The Lesson as a Ceremony
Michael Berman
Michael Berman is a research student at the University of Wales, Lampeter and a part-time teacher at Oxford House College in London. Publications include A Multiple Intelligences Road to an ELT Classroom and The Power of Metaphor for Crown House Publishing and The Shaman and the Storyteller for Superscript. Michael has been involved in TESOL for over thirty years and has given presentations at numerous Conferences all over Europe and not only.
E-mail: Michaelberman@blueyonder.co.uk
Website: www.Thestoryteller.co.uk
Menu
Background
Story : The Earth will Take its Own
Story Notes for the teacher
Follow up: Help to Make the World a Better Place
References
Background
Cahill and Halpern (1991) suggest that there are three distinct stages in ceremony which need to be honoured for the experience to touch us deeply: Severance- leaving behind the everyday world, entering Sacred Time & Space - going beyond ourselves, and Reincorporation - returning with new self-knowledge. As these are the same psychological processes that compose our lives, there is a strong case to be made for following the same steps in class.
Einstein famously remarked that we cannot solve problems from within the mind frame that created the problems in the first place. Any time that we step outside our assumptions or habitual way of seeing things by entering Sacred Time & Space, we are experiencing what Zohar (2000) calls our SQ (Spiritual Intelligence) and to some small extent, at least, using it for the purpose of self-development.
Entering the ritual space can be compared to entering a temple because it serves as a focusing lens. When we enter marked-off space everything, at least potentially, assumes significance and even the ordinary becomes sacred by having our attention directed to it in a special way (see Smith, 1982, pp.54-55).
Reincorporation, like recollection, entails the bringing together of our world inside and our world outside, the meeting of the deep, inner self and its innate wisdom or spiritual intelligence with the outer ego and its worldly concerns, strategies and activities. Recollection can be defined as SQ in action. And what Emile Durkheim wrote about ritual in connection with religion, can apply just as well to the lesson:
Once we are acquitted of our ritual duties, [in other words, once the ceremony is complete] we re-enter profane life with more courage and enthusiasm, not only because we have put ourselves in touch with a higher source of energy, but also because our forces have been reinvigorated by living briefly a life that is more relaxed, more free and easy. In this way, religion has a charm that is not the least of its attractions Durkheim, 2001, p.285).
However, it should be pointed out that this can only be achieved by creating the right kind of conditions, in which the learners can feel relaxed and thus able to produce their best work
Mention should also be made of the power of ritual to bring people together, to create what Victor Turner refers to as "communitas", something that is recognised by Rappaport (1979) too. He notes that one of the benefits to be derived from rituals is that they can alter consciousness by inducing a feeling of "loss of self", that sense of separation we often experience in our daily lives, and they thus enable us to experience a feeling of union with other members of the congregation [class]. Driver refers to the power of ritual to bring people together too:
Three stages of ritual can be identified - preliminal, liminal and post-liminal. And the liminality of ritual can be regarded as 'a recourse from society's alienating structures to a generalized bond of unity … that is felt or intuited among humans and other beings' (Driver, 1991, p.162).
In a story telling session, you leave the everyday world behind you the moment the storyteller says once upon a time, you're transported beyond yourself into another setting during the telling of the tale, and you return with new self-knowledge if the story worked as a metaphor for you.
So the next time you plan or analyze a lesson, see whether the three stages described in this model can be applied to it. If they can't, then perhaps there is something missing - a vital ingredient that could make it work better.
A story for advanced level students that the three stages can be applied to is presented below, followed by notes on how it can be used:
Story: The Earth will Take its Own
There lived a certain widow and she had an only son. The son grew up and saw that only he had nobody he could call father. "Why does everybody else have a father and only I don't have one?" he asked his mother.
"Your father died". "What does it mean died? Does it mean that he won't come back to us any more?"
"He won't come back to us but we'll all go there - to where he is", said his mother. "Nobody can run away from death".
