Thought I'd throw in something from an slightly different angle as concerns the word, "authentic." "Authentic," always reminds me of that old, out of favour word, "inspiration." It also reminds me of Authentic Movement, a somatic technique combining movement therapy and depth psychology that was invented by a Martha Graham dancer named Mary Starks Whitehouse. To do Authentic Movement, a Mover closes her eyes and suspends purposeful doing to let bodily impulses surface spontaneously. Rather than consciously willing bodily efforts, she waits for an inner energy to animate her. Often her improvised gestures are accompanied by feelings, images, or memories. There is usually a Witness who sits silently and witnesses the Mover's improv. At its end, Mover and Witness often write or draw silently to bring the richness of the Mover's inner world further into consciousness through an accompanying medium. Then they talk. If you were to try this technique, you would feel very inauthentic at first, and continue to do so off and on through a number of sessions. Often you feel clumsy or extremely inhibited. Strangely what begins to happen over time is that you begin to find yourself down on the floor making regressive, baby-like movements. At other times, you might get "stuck" in repetitive movements, which if you can relax into them, just accept where you are with them, they will carry you somewhere unexpected and become very freeing, inspiring, and "authentic." What Authentic Movement is closest to in writing is expressive free-writing, something we certainly can encourage in the classroom. But as any Authentic Mover will tell you, a session of moving will perhaps release vital, "real" movements, but then the arduous work begins to craft a choreography out of such "real" gestures, sequences, phrasings. So I guess if I apply this to the classroom, I would say that allowing students an expressive-base, that is a chance to free-write, to talk in small groups with each other, to play around with their emergent thoughts , to be present to where they really are, can be very helpful. As teachers/ facilitators, standing out of the way of this is laudable. Still, I think we do students a disservice, if we don't also teaching them how to edit and "craft" these "authentic" voiced-bits into their fuller potential. As "authentic" and supercharged as we would like our every moment of teaching to be, there's a lot to be gained from that old adage: "10% inspiration, 90% perspiration." One of my most gratifying moments as a teacher occurred when an Asian student of mine showed me a series of poetic fragments she had drafted about being sexually abused by an uncle. By the end of the semester she had written the A+ report on how tourism in Thiland supports/depends upon prostitution in that country. She had moved her "authentic" inner experience out, at first, through expressive self-explorations which then led her to write an emotionally compelling, yet rigorously "authentic" academic text. Just my two cents worth, Charlotte Hussey -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties, write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask] For the list archives and information about the organization, its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-