Terry Slater teaches Drama at Morningstar, a Secondary School in the Peel District School Board. He has been teaching Dramatic Arts for over 10 years. I was fortunate enough to work with Terry for his first eight years in the Drama Department at T.L. Kennedy School.

He holds a Master of Arts degree specializing in Drama. Terry studied as a professional actor at the Drama Centre in London, England and he is a member of both professional actors’ associations in Canada, ACTRA and Actors’ Equity.

His first experience of Drama-in-Education during the completion of his Masters degree occurred when he and group of students created a summer theatre project for inner city youth. "What impressed me the most was the involvement of everyone. We were working together to create something wonderful." This sense of togetherness, the shared experience, has always been the underlying passion for him in Drama. He realized, while working with his fellow students that commitment to the individual was the most important aspect he needed to develop. He believes that the teacher must not and cannot only see himself as one who possesses a body of knowledge that is then passed on to the student. It is, rather, a shared experience with learning occurring on both sides.

He stated that the most profound influence on his theatre work was his involvement with Robert Freid and the Drama Centre, London, England. Robert Freid was himself a graduate of the Drama Centre and a professional actor and director who immigrated to Canada from Israel via England. Up until that point, Terry had taken classes with Joseph O’Flaherty of Second City fame and was very unhappy because he felt it wasn’t the organic experience he had been looking for.

Terry identified Freid who had opened his eyes for the first time to the "organic, holistic nature and honesty that was Drama". Freid’s approach to acting was, in fact, a method approach. In that respect Terry could see an immediate connection with Therapy although people would loathe seeing it that way. "They’re afraid of the ramifications and implications of the idea that Therapy creates demi-gods and gurus which happens even if it is Therapy or not. Showing a vulnerability, showing a truth that’s there but that isn’t always shown is by its very nature creating a dynamic between appearance and reality, mask and core mask." The exciting possibilities that Theatre and Drama held in what Freid was talking about was what Terry had been searching for.

Freid became a mentor for Terry because he was a man who was committed to teaching the whole individual and saw everyone capable of transformation, which was the ultimate goal. "It encapsulated for me all the disparate feelings that I had had about life and about Art and relationships and society. It made sense. I felt like I had become a member of a guild, of a group of people who shared a similar ideology." Terry said that he not only began to see the multitude of possibilities but saw a radical step away from the commercialization that he saw everywhere around him.

Terry ended up going to the school for three years and felt it was a valuable experience for him as an individual first, secondly as an actor, and he came back with a great deal more confidence. "The school was very grueling, very demanding, and it did prepare me very well to be a stage actor in Canada." The vagaries of the business according to Terry are such that you are never able to have a full appreciation of your talent because it is in reality a thankless profession. Actors have to put up with comments from theatre professionals such as, "Your career is not my responsibility!" when in fact, Terry felt that these people had positions of power that certainly could and did affect one’s career and future. This creates a sense of dishonesty in the business and Terry has never regretted that he never spent his time banging his head against a very tough brick wall. He decided that he did not want to spend his life aiming for a brass ring of very questionable value, which was commercial theatre.

Because he wanted to do something more valuable with his life he went into teaching. As a teacher of Dramatic Arts he would be directly involved in the work of Art and Drama. He received further encouragement from Chuck Lundy of the Faculty of Education at the University of Toronto who remarked to him, "You can only start from where you are at." A second statement by David Booth also had an effect on Terry. Booth told him that he was glad that he was working because there was a great need out there for good Drama teachers. This gave Terry a lot of confidence.

Terry felt that the most important approach with young people when you’re asking them to risk as much as you are is to take them seriously and not to over emphasize that you as the teacher have this body of knowledge, of experience. He thinks that when it comes down to it, if you are really looking at what is going on in a Dramatic moment or a Dramatic situation, "then it is that unknown uncertainty which is both the curse and wonder of it because anything wonderful can happen. It requires a lot of faith and a lot of commitment."

I asked Terry how he used that. He had mentioned David Booth and Robert Freid and so I asked him to elaborate more. For Terry, these men were instrumental in terms of getting the whole process going but he thought that it was first, having good colleagues who care and have a similar understanding of what Drama is truly about that has allowed him personally to develop and apply this philosophy.

