Introduction

What could time spent on art, craft, music, meditation or exercise have to do with improving a literacy program? How would those activities help me teach students who had difficulty learning because of past or present violence in their lives? These activities were part of the Violence and Learning: Taking Action (VALTA) Project course, and I wondered why.

I coordinate a rural literacy program, and had enrolled in the course with mixed feelings: gratitude for the new learning, but also some trepidation. That's because not only has violence affected some of our students, it has also been a factor in my own past.

I knew that reading about violence and its effects on behavior could create intense feelings and bring up painful memories. So did the creators of the VALTA course. They had built in course assignments in movement, art, and music. I did the assignments—serious student that I am—but admit to thinking they were a bit frivolous, not "real learning." My attitude was "Why spend time and energy on these things when I've got so much to do?"

graphic of a family

Mary Norton, one of the VALTA Project facilitators, later explained it this way: "the assignments in movement, art, and music encourage different ways of learning and knowing, help us bring our whole selves to learning, look after ourselves, and have ways to stay present when feelings rise to the surface."

During the course I found that by making time for fun and creativity I was more able to handle very serious and often emotionally challenging reading. By the end of our course I was so impressed with the value of "whole-self" learning that I had no intention of doing the research phase of the project: I just wanted to continue with music, art, and movement for my own benefit in working with my students. I was quite surprised when others in our group said "that's a research project."

Research: careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field of knowledge, undertaken to discover facts or principles. (Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College Edition, 1984)