To continue my ongoing discussion of “Solid learning
factors”, including focus, many articles today discuss concerns about the
current 1-minute Tik Tok brain instilling erratic focus for our young people.
Poor focus
interferes with listening integration sorely needed for sequencing, learning,
retaining and applying new material.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot compensate for learner
cognitive deficiencies. Actually, AI can make matters even worse.
Scrambling for Focus through Entertainment:
Historical Impact:
No matter how poor an individual’s focus capability has
become, one thing is certain: Entertainment will be embraced.
What entertainment?
Answer: Anything that excites the nervous system and
brain, i.e. – video games or circus
acts, and sporting events of all types. (Regarding the latter, erratic focus on
the football game plays fails, when looking for Taylor Swift in the press box).
Additionally, entertainment focus includes amusement parks, stage comedy,
mime, ventriloquism, and magic tricks.
Subsequently, it stands to reason, that speaking, looping,
puppet faces might provoke staring, leading to focus.
The learning concept of looping, filmed faces emerged from a
long puppetry/ventriloquism history.
To begin – “The Entertainers”:
1893 – Professor “Doc” Brown, living with a family of three,
growing children, in rural Tonganoxie,
Kansas, decided to carve some
amusing vent figures. He liked to entertain rural area folks, who stared
at the strange, wooden, talking faces.
Professor Brown becomes a local “hit" for a few people, so decided to hike to the New York Stage with a backpack of
puppets.
Although it took him awhile to travel such a distance, he was well
received on local city small vaudeville stages, making some income to feed his
family. They have been surviving on buttermilk and popcorn in rural Kansas.
1923 - 1955 “Doc”
Brown’s two sons, Fay and Foy E, are soon carving wooden faces like their
father had done earlier. They perform for local Kansas folks and are well received at
holiday organizational holiday events, needing entertainment.
1935 – 1955 Roughly
in the same time frame, Ventriloquism was becoming a hit comedy act for night
club entertainment on the East and West coast areas. Many tried to perform in Hollywood films but failed to succeed in that medium.
1960 - 1972 – 1979 Jan, with a teaching background in Des Moines, Iowa,
training children to emulate science, math, and reading units learning into
writing poetry and comedy scripts for parental shows. Parents were thrilled with
their children’s’ learning prowess obtained through the arts, science, and
music.
The Erland family now moves to Kansas City,
and later to Lawrence
whose school district finds arts and science creativity learning incompatible
with their educational philosophy. The local district employs The University of
Kansas’ “strategies,” paper and pencil methods.
Jan is applying the puppetry into her University of Kansas
master's degree’s learning disabilities project “Following Oral Directions” with peers and puppets.
The final outcome of the “Peers and Puppets” experiment was
that team students’ TIED with the puppetry methods. Both groups focused on a
peer role model and the teaching cloth puppet. All win-wins.
Jan Erland is soon introduced to Foy Brown, the wood carver
and former entertainer, who is a fire fighter, by trade. He carves, as a hobby,
during –fire call lapses, at the fire station.
Jan meets with Foy, in 1972, purchases two ventriloquist dummies, and soon is applying puppetry comedy
routines for advertising with her three children as musical and speaking
performers. It becomes a summer activity for the three children, who are
musical.
Soon, Foy introduced Jan to Lucille
Elmore, the noted 1940’s to 50’s stage performer. retired in Topeka, Kansas. Jan purchased her “Lily”
(then called Snoopy) vent figure, and Lucille later bequeaths her 1935 carved “Butch
O’Malley” puppet to Jan. Butch becomes filmed, as Lucille desired, for his
final destiny.
1980 – 1981 – 1996
Jan forms Mem-ExSpan, Inc. and Innovative Learning Stratagems, a 401 c3,
nonprofit, as teaching/training entities for creative methodologies. Data
collections become paramount in establishing creative puppetry for learning
change.
Milestone filming years: 1986 – 1988 – 1997 –2007 – 2012 – 2017 –
2023 – converting wooden figures to a film format laced with data collections.
(Five filming/audio recording generations applying puppet vocals).
Foy E. Brown witnessed the film transfer just before he
passed in 1988 and was astounded. What would our “Professor –Doc Brown” (Foy’s
father) think if he saw his wooden figures able to transfer easily, streamed
online, rather than walking to New
York City?
Do we have a valid conduit for focus and mental coding transfer
applying the puppets’ looping faces and voices? Continuous data confirms that
we do. But, will anyone apply it in a world of advancing technology forces with an erratic one-minute Tik Tok brain focus?