Dewey and Me

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Not this Dewey!

Not Dewey of the TV show “Malcolm in the Middle”. Not Melvil Dewey, the originator of the Dewey Decimal Classification System. Not even Thomas E. Dewey, who ran unsuccessfully against Harry Truman in the close presidential election of 1948, and who is now best remembered for the photograph of Truman gleefully holding up a newspaper with the premature headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

No, I’m talking about Professor John Dewey, hardly a household name for most people – but a continual presence in my life.

When I was growing up John Dewey was a common topic of conversation in my home.

Dewey was an influential educator who had an enormous influence on public school curricula during the first part of the 20th century. My parents were very concerned about the state of American education – in part because of what they saw of the public schools I was attending in Washington, D.C. “Deweyism” was a shorthand phrase they used to cover all the perceived evils of “progressive education” of the sort they blamed on Dewey.

This is him!

The Soviet Union was the feared enemy and my parents were very concerned that American children were not being educated in a way that would enable us to win the technology war with Russia. For them, “Deweyism” included a general lowering of academic standards, lax discipline and too much time devoted to non-academic subjects like hygiene, crafts, “life skills” and the like.

They felt that European countries were doing a much better job of educating their children and they particularly admired the high academic standards found in countries like Switzerland, France and Germany.

When I arrived at university, I signed up for an introductory philosophy course and was surprised to encounter John Dewey again – this time not as a misguided educator who helped wreck the public school system, but as America’s most famous philosopher and a prominent member of the school of philosophy known as Pragmatism.

Twenty years later, John Dewey entered my life once again, this time as as an articulate supporter of F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique, a method of learning how to move with ease. I had been drawn to the Technique somewhat by chance and was so impressed by the way it helped me improve my posture, coordination and balance that I decided to abandon my career as a research economist and move to England to train to become a teacher of the Technique.

He’s even got his own stamp!

It turned out that the same Dewey I’d been “living with” for most of my life had authored the introductions to three of Alexander’s books. The two men met during World War I in New York City where Dewey, who was then in his late 50’s, had a series of lessons with Alexander. Those lessons so transformed him – physically and mentally – that he continued taking lessons from Alexander, and later Alexander’s brother A.R. Alexander, for the rest of his life.

In his book Freedom to Change, Professor Frank Pierce Jones of Tufts University writes of an interview he had with Dewey towards the end of his life:

“The greatest benefit he got from lessons” Dewey said, “was the ability to stop and think before acting. Physically, he noted an improvement first in his vision and then in breathing. Before he had lessons, his ribs had been very rigid. Now they had a marked elasticity which doctors still commented on, though he was close to eighty-eight.

“Intellectually.., he found it much easier, after had had studied the technique, to hold a philosophical position calmly once he had taken it or to change it if new evidence came up warranting a change. He contrasted his own attitude with the rigidity of other academic thinkers who adopt a position early in their careers and then use their intellects to defend it indefinitely.”

Apart from my parents’ dislike of what they believed Dewey stood for, I can’t say I have any real knowledge of what he did or did not do in the field of education. And the significance of Pragmatism – which apparently is today undergoing a revival of sorts – has always eluded me.

Here’s our man having an Alexander Technique lesson with Alexander himself.

But I do know something about F. Matthias Alexander and the Alexander Technique, and while Dewey’s writings are not always easygoing for the modern reader, over time I’ve come to realize that he had a profound understanding of the significance of Alexander’s work.  And he was very articulate in expressing that understanding.

I’d like to close with one of Dewey’s many quotes about Alexander:

It is one thing to teach the need of a return to the individual man as the ultimate agency in whatever mankind and society collectively can accomplish. It is another thing to discover the concrete procedure by which this greatest of all tasks can be executed. And this indispensable thing is exactly what Mr. Alexander has accomplished.