The young man said, "I didn't ask anybody for life, but I'm already alive and I don't want to die. I'm going to find such a place where they don't die".
For a long time his mother begged him not to go, but her son did not listen, and he set out to look for such a place where they do not die. He went round the whole world. And wherever he went, he asked the same question, "Is there death here?"
"There is", they answered him.
The young man became sad: there is no such place where they do not die. On one occasion, when he was walking across a plain, he saw a deer with high branching antlers. The young man liked the deer's antlers very much, and he asked the deer, "Don't you know somewhere where they don't die?"
"There's no such place", said the deer, "but until my antlers grow up to the sky, I won't die; but when they grow up that high, my death will come too. If you like, stay with me and you won't die while I'm alive".
"No", said the young man, "either I want to live eternally, or I might just as well die where I come from".
The young man went on further. He crossed the plain, he went all through the valleys and reached the mountains. He saw a raven sitting on a crag, cleaning himself, and shedding his downy feathers into a huge deep gorge below. The young man asked the raven, "Don't you know a place where they don't die?"
"No", said the raven. "Here I'll live until all of this gorge is filled with my downy feathers, but when it's filled, then I'll die. Stay with me and live on until the time when I die".
The young man looked into the gorge and shook his head. "No", he said, "either I want to live eternally or I might just as well die where I come from".
The young man went on further. He passed through the whole world, and approached the sea. He walked along the shore, not knowing where to go. One day passed, two days passed, but nothing could be seen. On the third day he saw something shining in the distance. He walked towards it and there stood a crystal castle. The young man walked around the castle, but he could not find any kind of door. For a long time he was tormented, but at last he noticed a small streak, and he guessed that this was really the entrance. He pressed with all his strength and the door opened. The young man went inside and saw, lying there, a young woman of such beauty that the sun itself would envy her if it saw her.
The young man liked the woman a lot and she fancied him too. The young man asked, "Beautiful lady, I want to get away from death. Don't you know a place where they don't die?"
"There's no such place", said the young woman, "why waste your time looking for it? Stay here with me instead".
He said, "I wasn't looking for you, I'm looking for such a place where they don't die, otherwise I would have stayed there, where I have come from".
The young woman said, "The earth will take its own, you yourself would not want to be immortal. Come, tell me, how old am I?"
The young man looked at her: Her fresh cheeks, the colour of roses, were so beautiful that he completely forgot about death.
"Fifteen years old at the very most", he said.
"No", answered the young woman, "I was created on the first day of the beginning of the world. They call me Krasoy, and I will never become old and will never die. You would be able to stay with me forever, but you will not want to - the earth will call you". The young man swore that he would never leave her.
They began to live together. The years flew past, like a moment. Much changed on the earth. Many died. They turned into dust. Many were born. The earth changed its face, but the young man did not notice how the time had flown. The young woman was always just as beautiful, and he was always just as young. Thousands of years flew past.
The young man missed his old home, and he wanted to visit his people. He said, "I want to go and see my mother and family".
She said, "Even their bones no longer remain in the earth".
He said, "What are you talking about! Altogether I've only been here for three or four days. What could have happened to them?"
The young woman said, "As I've been telling you, the earth will take its own. All right, go then! But remember that whatever happens to you, you've only got yourself to blame". She gave him three apples and told him to eat them when he started to feel miserable .
The young man said goodbye to her and went. He walked, and he walked, and he saw the crag that the raven had been sitting on. The young man looked: all the gorge was filled up with his downy feathers, and there was the raven himself, lying all dried up. It grew dark in the young man's eyes, and he wanted to go back again, but already the earth would not allow him, it drew him forward. He went further, and he saw, standing on the plain, the deer. His antlers reached the sky, and the deer himself was dying. The young man realised that much time has passed since he left home. He went on further. He reached the area where he had been born, but he did not find either relatives or acquaintances. He asked people about his mother, but nobody had even heard of her. He walked alone and nobody knew him. At last he met a certain old man, and told him who he was looking for. The old man said, "That woman, as I heard from my grandfather and great-grandfather, lived once; but how could her son be alive now?" There went though the whole land the rumour about this person. But what they say about him! They regard him as some kind of freak.
