The Intersection of Arts and Education

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Jay and Leslie in the Kansas City Star
Jay and Leslie in “Sum of Our Favorite Numbers”

Yay!  On December 23, 2011 the Kansas City Star featured us in a front-page article about artists performing at schools.  We were thrilled to get the publicity (including two color photos of us), but we want to clear up one misconception.

The article implies that we use educational content as a “ruse” to get into schools to perform “art for art’s sake”.  It is true that schools increasingly require that assembly programs tie in to the curriculum, but we are right on board with them!

The more we can fuse education and entertainment in our school shows, the better we like it.  Our curriculum programs are some of the most satisfying and enjoyable work we have done because we take our role as educators very seriously.

Our process for creating a new program for schools starts with identifying a need.  We talk to teachers, parents, and administrators to see what parts of the curriculum they want reinforced.

Once we pick a topic, we research it and make a list of concepts we would like to teach even if we have no idea how to present them.  This is crucial.  We start with educational content and find ways to make it entertaining.  We mull over the list and look for connections to our performance skills (juggling, mime, storytelling, magic, and humorous dialogue).

For example, when we were writing our Earth Science show, Juggling the Earth’s Resources, our list included information about water (H20), carbon dioxide (CO2), and ozone (O3).  The books we were reading had diagrams with three circles representing the atoms in these molecules.

Eventually we had a “Well, duh” moment and realized that we could use juggling balls to represent atoms and molecules.  Whole sections of the show fell into place because we had an entertaining way to illustrate concepts from the list.

(For more about Juggling the Earth’s Resources, see our blog entry about the science concepts in the show and our preview video.)

Not everything on our concept list makes it into the show, which is fine.  That is why we need a long list.  Some ideas go nowhere, but if enough of them go somewhere we have a show!  Over the years we have created shows about math, reading, American Government, and Early Education.  The curriculum content is strong because the writing is driven by education.

So thank you Kansas City Star for the coverage, but educational content is not a trick we use to get into schools, it is the inspiration and guiding force for our favorite kind of work.

Education is the key to solving so many of society’s problems. What greater calling is there than using our talents as teaching artists to help educators nurture and inspire a lifelong love of learning?  It gives added meaning and purpose to our efforts.  We are lucky to spend so much time at our favorite place–the intersection of arts and education!

Recipe for Cady Family Holiday Toffee

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This recipe is from Jay’s mom Joanne Cady.  It is a holiday favorite.  Enjoy!

  • 1 lb. of butter (add 1/2 teaspoon salt if unsalted)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 lb. mixed nuts
  • 1 lb. chocolate chips (we prefer dark chocolate)

Chop the nuts and spread them out on wax paper on two cookie sheets. Put the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a cast iron skillet before turning on the heat.

Cook on medium heat stirring slowly and constantly with a wooden spoon. For 10-15 minutes it doesn’t seem like much is happening, but it is important to keep stirring. Eventually the toffee mixture will bubble and turn brown.

To test whether the mixture is done, dribble a little bit of it into a bowl of ice water. After it cools, bite it. If it does not stick to your teeth, the toffee is done.

Pour the toffee mixture over the chopped nuts. We grab the handle of the skillet with a hot pad and the opposite end with vise grip pliers.

Place the chocolate chips on top of the toffee mixture. Wait a few minutes for the chocolate to melt then spread it evenly using a spatula.

Let it cool overnight, break it into pieces, and watch it disappear!

“Juggling the Earth’s Resources” — a funny show with a serious message

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Juggling the Earth's ResourcesIn Juggling the Earth’s Resources we use humor and theatrical skills to teach elementary school students about environmental science.  Juggling balls represent atoms and molecules.  Audience volunteers help enact the water cycle.  A shredded newspaper magically recycles into a new newspaper.

There is so much information in the show that teachers have asked us for an outline of the ideas presented.  So here it is–Juggling the Earth’s Resources without the tricks and funny stuff.  (For a sample of how we make it entertaining, see the video clips.)

PART 1:  THE ENVIRONMENT, ATOMS, AND MOLECULES

  • Our environment consists of the land, the water, the air, and all of the living things on Earth.
  • There are dangers to our environment.
  • Everything in the world is made of tiny particles called atoms.
  • Atoms combine into groups called molecules.

PART 2:  THE WATER CYCLE

  • The molecule H20 (two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom) is water.
  • The water cycle has four phases:
  1. Evaporation—water stops being a liquid and goes into the air as water vapor
  2. Condensation—water vapor collects into tiny droplets that form clouds
  3. Precipitation—when the drops get heavy enough, they fall from the clouds as rain, snow, or sleet
  4. Accumulation—water on the ground collects into increasingly larger tributaries that eventually flow into the ocean where the cycle repeats
  • ENVIRONMENTAL DANGER: When we use water, other things get in it (water pollution).  Water treatment plants get rid of some of the pollution.
  • Pollution can flow through rivers into the ocean.  In the worst case, pollution can get into the clouds and come down as acid rain.
  • Solutions to the dangers to our water supply:
  1. We need strong laws that keep people from polluting water.
  2. We need better methods of water treatment to clean the water.
  3. We can all help by not wasting water.

