has led in the past many times): “Was every student difficult? No, but the vast majority had
trouble listening, attending to their work, many were even disruptive during
the interactive games, and practice time outside of class was fairly
non-existent.”
And I have also experienced some wonderful interactions with
students. In fact, last week I did three presentations at a large school (5 – 6 year-olds, 7 – 8 year-olds, and
the last group 9–10 year-olds). The
smallest group I had had around 65 kids in it, the others much larger. With
each group I set expectations. The first two groups were amazing – wonderful,
we had a lot of fun. The 4th and 5th graders (9 and 10 year-olds) were
challenged in their ability to concentrate or sit still, or even listen. At one
point in a story Goldilocks ran into the bedroom, landed on a really hard
bed and cried out: “Crud! That really hurt!” Some of the kids, I think
mis-hearing my British voice, told me I couldn’t use that word. So I said, Goldilocks
ran into the room, and landed on the really hard bed crying out: “Bother!” Again,
the kids called out, “You can’t say that!” So, I did the same thing again and
again substituting the ‘bad’ word until I was using words like ‘shoe,’
‘saucepans,’ and ‘fish hook’ until we agreed on: ‘Oh, oops-ee-daisy!’ and moved on. This took up about four
minutes of the story as the kids cried out and then settled down before
starting over again. This I would expect from 2nd graders, not from too-cool-for-cucumbers
4th and 5th grade students. And it was fine. I tried
other things in another story when one of the characters was granted a wish. I
asked the kids (by raising their hands) what they might wish for. I used every
trick in the book to engage on a more personal level and used some tricks that
came to me, spur of the moment! They settled in, but it took time.
Like Karen, I had to have a serious talk with one of the kids
(Karen had three and she eventually called the parents during her 12-week
program). I rarely do this, and hate having to do this, but sometimes it is
needed. Again, I don’t believe it’s the fault of the child.
This brings me to another point! At another gig with very
little, delightful pre-school kids with wonderful parents and staff, I had some
issues. It was a special event and held outdoors. It was hot and sunny, and I
was placed in a pavilion, and invited kids and parents into the shade with me
throughout my set. Some of the kids later joined me, but it got a little wild.
Some kids walked about the space, some came and sat next to my feet, and one
little girl for a while stood between my feet and rested her elbows on my knees
and rested her chin in her hands as I told a story. Engaging the other
children, and the parents continued, and after the story some of the kids went
back to their parents. Some kids were whispered to, others were not. Those who
were not whispered to came back and goofed about a bit on the pavilion
platform.
When I finished and was packing up, a mother came over with
her daughter. I thought we were going to have a nice little chat about stories,
and by the look on the girl’s face, she though the same thing, but the mother
then told her daughter to apologize to me for misbehaving. This was a
parent who had said nothing to their child during the performance, in fact I
wasn’t sure if she was the mother until that moment. The look in the girl’s
eyes changed and I thought she was going to cry. I felt pretty annoyed myself.
The parent had done nothing to educate her daughter, and her girl was just
being a little preschooler – being who she was supposed to be. I felt the parent
was the one who should have been apologizing. I said pretty much, just that – the
girl was being a little kid, that’s all. No harm done. And that kids
need good role models, they need guidance as to how to behave, especially when
it might be their first sort of experience like this. I gave lots of
smiles to both of them and hope the point was made.
Parents might need reminding that we, the performers, are not their children’s
care providers. That care providers need to keep a check on their wee ones,
that their wee ones might not know how to behave, but they, as parents, should
be able to remember! I try to make light of a lot of this sort of thing and
chalk it up to experience, and learn from it. We might have to tell parents
that more than ever their children need active attention from them.
The kids have been through a lot, and I am sure many of these
children have not escaped seeing or hearing about the horrific news
about shootings. They are daily. Some are worse than others. There is so
much division in the country, I am sure children feel that anxiety
coming off parents and other adults around them. Kids sense a lot.
We have to cut slack, as I said, breathe deeper, be more forgiving and
supportive.
Again, from Karen Chace: “The
principal was very aware of the problems and agreed the vast majority of
students at the school were affected by the lack of social contact during the
pandemic.” They are craving for contact, for attention. And it’s not all
bad out there, as I said. We just need to be aware of the audience’s needs,
and limitations. It is a changed world. As Fran Stallings wrote about her first
time out in-person with children (K-2): “…they
were great. Nobody moved, except with my gestures. Whew!! Teachers were
dumbfounded. I credited the stories (with active participation tapping off
excess energy). I’m glad we all survived together! Summer reading programs,
with a wide range of ages and distractions, are a different challenge!”
And I Know we will rise to it. Milbre Burch again: “There’s a lot of work ahead, not all of
it the kind you get paid for. Let’s all hold hands and jump!” Welcome to
the new times ahead. Have fun out
there and Love Your Audience.
Peace,
Simon
