Which is the name of one of the twenty-five or so campuses that comprise CMS. With more being built – it’s hard to keep up. As well as directing Aesop, I have been cleverly manoeuvred into teaching some Drama workshops to a variety of groups, in various different campuses. This week it has been RJPM1 (as it is generally known – phew!) I had regarded such teaching as a bit of a chore, something I was willing to do, but as secondary to my main job of directing a production. But in fact I am having a ball. I had fallen out of love a little with teaching, but that spark has been reignited.
Not that it is all a piece of cake. I have been working with about thirty thirteen-year-olds, and it has proved a little bit of a challenge. At first, the main issue was getting them to loosen up, to relax. It takes a time for them to realise that I am joking with them, and to smile, even laugh. It takes even longer for them to start to get the idea that there is not a fixed answer to any task I set them, to copy me. It is all about imagination and creativity. Except that it isn’t.
I have no idea whether this is a concept that already exists somewhere – I really can’t believe I have made it up all by myself – but I have somehow stumbled onto the idea that all Drama teaching (or maybe all teaching. Or maybe all life) is built on three key principles: the most important of them being Respect. From them to me; from me to them; from them to each other. And I have just realised that this post is rapidly turning into Teach Yourself Drama, so I shall leave the other two to be dealt with later, as a sort of intellectual cliff-hanger.
The other small problem that I have had to deal with this week has been two particular students; one boy, who has attended all three sessions so far, and one girl, who arrived late. These two had the opposite problem to everyone else, that they were too confident, at least outwardly. Both have dominated my attention, and have had to be squashed a little, and then praised to the skies when they got something right. But I did tell them yesterday that it was not fair to the rest of the class that they should take so much of my time, so needed to show more self-discipline. And if they could not…
And today they were much better. Stick and carrot (another reference to a character from Aesop.)
I have been telling the senior teachers here, during our informal debrief after the session, that it was ridiculous that the biggest school in the world should not have a Drama Studio. And today I was taken by the site manager down to the basement to see if a space could be created there. And, provided it is approved by Geeta ma’am, it will be built. In a few months. Which means that I will have to come back to be present at the opening ceremony.
All of the campuses are in informal competition with each other, and RJPM1 prides itself on its ability to make change happen quickly. In business terms (as learnt from Val) its agility. Remarkable.
On a final note, and demonstrating my own (relative) agility, I noticed two boys playing cricket on the artificial grass in front of the building as I left. I asked to bowl, and second ball, clean bowled the batsman. Middle wicket (or what would have been middle wicket if it hadn’t been an upturned sports bag.) England beat India again!
