Reading for Treasure: The Arts are Critical

Unless you are completely unplugged, you know that the Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are on strike. The people who write, perform, and create our on-screen entertainment are asking for a reasonable, sustainable, and appropriate share of the profits from their creations. Their artistry is critical to the well-being of our nation. I fully support their efforts and strike. 

Similarly, there is plenty of evidence to show that students engaged in art activities in school receive unique benefits. However, not enough students get these experiences. Arts Education is essential to our schools! 

Here are a few articles that prove this point: 

KQED: “How arts education builds better brains and better lives”

“Students with access to arts education are five times less likely to drop out of school and four times more likely to be recognized for high achievement. They score higher on the SAT, and on proficiency tests of literacy, writing, and English skills. They are also less likely to have disciplinary infractions. And when arts education is equitable so that all kids have equal access, the learning gap between low- and high-income students begins to shrink.” 

The New York Amsterdam News: “The Case for Arts Education” 

“Research also shows that children who participate in arts education are more curious, seek out different viewpoints and experiences, and are more socially engaged, says Jamie Kasper, director of the Arts Education Partnership. This means they are more likely to vote, run for office, and volunteer, and they have better life skills, like time management and prioritization.” 

The Washington Post: “How Theatre can teach our kids to be empathetic” 

“Several studies show communication skills are the most essential skills for navigating American adult life — better communicators are hired more often, enjoy happier relationships and marriages, ascend to leadership positions, and possess higher self-esteem. The ability to manage personal emotions and to recognize them in others — also known as emotional intelligence — is a predictor of academic and professional success. These skills are often taught through Social Emotional Learning programs, offered in K-12 schools in 27 states. But they are also a by-product of theater class, according to a recent study from George Mason University and the Commonwealth Theatre Center.” 

Buzz Feed: “14 Ways Being A Drama Kid Can Help You As An Adult”

Public speaking, teamwork, empathy, confidence, humility, reading,  and memorization are some of the skills that kids involved in theatre performance develop! 

Science Daily: “Major benefits for students who attend live theater, study finds”

“Field trips to live theater enhance literary knowledge, tolerance, and empathy among students, according to a study. The research team found that reading and watching movies of Hamlet and A Christmas Carol could not account for the increase in knowledge experienced by students who attended live performances of the plays. Students who attended live performances of the play also scored higher on the study's tolerance measure than the control group by a moderately large margin and were better able to recognize and appreciate what other people think and feel.” 

I am currently reading The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin 

Twenty Years Ago: July 2003

Reading my journal from July 2003 made me feel old and tired. I needed to be twenty years younger to be that busy – and it was summer break! I was also reminded of how distant 2003 was; at least I no longer use a Palm Pilot. 

July of 2003 was action-packed and fun-filled in every domain. My to-do list overflowed. We had a new roof and siding installed on the house. I ordered a new computer, returning to a Mac after several years of using a piece of c. I worked on school projects, schlepped the kids around, and hosted dinners with every family in the neighborhood. 

“So much accomplished today and yet I feel unsettled. I put together the newsletter puzzle piece and fixed the Counseling Website. I got all my at-school tasks done. I read a great deal of Nervous Conditions and I shall finish it today and be able to get back to Kate regarding the choice. Lots of little bits and pieces done. I am glad I don’t live like this all the time. It would make me too scattered, too fragmented.”

In addition, I was preparing for our annual summer trip. I took the kids for their yearly physicals and even the van got its own check-up. I helped my daughter get ready for overnight camp, met with the school Peer Helping staff and my new teaching team, and consulted with the chair of counseling about his website 

The dog was having regular overnight accidents and was diagnosed with diabetes. I learned to administer insulin shots to him twice a day. To keep track of the insulin dose and its effects, I created a chart so we could figure out the correct dose. Finding boarding for him while we were away became a challenge due to his need for syringes. I changed veterinarians because I didn’t have time to schlep to Wilmette constantly. 

I am not a fan of home remodeling or construction, “I hate this kind of work anyway. The pounding, the disruption, the noise and mess. The chance of problems. These “solutions” seem to bring as many issues as they solve. Today siding off, tomorrow roofing, Saturday siding back on. I hope that brings an end to it. Enough already!” 

July wasn’t all work and tasks. It was also highly social. We went out with couples, hosted eight families over for dinners, participated in our block party, ate at Sweet Tomatoes multiple times, and had a Fourth of July party (on July 3rd) because we could see the Deerfield fireworks from our backyard. We marched in the Fourth of July parade with our congregation, had several out-of-town friends visit, and went to Great America, Navy Pier, Northbrook Days, and the library’s summer programs. My folks took my daughter to a special overnight grandparents’ university at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The kids slept at their grandparents and great-aunt’s homes several times. They spent a ton of time at my folks’ house throughout July. 

While the kids were having a sleepover, my wife and I went to see a brand-new musical at the Goodman: Bounce! My wife had been adamant we get tickets. It is rare that she is so excited about a specific play, so I made it a special evening. We had a wonderful dinner and then got excellent seats at the theater. Unfortunately, the play was awful. At intermission, she almost yelled at me, “You said I love Stephen Sondheim!” That’s when I understood why she was so eager to see this play. She confused the two Stephens. “No,” I said to her, “You don’t like Stephen Sondheim. You like Stephen Schwartz.” We adore musicals like Pippin, Wicked, Working, Children of Eden, and others by Schwartz. She is not a big Sondheim fan. “Oh,” she replied, “Can we go home now?” We left during intermission. 

