PART TWO
ANALYSIS OF THE FILM
A
Head
Start
Class in Kwethluk
The Head Start class was held in the Kwethluk community
center with minimal equipment. It was taught by two young women from the
village, Miss Annie
and Miss Betty, whose training was limited to six weeks in a summer
workshop. The
number of students fluctuated during the filming but generally numbered
eight to twelve (Collier, 1973: 75-78).
The film opens with Miss Annie
and nine of the students seated on boxes in a rough circle reciting Mother
Goose nursery rhymes. The
teacher
and the
students are seated on the same level, so close together that everyone
is touching his
neighbor. The circle is tight enough that the teacher can easily
reach across it. Miss Annie projects directly out toward the students
with
movements that
are slow and rounded, meaning that the direction of movements is
circular rather than linear. The pace of her movements and their
form is identical
with those
of the students. Her movements and theirs are keyed to each other,
giving an impression that the group is wired together. At one point
the rhyme
is “Twinkle,
Twinkle, Little Star.” The teacher and students open and
close their hands to mark the time of the rhyme and the twinkling
of the
star. The timing
of these movements is synchronized between teacher and children
and within the group. The students close their eyes as they close
their
hands and open
them as they open their hands; when the eyes open, they are focused
on the teacher. Attention is intense at all times (Illus. 1-5).
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This
initial portion of film already defines the nature of the class.
A unity of involvement and movement is seen that indicates
harmonious
pace
and flow,
giving a strong indication that the level of communication in
this class is quite high.
The unity of the group is slightly broken by the
rough-housing of two boys. The teacher quickly deals with this situation in
a smooth
and
relaxed manner.
The process provides a clear example of what flow is all about.
Without rising, she reaches forward toward one of the boys, who
in turn leans
toward her
and grasps her wrist. She guides him smoothly toward another
place in the circle.
The movement of the two is fluid and unified; their movements
perfectly synchronized as if in a dance. The rest of the group
is part of
the “dance,” too.
As the boy leans forward and brings his head down to meet the
teacher’s
hand, the heads and torsos of the other children also lean forward
and down. As he comes up and moves across the circle with the
teacher, the heads and
bodies of the other children also come up and follow the movement
toward its completion (Illus. 6-14).
These fluid interrelationships
are the epitomy of a high level of flow. The smoothness of
the interactions are more striking
because they are
disciplinary movements. The reader might remember the flowing
unity of this interaction
and compare it to other scenes which will be described later.
Smooth, relaxed interrelationships like this one suggest a
high potential
for quality communication.
After the nursery rhymes are over,
the group sits together for a while. Several of the students
rearrange their seating somewhat.
Miss Annie
reaches toward
one of the children. He appears to be the youngest and has been
somewhat
peripheral
to the group. She draws him in toward her, stroking his head as
he leans against her, Then she sits and serenely looks out over
the
group. There
is no hurry
to do anything. After a time she reaches over to the bookcase
behind her and draws
out a book which she shows to the student closest to her. The smaller
boy just mentioned reaches across to touch her hand. She turns
smoothly around
toward
him and shows him the book directly. She then leans out with the
book to show it to the remainder of the students. The small boy
leans
around the book to
look at it again (Illus. 15-17).
Then Miss Annie sits with the
book on her knee and looks out over the group. The small boy leans against
her again. As they
sit like
this
without apparent
organized activity, one of the boys starts to beat rhythmically
with his hands. Several others pick up this motion and join
in. Another
student
follows the
movement and rhythm with a bobbing of the head. A dance of
synchronized movement develops
which is another example of the harmonious unity of this group
(Illus. 18-20).
The next portion of the film shows the students
at a table, involved with jigsaw puzzles. Although the table is quite
long, everyone
sits close together
at
one end, shoulder to shoulder. The pace is leisurely and
the teachers sit among the
children. Since their pace and movements are the same as
the children’s,
the only thing that visually separates them from the children
is size.
The film then shows a story session. Ten students
and the two teachers sit in a rough ring as Miss Betty, seated
on a low chair,
reads
from a book.
The children
and Miss Annie are seated on boxes.
The group has a steady
pulse of movement while they listen. After a time, the teacher raises her
hands from the book
and gestures
with both hands
and head,
projecting out toward the group. The pulsing movement
of the circle of children (a gentle rocking back and
forth
together) is combined
with
a unified focus
on the teacher’s hands and face. When she drops
her hands a bit and looks down, they all shift their
eye focus
downward.