"Drama is not spelled out all neat and tidy, as so much of the world of Education wants it to be." But he thinks it is the unspoken aspect of Drama, often the understanding of the intuitive that forms how we work in Drama. He thinks that his best classes come from just trusting his intuition and the whole organic process of taking all the multitude of factors as a classroom teacher into account such as, "Is this valuable to continue?"

Terry first became aware of Drama as a therapeutic medium when he began to work with me. He recalled that Therapy was a dirty word for a lot of Drama teachers in his opinion because it smacked of mind control, the teacher being in charge and playing with someone’s mind. He said that from his experience as a method actor that there was indeed truth in that fear because it was easy to play those mind games.

As a teacher he was very aware of that and remembered that two or three years after he had been teaching he was having his students work as robots and all of a sudden had an uncomfortable feeling that he was treading the line between classroom teaching and wielding undue authority. He found himself immediately stopping an exercise and having the students talk about it.

I did it largely because I didn’t want to enter into that world; so I feel honest in saying that I don’t have a personal agenda when it comes to Dramatherapy except when it comes to making students aware that there is so much more to be aware of about themselves. There are many different ways of looking at something, and their own lives and their sense of their own possibilities.

To Terry, that attitude could probably form his mission statement as a teacher of Drama. In a world where knowledge is doubling every eighteen months or some incredible figure like that that he didn’t see how one could ever hope to provide absolutes anymore. The only one was to create an environment, which is safe and good, and one which is truthful and fun because he thinks that we are at a point where Drama is needed to socialize and to reintroduce people to the idea of community, which he feels, is sadly lacking in our world.

When Terry looks at a group of students who are enthusiastic and want to learn, especially something as wonderful as Drama, which is essentially a chance to explore themselves, he recalled something that Chuck Lundy had brought to mind. "The industrialized, Victorian concept of ’ I have something to teach you’, is an outmoded concept in the world we now live in. And, the idea that the student is the subject of the course naturally changes the relationship between the teacher and the student." This is, he believed, a demanding idea because you’re asking the student to move closer and to let you understand where he is relative to what you’re trying to teach. "It is demanding also because it is not as black and white as other courses. The whole focus of education, and the way teachers teach, is changing very quickly." A good teacher according to Terry is constantly examining what he is doing and trying to make it work better rather than simply relying on what is ‘tried and true’.

He became aware of the power of Drama as a therapeutic medium even before he was a teacher. It was in the past when he was convinced that there was a still a right way to teach Drama and he needed to learn that in order to make Drama or Drama as Therapy most effective was to do it as Drama itself. "In other words, the Therapy came from simply doing Drama because you were providing lessons for living throughout the course in a most immediate way."

I reminded Terry of a course he taught in a grade twelve unit called, Theatre for Living and asked him if he would have considered that a form of Drama as Therapy? That unit was a good example because he remembered, many of the students, when they first started, knew there was going to be a public performance but didn’t understand the full dimension of what that entailed.

The way the performance was structured included a question and answer session in the presentation that was divided into two sections: 1.The actors in their roles in the play, and, 2.The actors speaking about the experience of having performed a play. These were two very different things. Many of the students talked about how being in the play had changed their opinions about race, sexual orientation and other issues. And having had the experience of doing the play and exploring the emotions around it, they could now see more sides of the questions of identify.

Having this experience of how we deal with others was a learning experience for the students and, therefore, in his opinion, a very therapeutic one.

Terry believes that Drama is indispensable today to properly educate a young person. He believes that like any exploration of the Arts, it inevitably must offer a reflection in the mirror for the student. The teaching situation in order for it to be successful on both sides requires a clear and full use of self and the more a teacher can do that, the more a student will do that as well. An example of this was his desire to enjoy teaching and not just see it as a job. He sees his classroom not as his grandstand stage, which as an actor was one of his pitfalls. Becoming a teacher who could make the students more important was extremely therapeutic to him, and he now sees that the more "silly" he is willing to be then the more" silly" the students are willing to be in the sense of being vulnerable. A case in point was a day when his students asked him to participate in the Improvisational Olympics.

