What is teaching if not providing tools to switch on our extraordinary natural human capabilities and equipment? “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish…” goes the saying.

The human “toolbox” is immense! It’s a multi-leveled, multi-dimensional, poly-chromatic symphony of sympathies, attitudes, choices and connections. Just like we are!

It’s like the inverse of one of those ancient Chinese box puzzles. Instead of opening a big box and finding smaller and smaller boxes inside, you open a small box and find a bigger one inside! The more you use the tools, the more they open up new frontiers!

Instead of reducing everything down to fit ‘little box’ views of the world, the natural tools open everything up into greater and greater vistas!

Right now Talking Hands Talking Feet is doing “Math-a-magic” with a wild bunch of 2^nd graders in Santa Fe. It’s a blast! It turns conventional math teaching on its head, actually helping kids to think according to natural principles (as a compliment to their textbook learning).

One of the songs in this curriculum is simply called – TWO. It helps to introduce children to the brilliant comparison/contrast tool which the law of duality can be! It begins like this:

On the third planet out from the Sun

Learning stuff about nature’s fun

One of the best discovery tools

Is to search for things that come in TWOS

Look inside out and upside down

Search the whole wide world around

Get on your socks and get on your shoes

We’re looking for things that come in TWOS

And then it goes on to sing and act out many kinds of examples of TWOS, from opposites to couplings, adjacencies and pairs! It’s fun to do and the children enjoy it. They realize very soon that it goes absolutely everywhere!

To their wonderment and joy, as we opened up examples of “twos” we showed them how the word LISTEN contains the word SILENT – and isn’t it true that to be able to listen you must be silent?

“Wow! How did you know that?” one girl exclaimed.

“It’s in the word, it’s in many words, it’s in numbers, it’s in the color of things, it’s in the shape of things, in trees, in water, in flowers… it’s in everything. The “magic” is in everything! You just need to know how to see it!”

That’s where providing tools comes in!

PAZ

It is composed of five catchy songs to assist you in a theatrical way:

The Calendar Song – days of the week, months of the year and the seasons ‘round and ‘round. This song really lends itself to 3D representational theater as suggested in the accompanying video.

Plant A Seed – growth cycles from seed to germination to maturity can be explored using this beautiful song about a tree. The dance allows your students to grow from seed to tree.

Summer Rain Song - dramatic representation of a summer thunderstorm, complete with ‘rain symphony’!

Apple Tree - the wonder and awe of what is contained in a tiny seed is gently mused in this harvest celebration song.

Seasons Song - from winter white slumber, to clean green spring, to summer’s expansive grow and flow, to autumn’s yellow harvest – a wonderful celebration of the seasons sung in the ‘key’ of each season!

Accompany your season’s research with the wonder of cycles:

How are the seasons displayed in the flora and fauna and eco-systems in various parts of the world?

How do humans respond to changes of season?

How are the seasons celebrated in different parts of the world?

Did you know that if you were born in November in South Africa, you are a ‘spring baby’?

What other differences are there between Northern and Southern Hemisphere cycles and natural phenomena?

The final verse to the Calendar song says:

The Moon goes around and ‘round the Earth

The Earth goes around the Sun

The Sun goes around the Galaxy

‘Round and ‘round and ‘round…

This so lends itself to representational theater! The moon’s orbit around the earth (and 28 day cycle); the earth’s 24 hour rotation and 365 day orbit around the sun; and finally the sun’s extraordinary orbit around the center of the galaxy!

And what does the galaxy orbit around???

Children absolutely love this kind of learning! Try it!

~PAZ

Education, the Arts and Healthy Living!

Talking Hands Talking Feet started in 1997 doing classes for pre-school age children. We developed early childhood integrated music, movement and storytelling programs that provided the essential foundations for what has become a comprehensive curriculum based arts integrated education program for children of all ages!

Songs to Educate is our on-line resource that allows educators around the country and internationally to access this inspiring, relevant and substantial body of work.

Songs to Educate is designed to reach thousands of parents and teachers who wish to integrate the arts in their education curricula. It is easy and affordable to use. Every single one of our songs with accompanying movement theater has been proven successful by the most qualified test group of all – the children themselves! Children love these songs!