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I’d be interested to hear your take on the Dewey-Alexander connection.  You can read more about it at the John Dewey and F. Matthias Alexander Homepage

Here’s an interview I did for the Alexander Technique Podcast with Dr. Terry Fitzgerald, an educator and teacher of the Alexander Technique in Sydney, Australia about the relationship between John Dewey and F. Matthias Alexander:

Leap of Faith

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I never cared for this kind of leap of faith.

When I was in Sunday School, many, many years ago, we were given a little pamphlet about – not surprisingly! – God.  More precisely, our belief in Him (always a male, back then) and it was recommended for those who were not sure He existed that they take a “leap of faith” in order to get with the program.

I remember being very puzzled by this. First it had never before occurred to me that He might not exist and the pamphlet had the immediate effect of sowing seeds of doubt in me.

Second, I couldn’t imagine what a leap of faith would entail.  Images of jumping across a deep pit entered my mind and I decided that wasn’t something I was prepared to do just then.

Also, I would have to wait until I died to find out if my leap, even if I could pull it off, was justified and that just seemed way too far into the future.

It’s a bit ironic that as a teacher of the Alexander Technique I am always suggesting that my students take leaps of faith.  I suggest they experiment with using an Alexander thinking process (sometimes called “directions”) with as little as possible in-the-moment concern if the process will be effective or not.

A leap of faith on their part certainly, but one quite different than the one I rejected years ago in two important ways:

First, the stakes are a lot lower.  I ask them to experiment with a new thought about themselves as they move.  These results might be good, or they might not.  Either way there’s very little risked on their part.

Second, the waiting time is not dozens and dozens of years, but perhaps 10 seconds or maybe half a minute.  It’s a very, very short leap indeed.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about that you could try right now:

Take a short walk around the room you’re in.  Then, as you continue walking, add this thought: “I am not compressing myself” very lightly a few seconds.  Then let go of that thought and switch back to ordinary walking, then back to the “I am not compressing myself” version.

Did you notice any differences in your walking when you switched back and forth?

One key part of this experiment is the lightness of your “not compressing” intent – and the sure knowledge that you’re almost certain to forget it, and than when you notice that’s happened,  you can just gently bring the intent back.  If you catch yourself concentrating on this intent, trying to hold onto it, let go of that holding and return to a very, very light – and forgiving of forgetting it – intent.

A second key part – and this is where the “leap of faith” really comes into play:  be as little interested in the results as possible – during the experiment.  The time to make a judgement about the effectiveness of this kind of experiment is after it’s over.

(In an earlier podcast,  Alexander Technique tip from a Card Shark, I wrote about this kind of self-directing process in a bit more detail.)

So there’s an example of an Alexander Technique leap of faith – an easy and powerful way to experiment with Alexander Technique self-direction.

***

Were you able to utilize the process I just described?  If you ran into obstacles, what were they?  Did you notice positive changes in your walking from using this process?

I’d love to hear about your experience.

 

 

 

Free images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Fork in the Road

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Suppose a man starts out to reach a certain destination and comes to a place where the road branches into two. Not knowing the way, he takes the wrong road of the two and gets lost. He asks the way of someone he meets and is told to go straight back to the crossroads and take the other road, which will lead him directly to the place he wants to reach. What should we say if we heard that the man had gone back to the crossroads as directed, but had there concluded that he knew better after all than his adviser, had taken again his old road, and again got lost, and had done this thing not once or twice, but over and over again? Still more, what should we say if we heard that he was worrying dreadfully because he kept getting lost, and seemed no nearer to getting to his destination?

One could easily imagine a minister including this little story in a sermon about why smart people make foolish decisions.  It almost sounds like one of Jesus’ parables.

But in fact it was written in 1923 by F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique in a chapter titled “Incorrect Conception”  in his second book, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual

Alexander was certainly not a man of the cloth, but by the time he wrote this, he had a lot of experience with students of his who behaved exactly like the man at the crossroads. As he writes a few sentences later, the crossroads story “…is more or less what happens in the case of every pupil, even…those who are accounted the most intelligent, the most highly educated, the most scientifically trained…”

And it’s precisely what Alexander Technique teachers come up against over and over again today.