PART 3: THE OXYGEN AND CARBON DIOXIDE CYCLE

  • The molecule CO2 (one atom of carbon and two atoms of oxygen) is carbon dioxide.  The molecule O2 is the gas oxygen.  Oxygen and carbon dioxide move in a cycle between animals and plants.
  • When we breathe in oxygen (O2), it combines with atoms of carbon in our body and comes out as carbon dioxide (CO2).  Plants take in carbon dioxide, keep the carbon, and emit oxygen, completing the cycle.
  • ENVIRONMENTAL DANGER: When things burn, the fire turns oxygen (O2) in the air into carbon dioxide (CO2).  Most of the energy we use is created by burning things.
  • Examples of fuels we burn to create energy:
  1. Gasoline
  2. Coal
  3. Natural Gas
  4. Oil
  • Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.  Greenhouse gases act like a blanket around the Earth trapping some of the rays of the sun and keeping the Earth warm.
  • When we burn things to make energy and put more carbon dioxide in the air, we  increase the blanket of greenhouse gases and trap more of the heat of the sun (global warming).
  • If the temperature of the Earth goes up too much, the ice at the North and South Poles could melt, levels of oceans could rise, and climates could change.  Most climate scientists think climate change is happening now.
  • Solutions to the dangers to the oxygen and carbon dioxide cycle:
  1. Conserve energy (turn off lights, car pool, use more energy efficient products)
  2. Use sources of energy where we do not burn fuels (solar and wind energy for example)

PART 4:  REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

  • When your trash gets hauled away, it goes to a landfill.  We can keep from filling up the landfill by learning to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
  • REDUCE:  Plan ahead so you have less garbage.  One way is to buy products with less packaging.
  • REUSE:  Examples of ways to reuse—
  1. Packaging from other products can sometimes be reused.  For example, a plastic butter tub can be cleaned and used to store leftovers.
  2. Plastic bags from the store can be reused.
  3. Old clothing can be donated for reuse instead of thrown away.
  4. Use plates and utensils that can be washed and reused instead of single use paper or plastic products.
  5. Use cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers.
  • RECYCLE:  Things that can be recycled include (but are not limited to)—
  1. Plastic
  2. Glass
  3. Aluminum
  4. Paper
  • Recycled materials get made into new Recycling Symbolproducts.
  • To complete the recycling cycle, we need to buy products made from recycled materials.
  • Look for the recycling symbol to find products made from materials that can be or have been recycled.

Our occupation? Tough question!

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One of the hazards of being self-employed is that nobody gives you a job title.  You have to label yourself, and labels are tricky.  Labels don’t matter much when we are performing.  We do our thing and the audience watches.  The confusion comes when we have to talk about what we do.

We started performing professionally in the 1980s as “New Vaudevillians”, a term loosely applied to performers using some combination of juggling, mime, magic, and other variety skills.  That label has since fallen out of vogue.  Like vaudeville, new vaudeville faded away.

Sometimes we call ourselves a “Comedy Variety Duet”, an accurate if clinical sounding label.  That puts us in the same camp as some of our heroes like George Burns & Gracie Allen, the Smothers Brothers, and Bert & Ernie.

When we meet people it is easiest to say we are “Jugglers”.  It conjures an active image  and makes for good conversation.  We can then explain that juggling is just part of what we do.

The IRS makes us choose from broader categories, so we are “Entertainers”.  By contrast, our insurance agent discouraged us from listing “Entertainers” as our occupation when applying for health insurance because it sounds irresponsible.  After discussing what we did he steered us to “Arts Educators”.  It was a bit of a stretch, but it worked.  We got the insurance.

In some social media profiles we are “Owners” of Laughing Matters.  This is true, but we only own ourselves.  It is like being mayor of a town of population 1.

Then there is the label “Artist”.  We don’t introduce ourselves as “Artists” because that implies visual art.  It became an issue when we were excluded from arts council rosters because we were “just entertainers, not artists.”  We seem to have won that fight.  These days we are safely under the umbrella of “Performing Arts” (although we will run screaming from the room if you call us “Performance Artists”).

Organizations that send us into schools call us “Teaching Artists”.  At first that label seemed grammatically awkward, like calling someone an “Operating Doctor” or an “Arguing Lawyer”.  (If we go down that road we end up with “Appealing Lawyers”, and who wants that?)  Now we are comfortable with being “Teaching Artists” because it points to that intersection of arts and education that we enjoy.

So…what is our occupation?  If you have seen our show, what do you think?