We have worked with literally thousands of children from infants to adolescents in public and private schools and in our own workshops and summer camps at Humming Grove Learning Center. That’s where our training comes from. Santa Fe New Mexico continues to be our research and development laboratory where our curriculum is continually evolving and keeping current with the needs of students and teachers.

Talking Hands Talking Feet Principles and Methodology

THTF incorporates multiple learning modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, spatial, linguistic, musical/rhythmic and logical; integrating both brain hemispheres) engaging the whole child.

THTF takes the lessons off the blackboard, out of the textbooks, off the computer screen and brings them INTO LIFE through the media of song and movement/choreography creating representational theater of the curriculum content (water cycle, body systems, growth cycles, math concepts, science concepts, ecological literacy, healthy living, language arts and more). It gets the children out of their chairs, on their feet, using their bodies and minds to explore and express the subject matter within a specific framework. There is no greater way to learn than to make it positive by giving it expression. This is arts integrated education at core.

Children love it because it makes the subject tangible; they can relate to it, see it, feel it, EXPERIENCE IT and most importantly, they are given tools to express it!

Teachers appreciate it, both as a value added compliment to their curriculum AND because it helps them create a more engaging learning ecology.

Educators know that what sticks with students are the short pithy sayings that encapsulate what they are learning or help with behavioral practices. Our songs are chock full of simple concepts, sayings and notions children (and teachers) remember and love!

It builds confidence, camaraderie and mutual respect between students, helping them to develop versatile and flexible ‘learning muscles’ together.

Arts Integrated Education

Children receive a substantial music, movement and theater education, along with accompanying visual and language arts, as a means of expression of the curriculum content.  Arts’ training is a byproduct, a result of the process rather than the primary focus.  This is what arts integrated education is! It is a fantastic way to learn! It allows children to experience what they are learning with the whole of themselves whilst employing a variety of artistic media.

The great thing is children are motivated to improve their versatility in the arts because doing so simply allows them to convey the content they wish to express better! It is a content driven, message driven use and development of the arts.

Music and Movement are universal languages. Humans are innately musical. All children relate to music naturally, especially when the music relates to them! Children often come up to us saying excitedly, “Did you know that song is all about what we’re learning in class?!!” And we’ll say, “We wrote that song to help you learn about that subject!” And they’ll say, “Really?! How did you know? That’s so cool!”

Performing Arts Philosophy

Our school programs always culminate with a bright performance, but the performance does not govern the process. The performance is a natural overspill of the work we’ve done together. But what is important about Talking Hands Talking Feet performances is what is NOT present.  Our curriculum based performing arts programs are a no judgment zone; this is not a personality contest and we passionately reject the competitive pressures of popular performance culture. This is not about getting it perfect, or who’s the best singer, dancer or actor. We encourage versatility and depth of expression, good timing and robust participation by providing a framework and an alphabet of movement, language, melody, dramatic expression, emotional intelligence, teamwork disciplines etc. that give young people confidence and inspiration to proudly represent what they have accomplished.

Performance is a magnified opportunity to share, to give, to transmit something of value into the world!  Our performances are a celebration of learning success wherein the audience is now the student and the children are now the teachers!

~PAZ

Animate your human body curriculum by teaching anatomy and body functions through these content rich songs!

The eleven songs in the Human Body School – Body Opera for primary age provide a value added, experiential journey into the following areas:

Healthy Living, Fitness and Nutrition

The Circulatory System and the Heart

The Respiratory System

The Digestive System

Body Organs and their basic functions

Body Vocabulary (including three bilingual songs)

Body Anatomy Groupings and Connections

The Body Opera is definitive arts integrated education. It is fun and we’ve made it easy to implement as a teaching tool or as a full-out performance. It is an incredibly effective way to teach the human body.

The Human Body School fosters “body smarts”. It’s about being good body researchers; having a fundamental understanding of how our bodies work; and being able to make healthy lifestyle choices.

It generates a rare confidence, learning versatility and feeling of camaraderie between your students; bringing the important knowledge of the human body off the backboard, out of the textbooks and worksheets and INTO LIFE!

Learning about the human body should be one of the most exciting adventures in a young person’s education! The only reason many children find it to be boring is because of how it is taught, nothing else. You can change this!

Human Body School – Check it out!