Why is this?

Alexander’s view of the matter is that almost everybody carries around incorrect conceptions of the usefulness of his or her way of doing things – that, in Alexander’s words, …what he thinks of as a “difficulty” is not a difficulty in itself, but simply the result of “his way” of going to work.

Or, to put it another way – again in Alexander’s words – a student typically …subconsciously believes he knows more than his teacher about the things he can or cannot do.

Even, I might add, when intellectually he or she is in full agreement with the teacher.

Needless to say, this is one of the greatest challenges that Alexander Technique teachers face in helping their students change the way they do things, even simple things like standing, sitting a walking.

As Alexander famously remarked, Everyone wants to be right but no one stops to consider if their idea of right is right.

Have you had experiences with others’ incorrect perceptions and how their lives were affected?

Have you ever realized you had incorrect perceptions of your own?  What was it that brought you to that realization – and what advice can you give based on your own experiences?

I would love to hear from you about your experiences with preconceived notions about what is right, and what is not.

***

Off topic, but I can’t resist including this quote from Yogi Berra: When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!

 

Who is the Alexander Technique For?

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“It’s for everybody.” says Judith Stern, PT, an Alexander Technique teacher for over 25 years.

As she points out at the start of the short video below, “There isn’t anybody who won’t say to you in conversation: “My goodness, my neck is killing me.” or “My back is so sore.” or ” I find it hard to catch my breath.” or “At the end of the day I’m exhausted and I don’t know why.”

As it happens Judith works a lot with people suffering from back pain and there is now solid medical evidence that the Alexander Technique is extremely effective in alleviating this particular condition.

And there is also a growing body of evidence that the Technique can help with all sorts of medical issues.

Here’s a short video that summarizes much of that evidence:

Actors, musicians and dancers have known about the usefulness of the Alexander Technique for many years.  America’s most famous philosopher felt it should be the cornerstone of education. People from just about every field imaginable have extolled it’s virtues.

As the Indian Alexander Technique teacher Padmini Menon says in her blog The alphabet of use:
“…it’s useful to think about (the Alexander Technique) as a kind of alphabet that you learn.
An alphabet of use, that you can then employ in as simple, or as complex a way as you like.

I could go on and on.  The point is that if you have an opportunity to take a class, or have a few lessons, it’s an opportunity you really don’t want to pass up.

It is no exaggeration to say that the benefits of even a little exposure to this work can last a lifetime.

***

I would love to hear about your personal experience with the Alexander Technique.

Class Struggle

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For many years, swimming has been my favorite sport and I usually manage to get to the pool 4 or 5 times a week.

As an Alexander Technique teacher I particularly love to explore being in a different medium, and in a different relationship with gravity.  There’s something about swimming that, for me at least, encourages a smooth flowing movement that I can carry over into the rest of my day.

Years ago I shared a pool with a water aerobics class held in the portion of the pool not set aside for lap swimming.  There were 2 women who led the class on different days and as I emerged from the changing room headed towards the pool area, I could tell right away which one was teaching.

One woman had a very calm demeanor and even when she got the class participants moving quite vigorously, never raised her voice to do so. When she introduced a new movement, she was  careful to describe and demonstrate it a few times.  She alternated between standing on the edge of the pool and being in the water with everyone else.

The other woman always stood on the edge of the pool and shouted out her directions.  As she did this, she demonstrated the exercise moves using with a rapid, jerky motion, typically tensing her body by pulling her head back onto her neck and arching her lower back.

The most interesting difference is how the class members reacted to these very different teaching styles.

During the first instructor’s classes, participants moved pretty gracefully and seemed to be enjoying themselves.  When the class is over, many stayed to gossip a bit before leaving the pool.

With the second instructor, it was quite a different story.  Every time she tensed herself, you could see a little ripple of tension spreading across the class. Participants retracted their heads down onto their spines, unconsciously mimicking what they see the instructor doing.

Their exercise movements were generally less fluid and they often seemed to be struggling to keep up.  Some left early.  When the class was over, everybody remaining left the pool right away, with very little conversation.

