First printed in STATNEWS, May 1999. If you wish to go to an update at the end of the article, click Here

Teaching the Alexander Technique to Trainee School Teacher

An Ongoing Research Project

By Grant Ragsdale

To see the website dedicated to this project Click Here

In June 1998 I was giving Wendy ⁽ⁱ⁾ wendynuttall@btinternet.com a table turn when she said that she was interested in doing a research project into the Alexander Technique with trainee teachers and asked whether I would be interested in being involved. I, of course, inhibited answering for over half a second before saying yes.

She told me not to hold my breath, it was a long shot and that it had to go before the board for approval, but I somehow knew that it was going to happen.

Sure enough, the approval came and in September last year I started running a series of nine two hour group classes with some final year trainee school teachers. This went fine, my main problem being that they were far quicker at learning than the Adult Education groups I was used to and I had to make some hasty additions to the class schedules in the first few weeks.

In December, Sue Merry. Click Here if you wish to visit her interesting Website dedicated to Alexander work with children.) came up to run an all day workshop with them. She taught them all about Digby Down and his friend Terry Tall, and about how much happier Digby was when he had learned Terry’s magic words. (My head’s a floaty balloon and my shoulders are runny custard.)

The students enjoyed the day immensely. Sue did too and was surprised at how much they had picked up in such a short time.

At the end of the course the students were asked to fill out some forms to give feedback. The results were very encouraging, the students showing a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of the Alexander Technique, especially considering their limited experience.

Two of the students, Helen and Rachel, opted to do their final dissertation on the Alexander Technique. On her teaching practice, Helen worked with her group of 5 and 6 year olds in "Literacy Hour"- a compulsory period where the children have to sit huddled together for nearly an hour whilst listening to a story. I observed this and made notes about the children’s use and how it degenerated over the hour. I discussed my findings with her and then she made what changes she could while staying within legal requirements and being careful not to upset the other teachers.

Rachel taught her group of six and seven year olds a version of Sue Merry’s play complete with Digby and Terry and songs and donkey races. The school was in quite a rough area of Leeds and the class teacher thought she was mad to attempt such a thing but it went very well. She has also been encouraging them to lie in the semi-supine position, though some of them think that’s an odd thing to do at school.

Because of the pressure of work that final year students are under, we decided to target second year students for our next experiment. Response to the offer of an A.T. course was almost overwhelming, 46 of a possible 70 students signed up. We divided these 46 into three groups and each has or will receive five two-hour sessions and a Sue Merry workshop.

Again we were surprised by the written feedback at how much they had absorbed. I feel however that five weeks is just a taster and hope that those who wish to can continue next year.

And for the future?

Well, in April, Wendy is to give a presentation entitled "The Alexander Principle: A Consideration of its Relevance to Early Childhood Education in England Today" at an international conference on Early Years Learning.

Also there is a chance that the Alexander Technique could be included as part of the ciriculum on the Childhood Development Course at the University. Wendy said not to hold my breath, it’s a long shot, it has to go before the board for approval.

 To return to the beginning of the page click Here

Quite a lot has happened since I wrote the above, not least of which the work with the Childhood Development Course has been approved and I will begin working with them in October. Encouragingly, about thirty signed up for the Alexander Technique as one of their chosen options.

Apart from my input as an Alexander Teacher, they will be studying the Technique at a theoretical level by means of books, articles and the World Wide Web - whatever that is.

Although no dates have been fixed yet, it is hoped that Sue Merry will return again this term to run workshops with these students. It is also hoped that we will have input from an Alexander Teacher who is very clued up on physiology and another who will take them for a workshop about autobiographical writing.

Although my input with these students will be very similar to my work with the trainee school teachers that I have worked with previously, the overall implications for the Technique are quite different as this will be a part of an assessed section of a recognised degree course.

Meanwhile, my work with the next batch of trainee schoolteachers is set to continue much the same as in previous terms. I'm still some way from being allocated a parking space though.