So I did. They had some difficulty with conflict and creating conflict and allowing it to work in a particular scene. I made a drastic decision and proceeded to be very serious and it opened a floodgate of tremendous work from grade nine students that I think even a professional director would find amazing. I think it comes from creating an environment of trust where the student is valued and the work is valued and where people feel ultimately safe. Those are the conditions for growth and any good classroom should provide that and the teacher must work to create that environment. A teacher’s role is clearly much more than that of a process facilitator or an environmental coordinator if you will.

Terry sees Drama as a metaphor for life itself and therefore sees the job of a Drama teacher as exposing the student to life and the questions that life will ask of them. They should prepare for those questions and find a way of living as well as learning a certain amount of knowledge to be employable.

Terry had taken numerous workshops in the past in which the use of Drama was dynamically evident and had both a cathartic effect on the participants and the observers. However, it has seemed to him that the results of his work over the years have given him the most evidence of this cathartic power and have had the most impact. "After ten years of teaching and reading the reflections of students, their own words themselves speak of the power of the Dramatic process to change their perceptions, their attitudes and their behaviour." Just being able to be responsive to the needs of that many people and being able to feel that one could be successful at it, have given him more confidence to continue to travel the road he had chosen.

Regarding the field of Dramatherapy, Terry had a list of names of experts at his fingertips: Dorothy Heathcote, Gavin Bolton, Warrick Dobson and Jonathan Neelands were at the top of the list. He saw in the work of these Drama practitioners, the very level of engagement and commitment that can only work if there is direct personal involvement and that that very act implied change and personal growth, therefore implying Therapy. It did not matter if they themselves ever used the word, Therapy.

He values vulnerability, risk-taking and self-esteem in his teaching and learning goals. He thought that using the words truth and honesty was using the language of Therapy and the language of commitment, teaching and healing. The case of two girls he had in his class exemplified this type of language:

The girls began physically fighting in the class and, according to school regulations, Terry could have sent them to the office. Instead, he chose to bring them into his office and confront them with what had happened. When they left his office, it was clear that although they weren’t going to be friends they had at least connected enough to realize that they could be in the same room together without harboring more hostility. He had simply asked them to logically figure out the consequences of their actions and then to describe the event in their own words. He told them that they had to engage one another and that silence was not going to be acceptable as a resolution. In the end, they apologized to one another. He reminded them that they were going to be in the group until the end of the semester and that there was no way they could avoid each other for that long. This was an attempt to make them understand the language of responsibility. "This I think is part of what Therapy tries to achieve in an individual."

Another example of his using therapeutic methods in his teaching involved a boy in his class who at the very beginning of the year struck Terry as being quite mature.

He had noticed that this boy liked to stick his nose and mouth in places where it was not warranted. The situation came to a head when he spoke out of turn without raising his hand and made a rude comment about a specific girl in the class. She told the boy that she thought that he didn’t have to be talking out loud in class and he started swearing at her. Terry immediately intervened and told the boy to go into his office. And, like in the previous example, he talked about his prerogative to send the boy to the office, knowing that if he had, the boy probably would have been suspended. He left the student isolated in his Drama office for about twenty minutes. Normally, he would have gone in right away to deal with the situation but because he knew that this boy wanted to be at the centre of attention and that maybe that desire was where a lot of his "acting out" was coming from, he waited. He was then able to discuss the situation with the boy in a non-confrontational way and believed that he was able to get him to deal with some of his immediate behavioural problems. Terry spoke to him about his behaviour and reminded him that he had impressed Terry as a leader within the class and that there was no male leader yet within the group. The student later wrote him a letter and described in his own words how his behaviour had been inappropriate. "I didn’t give him words to say, but I was hoping he would come to that conclusion himself."

Terry said that he uses a great deal of positive reinforcement when dealing with difficult or demanding students. "He goes out of his way to let students know when they have done something that has indicated growth, or change in a positive direction." He believes that he is working to create an environment that promotes this kind of growth. Although he doesn’t shrink from confronting his students, he believes that he has to wait for suitable times when there is more privacy in order to ensure fairness and emotional safety for the student. "I find myself repeating myself less, talking less, and not going around in circles as much. All of that creates a better environment for young people who have shorter attention spans and whose moods are so changeable. They must know that I know what’s going on and that I will deal with it eventually, if not immediately."

To Terry, a word like feedback is very important. Even if the session isn’t that long he still has his students sit down to talk. He gets two or three reactions to what has been said and then moves on. He felt that that is a part of the therapeutic process because it makes them aware of the moment to moment growth that occurs. "I still make connections myself when I’m giving them feedback and asking for theirs. I listen and learn from them myself."