When she raises her hands to gesture,
they all lean back together with their heads and eyes
rising to follow the gesture. As the hand comes down
again, there
is a smooth
rocking forward and dropping
of center of eye focus which follows her gesture back
down to the book.
The camera angle shifts around behind
the group and the pulsation of motion becomes more
distinct. In and
out
from the center
of the circle
the students
rock, like
a jelly fish opening and closing its umbrella. This
movement is almost completely synchronized through
the group.
The teacher is
no longer
gesturing, but the
circle has drawn in tighter when the camera returns
to view the group from the front.
The focus becomes more intense. Bodies lean forward
with just a slight back and forth rocking at the
same pace
as before (Illus.
21-13).
The story ends.
Miss Betty returns with another book
and the camera moves to the other side of the circle. There is again
the same
slow pulsation
of the group,
including
both
teachers. Attention is so focused on the story
that two boys who
rearrange their boxes for a better view do so
in time to the group-wide pulsation.
The camera
shows the faces all focused toward the teacher
with intense involvement (Illus. 24-25).
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This unity of movement is important
because it reflects the unity of attention, evidenced also
in facial
orientation, which Miss
Betty was
able to create,
and the high degree of interpersonal awareness
among the
children. There was an invisible
thread which ran through the group, a current
of awareness that was not broken by anything in the
presentation.
She had only
to interest
one
or two children
and their interest would be transmitted through
the group so that soon the whole group would
be interested.
It
was easy for
both
Miss Betty
and Miss
Annie to
hook into the current or thread which held
the group together because the pace and style of
their movements
were similar
to those of
the children. In doing
so, they became a part of it, feeding energy
into it and receiving back from it. Many other teachers
in
the film sample,
some of
whom will be
described
shortly, cut across the current and prevented
the development of fluid interactions
among the children and between the children
and the teachers.
The next scene shows most of the children coloring.
As in the puzzle portion of the class,
the children are
all close
together
at one
end of a long
table with their papers touching or almost
touching. The coloring is freehand and
very animated. The children are lively;
they show excitement in their faces and interact
with each other a great deal while coloring.
They
all share a large box of crayons.
Miss Betty
is seated at the table. Several of the children who are not coloring are
elsewhere in
the room playing
various games.
One
of the
children apparently
has a sore throat and both teachers examine
him. Miss Annie brings the sick boy to
the coloring
table and
slowly shows
him the crayons,
and
draws lines
on the
paper, apparently to show him the colors.
The process is quiet and unpressured.
The teacher
leaves him
and talks briefly
to
another student (Illus. 26-28).
After
a while there are more children on the floor, playing with puzzles, blocks
and running
around.
The teachers
join in these
activities, one
of them constructing
a tower of blocks with several students.
She quietly draws one boy into the
process, handing
him a block
and showing
him where
to place
it, then
afterwards
adjusting
it to fit in a little better. The
whole interaction is non-verbal as well as
can
be determined
from the film
(Illus. 29-31).
The film then shows
Miss Betty reading to a small group of children. As
she reads she holds
her hands
together,
wiggling
them back
and forth. The
student
next
to her mimics these gestures.
She then touches her nose and the same boy touches
his nose.
A boy in
front of
the teacher
looks
at the
camera and
then back at
the teacher, picks up the gesture
and touches his nose (Illus. 32-37).
The film ends with everyone
washing up for a lunch of soup, cheese,
milk and
pilot crackers.
They
sit at a
long table,
say grace,
then eat.
These last sections
of the class continue the patterns
of the earlier
portions.
Communications between
teachers and
children
are frequent,
often intense
and smooth.
One observer
of this footage has remarked that the class
reflected
the philosophy
of early
childhood education and
that the performance
of Miss
Betty and Miss
Annie could in large
part be related to their six-
week
training session (Connelly,
private communication).
The
film clearly
shows the influence
of general early
childhood education patterns
in terms of content and,
to a degree,
in format.
It
is what happens
within
that
format,
and with that
standard content,
that is remarkable. The
most important aspect
of this class,
aside from
the smooth
teacher-student interactions,
was the sense of unity
of direction and movement
in the
group. This
unity,
lacking in other classes,
gave the
class an unmatched
intensity of interactions.
It is
unlikely that these characteristics
resulted
from anything
learned in
the training session.
In any case, the nature
of interactions within
the
Head Start class closely
resembled the
nature
of interactions seen
in footage of home and
village scenes. This
fact strongly
suggests that the
special
aspects
of the
Head Start
class reflect the
transference of local
Eskimo patterns
of behavior into the
setting of a Head Start class.
