Direction Journal

LIVE Interview with Michele Arsenault: February 15th

Michele Arsenault, MSEd, graduated from ACAT/NY in 1987, a few months after the birth of her first child. Almost immediately, she began working with children in the classroom in a funded project in a New York City public school. This work culminated in the self-published curriculum, Moving To Learn: A Classroom Guide to Understanding and Using Good Body Mechanics, 1998.  Since that time, she has continued to focus upon the needs of children—offering workshops for classroom teachers from an Alexander Technique perspective, searching for answers to her son’s autism diagnosis, starting a special education school in Manhattan, pursuing a Masters degree at the Bank Street College of Education, and teaching and working with some of the most fragile members of our society, including a child with Joubert Syndrome.  

For this interview, Michele will join me in discussing the last two decades of her work in the Alexander Technique and in education—work that continues to provoke and open conversations around the appearance of what is most certainly a deepening crisis in our schools and in our societies.  Michele hopes to share with the Alexander community a number of startling insights into optimal human functioning—insights that evolved from countless hours of carefully observing children with challenging behaviors in the classroom. She offers what she considers to be an emerging new paradigm that may explain the exploding epidemic of children and adults with so-called dis-orders and dis-abilities. This paradigm, which she believes is compatible if not instigated by the particular understandings of the Alexander Technique, flies in the face of the various models and solutions offered by the established medical profession. It is a paradigm that she believes teachers of the Technique are in a unique position to understand and to embrace. 

 If you would like to join us, click on "Live Interviews" on the left of this page for full details.

Those who were on the call with Sue Merry were totally inspired by this wonderful lady who has found ways and means to teach kids the Alexander Technique. I'm working on the recording now and hope to have it into the paid subscribers section soon (along with several other recordings promised a while ago, including Tommy Thompson, Lynn Nicholls and Jamie McDowell). I'm sorry these have been backlogged. The aim is to produce them a little more professionally than my older audios, so that you'll be more inclined to share them with others. But this takes extra time with a sound engineer and extra funds, both of which I have in limited supply.

Yep! I don't mind one bit if you share the audios...it's important that we spread this valuable info amongst the teaching community, but also the wider community also.

In every audio is a story of how the Alexander technique teacher found the technique, why they decided to train and what motivated them to pursue their particular niche in teaching. If you have students you'd like to inspire to train, then get them to listen to some of these inspirational people who have decided to make a difference in the world with the Alexander work.

I had a conversation with Gal Ben-Or yesterday afternoon in my "mobile office". I'd just jumped out of the surf at Rainbow Bay...one of the most beautiful right-handers on the Gold Coast and called Gal in Israel. Amazing times.

Anyway, we talked about how he's been working with kids using the Alexander Technique for 20 years and has a book nearly ready to publish. I will be interviewing him later in the month...be sure to tune into that talk to learn how he works with children...I'm looking forward to that interview very much.

The big take-away from my talk with Sue Merry was this...and it's something that every Alexander technique teacher should take heed of; Sue said the main factor getting in the way of the Alexander work reaching kids is Alexander teachers themselves! Teachers are too insecure to just go out there and start working with children. They think for some reason that their knowledge isn't enough, or they won't be able to do it, or children are too tricky to work with etc etc. But if you really do want to try this, Sue has already published a plethora of materials to help you get started. Just go to her website (click here) and navigate your way to the page with all her books...many of which are free to download!

As far as the Schools of Thought issue goes...it's coming together, all articles are in and editing is well underway. 

Would you like to know the one thing that NO training school I've contacted includes in their course? Apart from all manner of mind and body education governed by FM Alexander's four books and decades of handed down methods for training teachers, there is one thing that is NOT covered in any training school and it's a glaring omission.

If you would like to win a free subscription to DIRECTION (valued at $97USD), just post what you think is the answer in the comments to this blog. The first correct answer wins. I will publish all answers... but let's just see if anybody is actually aware of the single most important skill in teaching the Alexander Technique that not one training school I've contacted (and there have been a selection around the world of 20!) has even mentioned.

If you would like to receive a copy of Schools of Thought Issue, make sure your subscription is current, otherwise you'll be paying $29.95 for it as a back issue as soon as it is published in mid-March. Please check with me first if you're not sure whether your subs is current before you throw more money at DIRECTION! A few people doubled up last subscription drive and we had to refund their payments. SUBSCRIBE HERE

More soon.

PC

Sue Merry has a reputation with kids...they love the way she teaches! It's obvious why, just read the principles that she holds regarding education and kids below.

Sue has specialized in teaching children the Alexander technique since 1993 but also works with riders and horses. Her training also includes diet and nutrition using the BEST machine, she's an ordained Minister of Spiritual Peacemaking and most recently has been working with Metamorphic Technique.

Sue has appeared on Sky News and London Today. Her book "The Labyrinth of Gar" was published in 2004 and her new offering, "The Song of Mother Divine" is available from Findhorn Press and is the basis for a new programme of group-based work.

Join Sue and I on Tuesday 2nd February, 2010 

...as we talk about bringing Alexander technique back to where it can do the most good. Yes! Let's help the next generation change the world so that humanity doesn't keep making the same mistakes from it's habits.

 Principles for Teaching Kids (Quoted from http://www.ed2k.org.uk/Ed2kindex.htm)

- Education should first and foremost address the needs of the individual child.

- Every child should have the opportunity to learn and grow in a safe, loving and supportive environment.

- Every school day should include a period of "Quiet Time" when teachers and children have an opportunity to allow their bodies and minds together to come into a state of harmonious balance.

- Every school should understand the principles of the Alexander Technique and how to apply them to the school environment and to every school activity.

- Every child should leave school with the ability to choose good use of the self whenever they want to.

If this sounds like an impossible dream you might be surprised to learn that this is all happening now at a school in the UK: Educare Small School 

Jamie McDowell was introduced to Alexander Technique by teacher Sue Thame in London in the seventies and subsequently trained at the newly formed 'Alexander Teaching Associates' training course (1980) where the faculty included Don Burton, Sue Thame, Mike Gelb and David Gorman.

The course was seen as pioneering at the time and among the innovations were the inclusion of specialist Movement sessions and a personal approach to the study of Anatomy.

From London, Jamie moved to the Netherlands and was involved with the Amsterdam training course. When Don Burton moved to Cumbria, North West England, Jamie became a regular visiting teacher and eventually returned to England, eventually taking over the training course after the untimely passing of Don Burton in 1996. Since then, he has worked with co-director Michael Hardwicke at Fellside Alexander School,  Kendal Cumbria.

Jamie is a keen amateur singer and belongs to two local choirs. He's also on the Board of Directors of the next International Congress in Lugano, in 2011.

Join Jamie and I on Thursday 21st January, 2010.

All details are available by joining the Live Interviews list on the left of this page. Our talk will be recorded and posted in the Audio Archive for Subscribers.