Automatic Writing

In my last Arts and Learning session, I was working with a visual artist on ghow we might use both our disciplines to engage girls in science in secondary education. I hated science at school so I was thrilled to hear that she'd got an A*. I asked her what she loved about it, but she just couldn't remember and hadn't a clue about how to use her visual skills to teach girls to love it like she had. I told her about automatic writing and asked if she would set aside 5 mins to splurge her thoughts on GCSE science. She said that she wasn't a confident writer, and then she sent me this...

I love science because........


I found it really logical and a formula, 1 + 1 + 2 and therefore easy to understand and grasp, I got hold of it without even realising, I just followed the textbooks and listened in class and it all made sense, and it was fun in the sense it was practical so the formulas when put into practice worked and it was like ohh of course it is like this or works like this because 1 + 1 +2.... I remember the van der graaf, think thats what it was called, a machine that when placed hands upon it made your hair stand on end and it was funny and fun but made sense from what we had learnt, and it was exciting and a little scary which made it more fun, that this huge machine that vibrated and made noises and looked very scientific could be fun and interactive but also make sense that all the theory was then put into practice and it all came together... I remember dissecting a kidney from a frog, maybe, and enjoying it, the hands on and the experimentation and exploring, the fact others found it revolting but to me it all made sense, all the theory and learning leading up to this moment when all the knowledge came together, we were allowed to play, we had to follow some examples on the board and look at certain parts of the thing – maybe it was a heart now I think about it, but I remember having free reign with a scalpel and this meaty object on my table, it felt professional, gloves on, white coats as did experiments, glamourous almost like you imagine all scientists to be, frankenstein or ones in movies, lab coats and the glasses holding test tubes and pouring liquid in and looking at things close up as if youwere discovering the cure for cancer or something really significant like your studies could change the world,the course of the world.... I remember this vacuum space with a window that lifted up and we were told to put things in their that fumed and the fume would rise and disappear and it felt like I had responsibiltiy to be trusted with things and chemicals that if done wrongly could cause significant harm, control, trust, learning about corosive and irritant chemicals and the damage they could cause and then seeing this labels and knowing their meanings throughout my science lessons and knowing I was being trusted with harmful chemicals..... I remember lesson in first year maybe – 10 years old?? and having to pour water into liquid bottles we had collected to see if the label on a bubble bath bottle correlated with how much liquid we could put in, and it did and our teacher was cynical and couldn't believe it thinking companies like marks and spencer would cheat us and not have the right amount of bubblebath in the container and I thought of my teacher having humour and being not a teacher, and the experiment proved something and was significant in that it just made sense- we needed to prove how much we could fit into the bottle so we poured water into the bottle and then tipped it into a measuring jug and checked the amount and it was the same or a little out and proved something – no question about it..... my first memory of science was growing beans on the outside of a glass with blotting paper and wathcing the bean sprout and grow shoots and seeing it, witnessing it and what the teacher saying making sense.... I remember teaching baking to 5 year olds in a school a few years ago and telling them about how states change through baking – a fun activity with meaning, that by adding water it goes to liquid, that the cakes rise because of a reaction to heat, all this formulas and statements made true by the findings and what was visibly happening......understanding the periodic table again felt easy....simple, simple to understand H20 because its 2 hydrogen to 1 oxygen..... acid plus akaline + neutral
later on once checked over the above text for spelling...... the van der graaf was fun because our teacher who had been cynical about the bubble bath and water amount let us create blue sparks from our fingertips by one of us touching the machine and then nearly touching the person next to us and so forth and we created a chain around the room and it felt naughty and something we weren't supposed to be doing, fun and exciting and we could see it happening it felt like magic watching a blue spark be emitted from us and all created by the electricity and static stuff from the machine that hummed and made noises in the middle of the room like it belonged in doctor who or something, its ironic that I cannot remember what the experiment was about or the meaning or what it proved, but it was fun and felt different to text book work, like our teacher had decided one day he had had enough and was to be practical or with a hands on approach.......

This is the magic of automatic writing. It shows the writer what's really inside her head. It wakes her up to what she already knew, but had secreted the details away somewhere. It harnesses the power to persuade, paint pictures and light fires. It's the answer...

Arts and Learning Homework 3

Reflect on a piece of work you have facilitated, and how it worked in terms of groupwork theory and the work you did with your specialist tutor



What worked, what didn’t work, what would you do differently next time?

Umi Sinha, a writer and writing facilitator, came to talk to us at the second Arts and Learning day in November, and passed on some invaluable exercises which I have used with my students. They reminded me how I use creative writing techniques when I’m working with academics, business people and students, and how I can use them for myself. So when Elizabeth, Jane and I decided to set up The Storyworks as a writing consultancy for schools, one of the first things we did was to meet at Elizabeth’s and find out about each other through the use of metaphor.

Exploring what colour, animal, vehicle we were in automatic writing, we then allowed each other to explain our choices. I was a jasmine plant, potentially fragrant but rather in need of some solid bamboo to hold me up if I was to reach for the sky. My waggy dog was eager to please, loyal and fun, and if put on a lead might pull till I choked. The others described their silent, gregarious, creative, self destructive, resourceful and generous selves through metaphorical old jalopies, contented cats and vibrant colours. We found out more about each other’s strengths and weaknesses and how we might support each other in those 2 hours than I think I’ve ever done with other professional – or any other – partners.

With our business plan, visions and expectations - as well as our flabby and scrawnier bits given form by metaphor - we were able to pool our ideas into a website that gave us a mirror to look into. Did we like what we saw? Our newly tuned sensitivities, like homing devices went in to nip the buds and prune the branches to allow our tree to grow tall and strong.

Since then, we’ve divided the work on our plan fairly, I think, and when commissions come in, we’ll be in a good place to share our skills with our clients. The jasmine has found her bamboo…

Conflict

We were asked to reflect on conflict, and as I always tell my students that automatic writing is the way to find  out what you really think, I used it for this exercise. This is what I found...

 I HATE conflict. It reminds me of rows between my parents and I’ll walk a mile around the houses before getting involved. I hear conflict as if the words are smothered under blankets leaving only the rise and fall of emotion. blood rushes to my ears and I can’t concentrate. I don’t think quickly enough to be able to respond; I’m in awe of the quick wit of a proper row. 

With children though, I find it a pain. I’m very confidant about how to resolve it, and I’m able to command enough authority to keep the focus on me. I can usually turn it into something creative, and I’ve done it enough times now to grow my confidence. I should welcome it as a creative stimulus, a point at which we jump off the bridge and run with something new.

At home, I try to talk it out. Again, I find it a pain but I know that we’ll always win through. Again, I’m the leader and I wish someone older and wiser than me would sort it out – just once! I’m training my 15 yr old.