Judo (Japanese for “the gentle way”) emphasizes winning in combat by using your opponent’s weight and strength as weapons against him, while preserving your own mental and physical energy.

I don’t want to compare students and teachers as enemies who are fighting. I do want to use the idea of using the strength of our student’s attention, energy, and natural inclinations in the course of teaching. So often, we have to quash the energy and interests of our students to push through materials. It doesn’t have to be like this.

‘Voice and choice’ is a great first step towards making this happen… but they content is still the first priority of that teacher.

What if… stay with me… we developed our students’ voices and ability to make choices and THEN had them interact with the content. I think this is what the core of Innovative Arts is all about. It took a crazy long time to put it all into works.

Develop the learner, enhance the learning.