I doubt of most of the class members were consciously aware of these differences.  Certainly I never heard anybody make a comment.

Still, the differences were quite striking and I think it illustrates an important point for teachers, speakers and performers: the quality of how you organize you own body – which is what the Alexander Technique is all about – has an immediate and direct effect on your class or audience.

It may be a subtle effect, people may not be consciously aware of it, but it is almost certainly affecting their ability to take in what you have to offer.

F. M. Alexander, developer of the Alexander Technique, fashionably attired for a tension-free dip in the ocean.

We’ve all been to talks or performances where we’ve felt a bit uncomfortable.  Chances are that discomfort was due at least in part to the state of the person on stage.

We’ve also been to events were we’ve immediately felt at ease – again probably reflecting to some extent the ease we see and hear demonstrated by the presenter.

And of course this kind of transfer of one persons’ state of being to those around him or her is at work all the time in all our personal interactions.

An interview I did recently for the Alexander Technique Podcast with Sharon Jacubecy, an Alexander Technique teacher in Los Angeles, nicely brings out some of these points.  You can listen to it here:

I’d love to hear about experiences you’ve had with speaking, teaching and performing.

 

Swimming Pool© Carloscastilla | Dreamstime.com

Women in Pool© Andres Rodriguez | Dreamstime.com


Was God the first Alexander Technique teacher?

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God. Was He the first teacher of the Alexander Technique?

He doesn’t appear on any of the official teachers’ lists – but then neither does F. Matthias Alexander, developer of the Alexander Technique.

Like Alexander, and teachers of his method today, God had a great interest in the condition of people’s necks.  You might even say that, like us, He was obsessed with their neck tension – although it’s also fair so say He took this obsession to a different level altogether.  Consider what He said to Moses after the golden calf incident:

I see this is a stiffnecked people. Now let Me be, that my anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them… (Exodus, 32: 9, 10)

Here’s the back story:

Moses had been up on the mountain top for awhile receiving God’s commandments. The people had lost faith in his return – and in God. They built a golden calf to worship and began sacrificing animals to it.

The Golden Calf, and the stiff-necked people having a wild time

God had just led them out of Egypt, saved them from Pharoh’s army and provided for all their needs. Yet just a little delay in Moses’ return, and they reverted back to their old idol-worshiping ways.

It’s not surprising that God was angry when He saw what they had done. But why did He use the phrase “stiffnecked people”? And why is that same phrase (the Hebrew word is kashe-oref – kashe: hard; oref: scruff of the neck) repeated again in Deuteronomy 9: 13 and 14 and several other places in the Bible? After all, God didn’t rail against their stiff shoulders, stiff arms or stiff legs.

What’s so important about that particular part of our anatomy that God should make specific mention of it in His anger?

Take a moment to think about where your neck is located and what function it plays in your life.

Your neck is the vital connecting corridor between the most important parts of your body, your head and your torso. These are two parts of you that are absolutely necessary for you to survive as a living human being.

A surgeon will tell you that there are as many distinct structures in your neck as in all the rest of your body. Air, food, nerve pathways and life-sustaining fluids such as blood and lymph have to pass through this narrow region of your body. And because the structures of your neck are packed so closely together, they require an absolute minimum of excess tension to function at their best.

Clearly its important for your general well being that your neck freely allows what might be called efficient “biological connections” between your head and torso. But it’s condition also has a huge impact on the “mechanics” of your functioning: your posture, coordination and your ability to move efficiently.

Your head weighs between 10-12 pounds and it is poised at the very top of your neck. I often hand my new Alexander Technique students a sack filled with 12 pounds of sugar and ask them to hold it in their arms for a few moments to get an idea of what this feels like. Most are amazed that they’re carrying so much weight on top of the necks.

If your head is lightly balanced on top of your neck, very little muscular effort is needed to keep it there. But if that balance is compromised, you’re going to have to hold it up with a lot of muscular effort. In other words, you’ll have to stiffen your neck to keep it from falling forward, or to one side.