Contact us for any help that you may need in implementing this valuable curriculum.

~PAZ

I remember very clearly as a child feeling invisible in a sea of grown ups. It was an odd kind of anonymity. You could happily wander around large gatherings like weddings or church and simply not be noticed! Stranger still was the feeling that when a grown up did notice you they would talk at you or through you or down to you, missing you completely. Until…

…Until there was someone who would  suddenly come in to focus.  It was such a relief when it would happen. In a sea of blurry faces and muffled conversation there would be a person, a grown up, sometimes a complete stranger, crouching down next to you, making eye contact, somehow understanding, connecting, talking WITH you, not at you or over you.  Everything else would go quiet. For a few moments you were not alone, you were not invisible. It felt safe, and strangely familiar.

It was the same at school. The grown ups who made a difference were the ones who connected, made contact, saw me, talked with me, not at me. They were the ones who took the ‘school’ out of learning. Suddenly you were interested in something, caught by something because the way they talked about it. They wouldn’t ask you questions, not directly. They were asking questions out loud – to life, to the universe! It was irresistible! You couldn’t help joining in!

It’s really as simple as that. Have you noticed as a parent and/or teacher that the real learning magic happens when you’re not facing the children, not confronting them with what you want them to learn or what you know, but when you are facing life and learning together with them?

It’s an attitude. It’s a kind of empathy. It’s human! To come up next to the children you parent or teach and jump into the territory with them!  Be a student right alongside your students. It’s the best way to teach! Besides, soon enough they will work out that you are not an authority. Or at least they should. If we are doing our jobs right as educators, they will soon realize there are more unanswered questions than answered ones; that the human race is barely a toddler in the great journey of discovery and learning.

More importantly, we want them to ask the un-asked questions!

The key is not facing them. It’s facing life together with them!

~PAZ

Do we realize the stress associated with education is now systemic?

Do we then realize that stress shuts down higher learning capacity, reducing our attention and awareness to a narrow biological focus?

What’s the point? Really?

OK. So your child gets into a “good” college. Alright, but at what cost and what for?  Who’s ambition is this?

Do we realize much of our public education is dictated by bureaucratic minded administrators, businessmen and women, not actual educators?

If the goal is to produce viable employees within an increasingly irrelevant and dysfunctional global socio-economic model, then we are right on track.

The ambition for many is to become materially wealthy, rather than spiritually rich. The goal for many is to help themselves, rather than to give service to the greater human possibility.

But there are those who passionately believe otherwise.

We may wish for our children to be the innovators of tomorrow; the pioneers of new human pathways; the hope of the future. But how will that happen if the neurological, psychological, moral and physical integrity of these young lives are casualties of a misguided cultural achievement obsession?

Teachers and parents! Elevate education to its true and natural premise. Help empower the young lives in our care to become the bridging generation to a future that is open, unwritten…hopeful.

Re-humanize education.

PAZ

Quotes:

About the film Race to Nowhere

http://www.racetonowhere.com/

“A compelling film about the stress that kids today experience because of high-stakes testing. ” ~Diane Ravich, Former US Asst. Secretary of Education

“You’ll be inspired to make some changes, big and small, for the health of your kids.” ~Oprah.com

“A call to mobilize families, educators and policymakers to help disprove the notion that the educational system is ‘one-size-fits-all.’” ~Jewish Weekly

“A reminder of the human and societal costs of our current education system” ~Dr. Jim Taylor, education blogger, Psychology Today

~ PAZ

The Natural Education package is now ready. You can check out the video preview at the top right of the page

This song, video and lesson plan explores the invaluable ways of living we learn from Mother Nature: biodiversity, conservation, recycling, sustainability.  It is designed for children ages 9-12 but younger children will also love to watch the video.

***

Natural Education Principles

Choice is sacred. It is core to what makes us human. We can neither grant it nor take it away. What we perceive our choices to be however, and what we do with them depends on the depth and scope of our education!

In many ways life would be much simpler and the planet would be much better off if humans didn’t have this gift of choice. There’s the indigenous people’s proverb: “The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives!” Only humans have the capability to destroy the ecology which supports them. Wouldn’t it be easier, clearer if this were not true?

But then, we would not be truly human – endowed with the elevated gifts of conscious reasoning, morality and choice!

