Puppetry In My Art Program

Puppetry In My Art Program

             One of the headlines that came across my desk this week was one referring to a special new program in the state of Vermont aimed at helping young people to deal with anxieties through the use of puppets.  When I read the headline, it reminded me once again of how often I had ideas throughout my career that were way ahead of their time.  I look back at times like this and wonder why, if I had the insight to know a good idea when I saw it or read of it, I didn’t have enough brains to use it to advance my own career.  I never thought of these things originally as being ahead of their time, but rather just good ideas that I should implement in my classroom program.

             Back in the day, I taught art on Rotary for Grades 4 to 8.  I had no art room of my own and so I had to figure out how to maximize the use of space in my classroom.  I came up with the idea of doing units using different kinds of media which I used with all the grades. So, all the grades used the same tools, just to accomplish different projects.  I had a pottery unit, a painting unit, a chalk pastel unit, a construction paper unit, and so forth.  So, one year, I decided that I wanted to do puppets with all the grades.  When I chose to do something, I had to come up with different tasks that were in keeping with the skill levels of the specific grades. Pottery was no different.

             So, I determined that the youngest students would make sock puppets, and another grade would make stick puppets and I wanted the senior grades to make marionettes.  I had this brilliant idea that the Grade Eights would write puppet plays in their regular classroom program and I would help them in Art to make the actual stage and puppets.  I went to the classroom teacher who was also, at that time, chasing an advancement in her career, ironically.  I laid my plan out at her feet and she pooh-poohed it from the beginning. In her mind, puppets were too childish for Grade 8’s.  So, we did something else, and I was madder than hell. 

             I could not believe that someone would actually think puppets and plays were too childish for Grade 7 or Grade 8 students.  The two classes were combined at this point because the two teachers were team teaching.  I thought the idea was golden and I got turned down flat.  Now I see this headline about the use of puppets as a way for children to hide behind something to help give voice to their issues.  It still makes perfect sense to me.  This was the same woman who ended up being my principal much later and castigated me for making changes in a program because of something parents had wanted, and I tried to accommodate.  

             I had my comeuppance though, in the end.  I got the senior students to bring in old clothes and they designed their own stuffed people which got placed all over the school.  They used paper to stuff the puppets, and some were in chairs outside, which was another novel idea that the kids always liked.  The local paper came and took pictures of the stuffed people and I had a couple of pictures in the paper.  The principal at the time used to sometimes walk into the bench near his office that had two large stuffed puppets on it and the principal was heard apologizing for bumping into them.  I had a really good laugh over that one.  

             The moral of the story is that one should not be afraid to try new things, especially if you perceive that the kids will actually love the activity.   Every time I did something like that, something novel, the kids loved it.  I often think I was not that great a teacher, but I write these lines and I realize that I was not that great in some areas but really great in others.  I can understand why my students still remember me……because I did memorable things with them.  What more can I ever ask of myself than that I am remembered kindly, even fondly, by my students.