And if your neck is stiffened, that tightness will cause compensatory tightening throughout the rest of your body, harming your ability to move freely and efficiently – not to mention restricting your breathing, putting pressure on your internal organs, etc.

Think for a moment of people you know who have stiff necks. Watch how they sit, stand and move and you’ll see what I mean. Chances are they move comparatively stiffly and awkwardly.

And then think of how they adjust to changing circumstances in general and how flexible they are in their thinking. Very likely you’ll notice a certain mental rigidity that mirrors their physical stiffness. (It is for good reason that the word “stiffnecked” is often translated in the Bible as “stubborn”.)

If we are indeed made in God’s image, then it stands to reason that He would be displeased when we would take poor care of ourselves. Stiffening our necks is one of the quickest and surest ways to do just that.

And learning how to release undue tension in our necks – a major focus of Alexander Technique teaching – is one of the best things we can do to improve our overall functioning.

So, back to the original question – was God the first Alexander Technique teacher?

Sure, He recognized the importance of the state of humans’ necks, just as Alexander Technique teachers do today.

And He did make an explicit connection between neck tension upright posture: In Micah 2, verse 3 He declares: I am planning such a misfortune against this clan that you will not be able to free your necks from it. You will not be able to walk erect.

But I would argue that on balance He wasn’t such a great Alexander teacher.

Threatening to destroy someone, or prevent them from walking upright, because they are tensing their necks is hardly going to encourage them to release that tension.  You certainly don’t see Alexander Technique teachers today using this particular teaching procedure!

We are more likely to suggest that our students gently direct themselves out of their harmful tension patterns, perhaps by using a phrase like “I am not stiffening my neck”.

I think the best we can say about God’s teaching – if that’s in fact what he was trying to do – is that it was very much a work in progress.

F. Matthias Alexander: Certainly the first human Alexander Technique teacher

It was left to Alexander, and those who have followed him, to figure out how to teach people to effectively release the kind of tension that God was upset about.

Here’s a podcast interview I did with Amy Ward Brimmer on this general topic

**

What do you think about God, stiff necks and the Alexander Technique?  Do you know of similar references in the texts of other religions?  I’d love to hear from you.

 

Chairs: The Seat of Wisdom

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Is there a perfect chair?

A chair that encourages an easy upright posture, a minimum amount of harmful strain, and that is comfortable to sit in throughout the day?

Most Alexander Technique teachers would say “no” – that the harmful postures people exhibit when sitting are primarily a function of the way in which they sit, not the object they sit on.

F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Technique himself said – in this case about “correct” school furniture:  “…what we need to do is not to educate our school furniture, but to educate our children. Give a child the ability to adapt himself within reasonable limits to his environment, and he will not suffer discomfort, nor develop bad physical habits, whatever chair or form you give him to sit upon.”

And just how can you (or your child) acquire that skill?

Simple: take a course of Alexander Technique lessons from a qualified teacher.

And, by the way, a portion of your lessons will consist of “chair work” – sitting in a chair, standing up, sitting down again.  A teaching procedure almost as old as the Technique itself.

There is certainly a lot to be said for taking Alexander Technique lessons in order to be able to sit more easily – especially these days when many of us are sitting for longer and longer portions of the day.

But of course the same sort of argument could be made for – let’s say – coal miners working in a four-foot shaft.

With proper Alexander Technique training, they could spend their long and hard-working days in a “posture of mechanical advantage” – ankles, knees and hips easily bent, head releasing gently away from their unstressed torso.

I wonder how many Alexander Technique teachers would willingly sign up for this experiment!

I think we need to admit that there are some activities we humans just aren’t well adapted for – and that maybe sitting for long periods is one of them.

That’s the argument made by Galen Cranz, a Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley and a teacher of the Alexander Technique.  She is the author of The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design, a fascinating book on many levels, and one I highly recommend to anyone who uses a chair.  She also wrote an essay titled The Chair as a Health Hazard.