So then, what is natural education?

Is it “returning to nature”, going “back to earth” as some say, reverting to a subsistence way of life, natural living, “getting off the cultural grid”…???

No. Not really. Not as a first principle. Not in the context of the 21^st century when most of seven billion people live in urban habitats.

The first principle in a “natural” human education has got to come from a deeper understanding of human life! For example, what makes us different from all the other mammals on this planet? Why do we have choice? What’s different about our brains? Why don’t we see elephants writing books, doing poetry slams, playing soccer, tweeting, face booking or flying space shuttles? By the same token, flip-side, why can’t an elephant pollute its habitat, ruin its health or go to war against the baboons?

Some philosophers and theologians have argued that humans are “above” nature or “separate” from nature. But let’s take a step back from that. (Besides, I’m sorry, they’re idiots if they don’t think we are part of the natural worlds! The ‘dominionist’ brand of thinking has a lot to answer for.)Taking a step back though, let’s find a starter, a premise that is useful and relevant NOW.

What are (some of) the principles of natural education?

Humans are born with the urge to learn, to compare, to feel, to discover, to create………!   How ‘bout we don’t shut that down for starters?!

Humans come into this world trusting their systems and faculties. But from early, early on, they learn otherwise. Infants can swim quite naturally!

Humans come equipped with the most extraordinary systems and faculties. Every single human being (not damaged in the womb or at birth) is naturally capable of unique virtuosity. But we are trained by osmosis and example to use only a fraction of our potential!

Humans are an integrated part of the world! We are not isolated. What we think, do and feel affects other lives, affects our environment and affects our possibility. Humans are NOT meant to experience such isolation. We are designed to learn by living interaction and connection!

Learning is a living, dynamic process, where the ‘student’ and the ‘subject’ engage in an interactive, connective relationship. Learning actually cannot happen in a static environment, ‘studying’ static facts or things with static expectations. In fact, “teaching to the test” is anathema to learning; it is just operant conditioning… and why again?!!

We are natural problem solvers! We may be good at breaking things, but we are also very good at fixing things too! It is what we bring to bear that is the challenge. Computer technology may look impressive when considering sheer volume and speed of information exchange. But compared to the versatility, elegance and finesse of the human mind and its technologies, computers are clunky, mechanical calculators.

The mind can heal the body using the body’s natural ‘pharmacology’, but we’d rather surrender our health to medical practitioners who don’t actually practice “medicine” anymore. Medical training now focuses on ‘meds’ rather than medicine, disease treatment rather than preventative health education (which would put the pharmaceutical industry out of business!).

Variety is the spirit of life! We know this! The planet certainly knows this. Think of the magnificent array and theater of life on earth. Children need to be exposed and experience variety and diversity. Mono-culture produces narrow minded, mono-chromatic, monotonous thinkers. Human life is a kaleidoscopic symphony within a panoply of possibility!

We humans know better. We know that bio-diversity is the key to a healthy eco-sphere. We know that life thrives best in symbiotic reciprocity! We know that the best conservation is using something according to its design. We know when NOT to manipulate something to our own selfish ends. We know better! We do.

Still, we have CHOICE.

In fact, choice is at the heart of natural education. But if our young companions do not realize what their choices are, we fail them as parents and educators. Our job in part, is to show what options exist, that there are other options, other ways, and to help young minds to connect to and create new options – based on natural, perennial principles and values such as – LOVE, HONOR, RESPECT and HUMANITY.

For starters….

PAZ

*****

Do we realize the stress associated with education is now systemic?

Do we then realize that stress shuts down higher learning capacity, reducing our attention and awareness to a narrow biological focus?

What’s the point? Really?

OK. So your child gets into a “good” college. Alright, but at what cost and what for?  Who’s ambition is this?

Do we realize much of our public education is dictated by bureaucratic minded administrators, businessmen and women, not actual educators?

If the goal is to produce viable employees within an increasingly irrelevant and dysfunctional global socio-economic model, then we are right on track.

The ambition for many is to become materially wealthy, rather than spiritually rich. The goal for many is to help themselves, rather than to give service to the greater human possibility.

But there are those who passionately believe otherwise.

