Showing and telling children's classical culture - from the Dark Side of the Catalogue

Last summer, I took part in a classical myth 'for' children Show and Tell in Cardiff and shared some responses via this blog on the things that came out of the day that bore in some way on my autism and classical myth work. I ended with this comment:

"Karen Pierce, who organised the show and tell, will be blogging on it. I'll link to her posting once it's out."

It's out! 

It's my pleasure to link to Karen's posting, on her Dark Side of the Catalogue blog. As illustrations, and to whet your appetite, here are two of the photos in the posting - which capture different aspects of the day. In one, one of the participants shares an artefact from her own mythical childhood. In the other, you'll see an eighteenth-century child's very personal inscription in a classical book.

Karen's posting also includes reflections on the kind of event that is able to happen thanks to lockdown, the Hay on Wye festival which took place online - with mythological content - this year.

Till the next Show and Tell..!

Mythology of Hope in Israel and the UK: a PS

As I said yesterday, I was meant to be in Israel just now for this year's Israel Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies conference. Today would have been Day Two.

After I published my posting yesterday about my role in a panel on autism and classical myth, my fellow speaker - also the panel co-ordinator - Lisa Maurice put up a posting about the event on her Vox of Israel blog. Here's the link, to the perfectly titled What should have been...

In the next posting I really will return to Wales as promised yesterday!

The Mythology of Hope: Mythology and Autism - where I would have been right now

I'm writing this post on a day when another of the cancelled events I was due to take part in should have been taking place. Right now, I should have been at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, participating in the 2020 conference of the Israel Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies. I'd have been there specifically to take player in a panel - a panel that bears directly on the topic of this blog.

The panel's topic was: "The Mythology of Hope: Mythology and Autism" and I would have been speaking alongside Lisa Maurice and Ayelet Peer of Bar-Ilan University and fellow participants in the Our Mythical Childhood project - and Shachar Bar Yehuda of the Israeli autism society.

Lisa, Ayelet and Shachar were to talk about their work with autistic children in Israel. I would have talked about my work in the UK.

Here is the panel information, followed by the title and abstract of my paper.

Panel Abstract:

Over recent decades, understanding of autism spectrum disorder has increased ad great deal, and a high percentage of children with special needs are now recognized as being on the autism spectrum.  Such children often feel isolated from their peers and have difficulty integrating into wider society.  This panel aims to demonstrate some ways in which classical myth can be utilised as an educational tool for such children, helping them improve social and life skills. It gives an overview of the theoretical basis and assumptions behind the development of such programmes, and then presents two case studies, one currently taking place in Israel, and one in the UK.

1.              Hercules in the Autistic Classroom: A Case Study from the United Kingdom

Susan Deacy, University of Roehampton

This paper will report on how, as part of the European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood, a programme is being developed for autistic children via figures from classical mythology. In particular, the programme focuses on a series of activities around an episode involving Hercules, who has particular resonance for autistic children. The focal point in this instance is the hero’s choice between two contrasting paths in life, one represented by a woman/goddess named Virtue (or Hard Work), the other by one named Pleasure. The activities implemented seek to empower autistic children, and stimulate new opportunities for cultural participation, utilising the potential of Hercules as a ‘gateway’ towards understanding, identifying, contextualising and conceptualising oneself and others.  They also seek to respond to the social pressures and anxieties often faced by autistic children around making choices, and around recognising, managing and communicating emotions.

As illustration, the paper reports on the outcomes of the first of a series of pilot studies, conducted at a London primary school’s autism base with pupils aged 7-11.  It also explains how the development of the activities is being disseminated via a series of lectures, workshops and public engagement events, and through the project blog (https://myth-autism.blogspot.com), and how the progress of the project is being informed though consultations with autism and child development specialists and with storytellers. 

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The work Lisa, Ayelet and Shachar are doing is amazing. Despite not being able to exchange ideas and plans in person, collaborations can continue, especially as we're all part of the network ACCLAIM: Autism Connecting with CLAssically Inspired Myth...

More soon, where I expect to move from what should have been in Israel this week to what did happen in Wales last summer!

CIRSIE talk, Primary Schools Partnership Newsletter and unexpectedly reading about "a fantastic and hilarious adventure"

I have mentioned a few times in blog postings of late that I have been rethinking my plans for my autism and classical myth project. The PLAN at the start of the year had been to use the various presentations I was to be giving during to share my progress and gain feedback and also as a set of mini-deadlines for myself.
As I have said previously, I gave the first of these presentations in February a few weeks before the lockdown. The first event to be cancelled was one I'd been very much looking forward to. This was a presentation to CIRSIE: The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Special and Inclusive Education at Roehampton.

This presentation would have built on a previous talk I gave at the Centre when my research was at an earlier stage. I had been looking forward to updating colleagues in Special Needs Education, and hopefully, elsewhere in the University, on the project. But what I had been especially anticipating was the opportunity to share my ideas with school teachers.

The event was publicised in the University's Primary Schools Partnership Newsletter for February 2020 and school teachers were planning to come. I would have shared my experiences - all very provisional ones - taking the activities into a school. The possibility of being able to discuss future such activities was exciting me. I hope that such activities will still be able to take place, including now that primary schools in the UK have reopened...

I was honoured to see the notice for my talk among reports and notices which show the vibrancy of Primary Education at Roehampton. The online version is here. The notice about my talk is on page 20.

I was going to end here. But, looking again at the newsletter, something leapt out at me from the page before the one which includes the CIRSIE talk notice. It's during an interview with Christopher Arman, a Roehampton graduate who now works as a primary school teacher. One of the questions asks Christopher to recommend some works of children's literature. The one he talks about in the most detail is one that also bears on the Our Mythical Childhood project - which my autism and classical activities are part of. It's Who Let the Gods Out by Maz Evans, a work which, from the perspective of Classics, is as among the most innovative and imaginative reworking of classical myth for children in recent years.

Christopher says that the book is "a fantastic and hilarious adventure" (19) which is doing wonders encouraging children to read. What Christopher says bears out the views expressed in the entry on the same book in the Our Mythical Childhood Survey by - in a further nice coincidence - Bobby Sadler, another Roehampton graduate, this time in Classics and Creative Writing.

One follow-up now will be to email colleagues to see whether they can put me in touch with Christopher.

More soon...