The title pretty much gives away her general take on chairs!

Galen makes a few specific suggestions for sitting – using a stool that’s about 1 1/2 times as high as a standard chair, “perching”, and using a lounge chair.

This latter idea will probably come as a shock to most Alexander Technique teachers and students, but like all of her suggestions it is deeply rooted in basic Alexander Technique concepts.

Galen challenges some long-held Alexander Technique beliefs, but her thinking is solidly based on basic Alexander Technique principles and I believe her ideas are worth serious consideration.

You can listen to an interview I did with her for the Alexander Technique Podcast here:

What are your views on this important subject? How important is it that we learn to sit well in any chair?  What do you do to look after yourself while sitting? Do you use a non-standard chair or sitting surface when you can?

Chair Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net  Recliner Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Alexander joins the NeuroZone

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Marjorie Barstow, 1899 – 1995

Marjorie Barstow, a well-known teacher of the Alexander Technique used to say “Someday there will be a science of human movement that incorporates Alexander’s discoveries.”  (Alexander is F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique.)

I was always a bit taken off guard when I’d hear her say this because Marj rarely seemed to have any interest in the future, or for that matter, the past.  She was the most in-the-moment person I have ever met and a statement of this kind seemed out of character for her.  Yet it was a theme she came back to with some regularity.

She never elaborated on how and when she thought this science might develop but she seemed sure that someday it would.

Marj died in 1995.

Now let’s fast forward a couple of decades from the time of Marj’s last workshops.  STAT News publishes an article about studies of the Alexander Technique’s impact on postural tone that includes a photo of this contraption:

It called “The Twister” and I’m sure Marj would have loved it – and probably would have wanted to try it out herself!

it was developed at the Oregon Health and Science University and used by Dr Tim Cacciatore, PhD to measure, among other things, the effect of Alexander Technique lessons on postural tone.  Dr Cacciatore is now a neuroscience researcher at the Institute of Neurology, University College London where he is engaged in a series of studies on this general topic.  He also happens to be certified as an Alexander Technique teacher.  You can see a video about the Twister here.

The first few of these studies have been completed and the evidence is now pretty clear that lessons in the Alexander Technique change the way anti‐gravity muscle tension is regulated, reducing stiffness along the spine and in the hips. You can read these studies here, and listen to a podcast interview about them with Dr. Cacciatore here.

 

Actually, for some time there has been growing evidence of connections between the Alexander Technique and neuroscience.  As Henry Fagg notes in a recent article in STAT News: “Over the last decade there has been an explosion of neuroscientific evidence which is of possible relevance to, even if it is not explicitly about, AT.”  Cacciatore’s studies are the latest, and certainly the most explicit, manifestations of that trend.

***

So how was it that Marj Barstow, with absolutely no formal scientific training, could be so sure this would happen some day?

Certainly it had something to to her over 60 years teaching during which she was always trying out new ways to teach.  She once told me that she had been thinking about and experimenting with Alexander’s discoveries every day since she first read one of his books in the early 1920s.

Marj just knew that science would someday begin to understand the mind-body link that she was living every day of her life.

***

Can you imagine Alexander’s discoveries having an influence on the development of neuroscience?  Can you imagine developments in neuroscience influencing the ways in which his discoveries are taught?  Seems like a fertile field for exploration.

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander Technique tip from a Card Shark

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To paraphrase a verse in The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, it’s not a good idea to count your poker winnings while you’re still at the table.  The time to do so after the game is over.  (Because of copyright restrictions I can’t print the exact lines here, but you can listen the song at the bottom of the page. I highly recommend this since the actual phrase is an excellent tool for students and teachers to remind themselves of an extremely important aspect of the Alexander Technique. I use it all the time in my own teaching.)

In a last week’s podcast, I wrote about the willingness to take a chance – a “gambling chance” – that seems to be so much a part of the Alexander Technique world.

Applying Alexander Technique principles in your life can be seen as a series of experiments – you direct your thoughts in a way that seems like it might improve the way you function and sometimes it turns out to be useful.  And sometimes it does not.