We may wish for our children to be the innovators of tomorrow; the pioneers of new human pathways; the hope of the future. But how will that happen if the neurological, psychological, moral and physical integrity of these young lives are casualties of a misguided cultural achievement obsession?

Teachers and parents! Elevate education to its true and natural premise. Help empower the young lives in our care to become the bridging generation to a future that is open, unwritten…hopeful.

Re-humanize education.

PAZ

Quotes:

About the film Race to Nowhere

http://www.racetonowhere.com/

“A compelling film about the stress that kids today experience because of high-stakes testing. ” ~Diane Ravich, Former US Asst. Secretary of Education

“You’ll be inspired to make some changes, big and small, for the health of your kids.” ~Oprah.com

“A call to mobilize families, educators and policymakers to help disprove the notion that the educational system is ‘one-size-fits-all.’” ~Jewish Weekly

“A reminder of the human and societal costs of our current education system” ~Dr. Jim Taylor, education blogger, Psychology Today

The Water Cycle Kit is now available

Sprinkle young minds with the natural wonders of water!

Give children the gift of NOT taking for granted this extraordinary element and its phenomenal properties. After all, water is the foundation of physical life on earth!

Teaching the water cycle in 3D (to music!) is a brilliant introduction to the science of all living systems. One of the first things children realize when they have acted out the water cycle is that WATER IS ALWAYS IN MOTION, always changing state. It never stops!

The same is true for all living systems!!! There are no static systems.

Water also demonstrates natural connections and integration. Children love pondering the fact that the water in your lemonade may once upon a time have been in a cloud or a snowstorm, an iceberg or a coconut. Children love the thought that humans, plants and animals are also part of the hydrosphere!

All living systems are fluid, dynamic, interdependent and integrated! How do we ‘teach’ in a way that best reflects that???  That’s the premise of arts integrated education. If you want to teach the water cycle, be it! Turn your classroom into a living research theater!

The spring of knowledge will not be found in textbooks and worksheets. Knowledge springs from our connections to the natural worlds. Real science is a dynamic process. You can’t stop life to study it.

It begins in our own ‘headwaters’ as educators. Learning is simply NOT a static process.  Learning itself is a living, fluid process! Water has much to teach us.

The Water Cycle Kit with its four songs, accompanying video, audio, lyrics and lesson plan ideas is a wellspring of activities for your living learning toolkit!

Seven years ago we planted a young maple tree in our front garden. It was skinny and frail so we supported it with stakes and rope thinking it wouldn’t be able to resist the winter and spring winds otherwise. But a wise gardener friend told us to remove the stakes so the tree could stand on its own. She said having to resist and sway with the winds stimulates growth! The tree would thicken in girth and become more hardy and resilient.

Seven years later there is a robust and beautiful Silver Plume Maple growing in our front garden!

It is the same with us humans! Care doesn’t always translate to coddling! Sometimes making things easier handicaps a young child. We sometimes jump to the rescue prematurely – ameliorating conflict, frustration or contradiction before a young ‘sapling’ has gotten the benefit of struggling with it, working through it.

It’s one of the hardest things to do. This is not talking about ‘tough love’ or callous denial or not being a friend to your children. That’s totally the wrong signal, in spite of what the ‘experts’ say. This is talking of a rare kind of love that stems from our deepest humanity.

How will they grow compassion if we shield them from the suffering of other lives?

How will they grow deep self trust and confidence if we prevent them from testing it?

How will they grow honor in themselves if they don’t face the winds of truth, integrity and justice?

How will they grow from making mistakes if they fear punishment?

How will they grow respect, understanding and empathy if we ‘protect’ them from what is foreign (and unknown) to us?

How will they learn to self heal if they are taught to avoid pain with a pill?

How will they grow humanity in themselves if they’re not exposed to the rich difficulties, dilemmas and diversity of the greater human story?

How will they grow humility in themselves if we don’t allow them to fall?

How will they develop new ways of leadership if they are not deepened and humbled by the knocks that come with the territory?

How will they be driven to find the deeper questions if they are given the impression we adults have an answer already for everything?

We ‘protect’ our children by helping them to build inner strength and resilience by leaning into the ‘winds of resistance’. You, the parent or teacher, are not the ‘winds’, life is! The deeper love is not in facing them, but in facing the questions of life together, side by side, with them!

PAZ