The young man carried on walking alone. He came to that place where once there stood his home, and he found only ruins, which were already reddened with moss. The young man remembered his mother, his childhood, his companions, and he became sad. He decided to eat the apples that the young woman from the crystal castle had given him. He got out one apple, ate it, and suddenly there grew on his face a long grey beard. He ate the second apple, and his knees gave way, the small of his back bent and he fell to the ground without any strength. He was lying there, unable to move either an arm or a leg. He called a passing boy, "Come close to me, Boy. Get the apple out of my pocket and give it to me". The boy got the apple, and gave it to him. He took a bite of it and he died right then and there.
The entire village community came to bury him.
(This version of the story was taken from Georgian Folk Tales, translated by D.G.Hunt, published in 1999 by Mirani Publishing House in Tbilisi, Georgia).
Story : Notes for the teacher
Pre-listening: Would you like to live forever? Why or why not? This is the choice the young man in the story is required to make.
Ask the learners to work in groups and produce a story from the pictures. A spokesperson for each group can then read the group's story to the rest of the class. The stories created from the pictures can then be compared with the version you read to the class.
While-listening: Pause after the words 'He walked towards it …' and ask the listeners to predict what the young man saw.
Pause after the words 'She gave him three apples and told him to eat them when he started to feel miserable' to ask what was special about the apples.
Pause after the words 'He reached the area where he had been born' and ask the listeners to predict what the young man found there.
Pause after the words 'The boy got the apple, and gave it to him', and ask what happened next.
Post-listening: What would you have done if you had been the young man? Would you have stayed in the crystal castle or tried to get back home again?
Prepare a set of questions about the story. Then exchange your questions with someone else and answer the questions you receive. You can make use of the following frames or alternatively make up your own questions:
a. What do you think was the most …………………… thing about the story?
b. Was there anything in the story that really ……………………… you?
c. According to the story, what .…………………………………………………?
d. What reasons are given for ……………………………………………………?
e. In what way would you …………………………………………………………?
f. Do you agree with the idea / suggestion that ……………………?
Working in small groups, discuss the questions below. Then elect a spokesperson to present your views to the rest of the class:
a. How important are family ties to you?
b. Make a list of all the things people do to make themselves look younger. What
do you think you would be prepared to do when the time comes?
c. Are you the sort of person who hangs on to the past or are you able to let go and
to move on to new things?
Follow up: Help to Make the World a Better Place
Have a look at this list of suggestions and decide which ones you would be willing to take up. Then add a suggestion of your own.
1 Wear bright clothes once a week. It will cheer everyone up.
2 Telephone or write to someone you haven't seen for ages.
3 Take some fruit or a packet of biscuits into your office and buy everyone a
cup of tea or a soft drink.
4 Turn off the TV and do something less boring and more sociable instead.
5 Pray, not necessarily to God, but just say a short prayer offering thanks at
the end of each day.
6 Risk ridicule - try smiling at strangers or talking to shop assistants.
7 If you see someone lost, show them the way.
8 Take responsibility for your problems and don't blame others for the
situations you find yourself in.
Your own suggestion: ………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
References
Cahill, S., & Halpern, J. (1991) The Ceremonial Circle Shamanic Practice, Ritual and Renewal, London: Mandala.
Driver, T.F. (1991) The Magic of Ritual, New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Durkheim, E. (2001) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press (originally published in 1912).
Smith, J.Z. (1982) Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Turner, V. (1995) The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Chicago, Illinois: Aldine Publishing Company (first published in 1969).
Van Gennep, A. (1977) The Rites of Passage, London: Routledge and Keegan Paul (original work published in 1909).
Zohar, H., & Marshall, I. (2000) Spiritual Intelligence The Ultimate Intelligence, London: Bloomsbury.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Skills of Teacher Training course at Pilgrims website.
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