It’s almost a cliche to say, as I did last week, that you can learn something useful either way.

But let’s say you “win” the bet and your new thought brings about a change that is clearly beneficial.  For example: You’re experimenting with walking and you say to yourself, “I’m not tensing my neck” as you walk, alternating that with plain old everyday walking.  You notice that your walking is easier with the Alexander directing, perhaps by sensing that your feet don’t hit the floor so hard with each step.

That moment of success can be surprisingly dangerous.

How so?  Because the lightness of you feet is a new and enjoyable sensation and it’s extremely tempting for you to shift your focus to to that nice new feeling. And away from the mental directing that made that nice new feeling possible.  It’s all too easy – and tempting – for something like this sequence of thoughts to take place: “I’m not tensing my neck. I’m not tensing my neck. Wow, my feet feel so light as they arrive at the floor. My feet feel so light.  I’d like to keep that feeling. etc etc.”

It’s the kind of experience that every Alexander Technique teacher and student has had.

And it’s a trap because your intent has now shifted away from process and towards result.

Kenny Rogers’ advice is exactly what’s needed here.  Of course you’re glad about the nice feelings or release just as you’re glad about your earnings in a poker game.  But you don’t want to dwell on nice feelings while you’re experimenting with self-directing since they take you away from those directions   And you don’t want to “count your winnings” while the game is still in progress because you need all your wits to play well.

There’s plenty of time for counting after the game…and after the Alexander Technique experiment.

***

I think it would be interesting for other teachers and students to hear of your experiences with this potential obstacle to Alexander Technique success.

Here’s Kenny’s advice – it’s a great song, but if you want to skip to the key phrase, it’s at about 1.10 minutes:

 

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Take a gambling chance”

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That’s a phrase the late Marjorie Barstow used a lot.  When she was 90 years old, someone she had never met called and asked if she’d fly – by herself – across the country, to a city where she’d never been, to teach an Alexander Technique workshop.  She agreed and when we talked about it later she told me “Well, I thought I’d just take a gambling chance and go.”

Her inclination was always to say “yes” to anything new.  When she was only in her 70s, she was asked to spend two months in Texas teaching the Alexander Technique to groups.  As she writes in her preface to the Centerline edition of Use of the Self, “This (invitation) delighted me as I had wondered for some time if the Technique could be taught successfully to groups of students.  This gave me the chance to explore this idea and I started off alone driving to Texas, eager to be in a new situation (italics mine). My first class in Texas and my subsequent teaching have proven that the Technique can be taught successfully to groups of students and I have found my students excited and happy with their experiences with Alexander’s discovery.”

Actually F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique, had had a similar experience nearly eighty years earlier.  As he recounts in his Autobiographical Sketch (Published in Articles and Letters), while in Melbourne, he was approached by the secretary of a theological college asking if he would take a number of his students in class.  He told the secretary that he had “…never attempted to teach a number of pupils together” and that he doubted in would prove successful.  “Nonetheless”, he wrote, “if he and the students were prepared to take a risk on this (italics mine) I was quite prepared to undertake the experiment.”

Reflecting back on the experience he said, “At the end of a couple of months I had reason to be thankful that I had consented to take the students in class…”

Of course, it might be said that Alexander’s biggest gamble was leaving Australia.  In 1904 he boarded an ocean liner bound for England to seek fame and glory in London.  Quite a leap of faith on his part and, fittingly, the trip was financed by a long-shot bet on a racehorse!

Clearly this willingness to “take a gambling chance” seems to be a feature of the Alexander Technique community.

I would even say that it’s an integral part of the Alexander Technique teaching and learning process.  Whenever students experiment with an Alexander direction, or teachers with a new way to convey Alexander’s discoveries to their students, they are “taking a gambling chance”.

It might work.  It might not. Either way, something useful can be learned.

I’d love to hear about some “gambling chances” you’ve taken in your Alexander Technique journey.

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