Vanda Scaravelli , in her book, Awakening The Spine best expresses Terry’s philosophy on the role of the teacher. The book draws from the ancient Indian culture tradition that regards teaching as "the highest level of work required by any civilization in the world." This is no longer the case in India today.

To teach is an act of love. To teach also implies a certain vigilance and dedication in everyday life. That is why in the past this practice was limited to the very few. There are no good pupils only good teachers. Teaching is not the position of the teacher’s will over the pupil. Teaching begins with freedom and ends with freedom. A receptive state is required by the pupil. A feeling of acceptance even before the brain sees the truth of what is shown. An empty free space that one might call innocence. It is from here that intelligence starts to function. The aim of the teacher is to awaken interest and curiosity in the mind of the pupil giving him a clear picture of the subject. His explanation should be so evident and logical that the pupil cannot but grasp the significance of what is said. Understanding leads to independence and to freedom.

This excerpt reflects Terry’s view of his role and function as a teacher as an initiator of students’ curiosity and caring. "I work to give them the conditions by which they are free to explore, experiment and experience. I, in turn, react to that with a lot of respect and a great deal of concern for their fragility. I have an awareness that limits have to be respected."

To Terry, doing is learning. "His methods are very often perceived sympathetically and encouraged by his peers. At the very worst he has experienced a few colleagues who were suspicious of the whole process and Terry himself as a proponent of that."

The current Ministry curriculum documents include the language of therapy to a small degree in Terry’s view. However, he interprets the language as more clear in its guidelines for student evaluation. "Student achievement is broken down into new categories which, in and of themselves, will allow a lot of latitude but are still specific enough to allow the teacher to give the student the rating the Ministry demands. The expectations are not inherently therapeutic but therapeutic in the sense that they apply directly to changed behaviour."

Dramatherapy, to Terry, is "the movement from unawareness to awareness: awareness of oneself, and the world, the awareness of one’s connections and the act of learning and the act of receiving and giving. All of those elements combine to create freedom. I was looking at some kids playing a game and realized that in that moment they were all truly experiencing something which might be described as extreme pleasure, joy, fun and they were totally involved in what they were doing. They were free."

He thinks that storytelling is the best vehicle for therapeutic results.

It is therapeutic because either as teller or listener you are working for a connection. The act of having to arrange data, emotional and informational, into an understandable sequence requires all the aspects of creation, which are: chaos, exploration, order and eventual symmetry. "I find that often the simple act of talking as they wish about anything in a structured environment such as a classroom, provides them with the safety that they don’t often have in the rough and tumble cafeteria life. Their stories convince me that they’re under pressures that we don’t even fully recognize."

This statement made me think of an exercise we both had used which we named, "pass the cane". Ken Dryden had also mentioned that he saw this exercise as a tool for therapeutic benefits. We used the experiences the students related during this exercise to know them better and to be able to make specific thematic connections in terms of delivering meaningful lessons.

I think of a student that I now have in my Drama class who is a Jamaican girl. She is a barrel kid, which means she was apart from her mother for many years. I feel in providing her with the "cane" and our circle, the opportunity to connect in a meaningful way with peers who are themselves going through difficulties. She is able to share significant information in a safe environment about the process of what it’s like to be new in a country and a new culture and learning to live again with her mother and family after years of separation. She would not have that opportunity in another class.

Because Terry has had extensive experience teaching ESL students, I asked him to talk about its connection to Dramatherapy. To Terry, the ESL student usually learns in a vacuum and this trivializes him and the situation.

Drama provides immediacy and a context by which the student learns the necessity and power of language. An important aspect of language acquisition is subtlety and nuance. Drama provides that opportunity especially for students who are attempting to integrate into society and want acceptance. It allows them to make mistakes and connect to others in an authentic way. This is therapeutic because it could only enhance the student’s sense of self-esteem and control over his or her own life. "Again, for the ESL student, the Drama classroom is a safe environment in which to experiment and to take risks which aren’t always provided in life."

In my interpretation, Terry’s definition of Dramatherapy which he expresses in his teaching practice, with his recognition of the Double Mirror dynamic, connects him to this thesis.