While my parents looked after the kids, my wife and I traveled to San Francisco for a week. We saw my aunt and cousin as well as friends from college. We visited with one of my former students who recently graduated from college. We drove along the coast and visited the Hearst Mansion. As always, we also toured several universities. My wife, in addition to the rest of her duties, helped kids with the college process. We did some wine tasting, sunset watching, and lots of relaxing. It was a refreshing change from our usual routine and I loved the slower and easier pace: the kind of pace I now enjoy in retirement. 

I printed out MapQuest pages to help me navigate the 850 miles I drove on vacation. I tried to check our home answering machine for messages with limited success. I had no way of getting my email without a computer. Disconnected meant something different in 2003. 

Upon returning home, life went back to the summer circus. My daughter attended art camp. The dog started regularly waking us up in the middle of the night to show us the big puddles he created in the kitchen. He also made it difficult to give him his medicine. He was remarkably clever about holding on to a pill and then spitting it out in odd places. 

At the end of July, I began writing my daily journals on my new Macintosh! My son lost his first tooth, we experienced some spectacular storms, and did our best to soak up the summer before August arrived, signaling the end of vacation and the return to the reality of school. 

Forgetting the Painful Past: Strange New World’s “Among the Lotus Eaters”

What happens if you can no longer recall who you are and where you come from? What are the effects when groups’ collective and individual memories are erased? What are the political implications when parts of society retain their history and other parts lose theirs? 

These are questions many people are asking when Black, Queer, and other histories have been removed from public school curricula. Legislators in several states have banned the teaching of subjects that they think will make some children uncomfortable while their removable makes others upset. Clearly, these topics might also make some adults uneasy. 

I don’t usually write reviews, but as I read commentaries on the most recent episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, no one directly addressed how this episode connects to this issue. 

In “Among the Lotus Eaters,” the crew of the Enterprise returns to a place of pain. They must “clean up” the mess they made when they had a very short but tragic visit to a planet in which three crew members died and several others were wounded. This visit seems to have resulted in “cultural contamination” where the iron age culture of the planet somehow has a Starfleet symbol, a clear violation of their non-interference order, the Prime Directive. 

Captain Pike and his crew must face their terrible past and try to deal with their interference in the development of this primitive world. Pike holds himself accountable for the fates of those under his command and accepts the responsibility of setting things right. However, when his crew arrives on the planet, they find these primitive people have phaser weapons and the delta symbol of Starfleet adorns the gates to their castle. Something is horribly wrong. 

Pike discovers the cause: one of the crew members Pike believed had died survived and made himself the ruler of the planet. Pike and his crew are attacked and awaken in a cage – and they no longer know who they are, why they are there, or what happened before. They have lost their memories. 

The dynamic of a ruling class that can retain their memories and a worker class that has no memory seems to me to be a science fiction commentary on our refusal to face our country’s past, whether our relatives were part of it or not. Even outsiders, like the surviving crew member, benefit from and exploit this memory-based caste system. 

When Pike and his landing party confront another worker, the worker rationalizes his lack of memory telling them that memories would be painful. The worker doesn’t want to remember his family, if he lost them. He doesn’t want to feel grief, pain, anger, and unhappiness. Having no memory saves him from this kind of discomfort and makes his toil more bearable. Sound familiar? 

However, our Enterprisians, even without their memories, retain key parts of themselves. Captain Pike knows that he has been separated from someone he loves and instinctually takes leadership. Lt. Ortegas finds strength in her ability to pilot the ship. Dr. M’Benga is driven to heal those in pain. 

When Pike finally confronts the wayward crew member, we learn that the ruling class has been manipulating the workers with fiction about their lost memories. They have used the workers’ lack of history to their political advantage. People without a past don’t cause problems or challenge the rulers. Repressing history and losing memory are the key elements in maintaining this abusive society. 

As our crew regains their memories and figures out how they came to be in this situation; our guide remembers his lost family. Tearfully, he acknowledges that even painful memories are better than none at all. 

In Greek mythology, the lotus eaters were a community that ate a fruit that put them into a drug-like sleep and thus they did not care about important things. They needed to come out of their daze and wake up in order to take real action. 

This episode was about the danger of falling asleep, losing our history, and thus losing ourselves. The danger was not only for the crew of the Enterprise on Rigel VII, but, a comment about our current world.  

We need to wake up! We must not lose our histories and thus lose ourselves. We must not let people erase the past for political power and personal gain. Our individual and collective histories are critical to us and our societies. As Captain Pike notes at the end of the episode, such forgetting is not a natural development. He rightfully justifies altering the situation so everyone may remember and takes the power-hungry despot into custody. 

There has been a lot written about how the newest Trek shows are “woke.” There have been complaints that they make political statements. The original Star Trek in the 60s made bold and clear statements about everything from racism to the Vietnam War. Star Trek and science fiction are, by their very nature, social and political commentary. 

This episode was directly addressing the need to hold on to our history, even when it is uncomfortable to face. It challenges us not to become lotus eaters but to wake up and confront the problems of our uncomfortable past and clean up the messes that we have made or inherited. 

Whether or not you agree with the message, “Among the Lotus Eaters”  does what good science fiction, good Star Trek, and good literature always does: use stories and characters to help us see our world in a new way – and inspire us to change for the better.