My previous posting detailed an optional initial activity – where independently,
or with the teacher or facilitator (henceforth ‘facilitator’), the children for
whom I am designing these resources are introduced to books dealing with the
figure of Hercules. This activity is intended to provide background to build on
an existing knowledge or to introduce the child or children to the figure that they
will be spending time with.
Let me stress again that this initial activity is an optional one –
it won’t be suitable for all, there might be some users who will never know who
Hercules is and what his myths entail. And this is fine: it is possible – I hope
– to engage with the activities without any knowledge of the story, in this
regard, my approach is in line with the one that Nicola Grove and Keith Park
take to Odysseus, as I outlined in a blog posting from a little over a year ago
(6 February 2017) and which I shall develop a little here. As they say, there is an opportunity
in the games they set out around the adventures of Odysseus to introduce a rich
cultural experience for these whose access to culture might be challenging. But
their games can also be played by those who will never reach this point. as
they stress, it is not a problem if those who use them – whether clients,
pupils or teacher and therapists – start with little or no knowledge. Indeed, they
set out that rooting the activities in a story with such a heritage can open up
cultural experience to those whose access to intellectual life can be different
from many other people’s.[1]
I would add that it is absolutely fine if users are not interested in
the specific identity of Hercules, or of the two women he encounters. As I have
commentated previously, viewers of the scene are able to draw a lot from it without
any knowledge of whom Hercules is and what the story is – indeed, telling them
about the figure and his story might even reduce the imaginative potential of
the scene for them. In designing these activities, I have sought to be as
flexible as possible – each facilitator will, I hope, reshape the activities to
suit the needs of those that they are working with. And as Rita Jordan and
Stuart Powell say, flexibility is vital when working with autistic people. They
stress, as I noted in a posting of November 2016, that it is vital that
practitioners keep reflecting on their practice, philosophy, pedagogy, successes and failures.[2]
And as I have said previously too, I am receptive to amending the activities
in light of feedback from users and potential users. Indeed, from anyone with relevant
knowledge, academic or practical that might bear on the resources I would very
much welcome feedback either as comments on this blog or via email (s.deacy@roehampton.ac.uk).
Also, further down the road, I would be happy to revise the activities
to meet the needs of specific users as they emerge. Flexibility is key to this project
– as it is to Our Mythical Childhood
more broadly. We are all learning through doing, and through experience, and continually
reflect on our experiences. If anyone reading this has any responses, do let me
know what they are. There will be more formal consultations further down the
road – informal discussion will be welcome too.
In this first activity (I
have switched to a different colour for the resources), the users first meet the hero, whom some will know
as Hercules – though as I have said, this isn’t vital. For this first activity,
the facilitator might like – for those who have done the preliminary activity –
to set the scene in relation to his career as a hero. It would be worth
stressing that Hercules is still young. He has not yet begun his career as a
hero – he has not yet embarked on his adventures and quests of monster slayings
and so forth. He is as yet unknown. He does, however, have his lionskin
already, and his club.
There are, at least, two
ways in which the activity can be carried out. One way could be to engage in
dressing up and actually to transform the classroom space into the place where
Hercules has his encounter with two women. But for now, I am going to set out a
different approach. This one involves dealing with a set of drawings of the scene.
These can be supplemented with other objects mentioned in relation to the provisional
activity, not least the club of Hercules in the Olympian pillow-fight set, and
also with other activities as I shall also outline. This can be engaged with by
children working independently or in groups.
For this first activity, the
children will work with a drawing of Hercules (then after that they will encounter the landscape where his encounter
will take place). Here is Hercules. At least here, provisionally, is Hercules! He is crudely made at present, For this
initial draft of the activities, I took the photo
have shown previously of the chimneypiece panel and used the facility that
comes with my word-processing package to make a crude edit so that it looks as
close as possible to a line drawing. I am aware that it needs refining - but it
should do the job for now. And to create the figure of Hercules, I printed
out the image then cut out (literally, with scissors!) Hercules.
The users could spend some
time getting acquainted with Hercules. The way to do this I am envisaging is by
colouring in the figure. If relevant, this could be done using the same colours
used for the hero, where appropriate, in the books consulted for the preliminary
activity. Those with more basic levels of communication could be encouraged to
say words relevant to the hero, perhaps ‘man,’ ‘club,’ ‘lion,’ ‘beard.’ Others
might even say such words as ‘Hercules’ and ‘thinking’ – though I would suggest
that the facilitator doesn’t worry too much about emotional responses at this
stage – I intend to introduce these later.
With Hercules coloured in,
it is time to introduce the move to the second activity, where the hero reaches
the curious spot where his encounter with two women and their gifts will take
place. This will be the subject of my next posting.
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