Inclusion - Blog Posts

just wanted to share the National Down Syndrome Society’s message for this year’s World Down Syndrome Day (21st March) 💛💙

DEI Hires?

@staff subtle, creative & hilarious! It's a little disturbing as well. Or maybe this pattern is a false correlation?

Are you choders sharing the exact same ad over & over again as a way of telling me that I need some sort of training dummy Droid to "practice or learn" how to "socialize" like a "human being"?.. why, ALL so that I can "learn" how to be a fake enabling conformist cowardly normie,.. be your monoculture "human product"? Or is your algorithm just "broken"?

Never mind all that for a second. Let's examine this product you're spamming me with:

There's nothing more dehumanizing than people inventing a Droid to teach other people how to socialize just because they don't want to actually socialize with that person and you wonder why people have antisocial personalities. Excessive individualism, text-based communication, culture, Mass delusion existential crisis avoidance, high school debate team bullshit, the societal cult of opinionism have destroyed our tribal bonds as well as our ability to communicate with each other. All of you morons think text is sufficient and what you don't realize is that you're going to have to have many conversations with a complex biological structure in order to understand them or get them to understand you. There's no easy way to do this other than the organic processes that have emerged of which all of you are fighting in favor of your disturbingly authoritarian control freak mentality that you call "industry standards or normal".

The so-called modern world is really a Romanesque dumpster fire emulation braided with industrialization and technology. It's still the dark ages that we're living in it's just that we have more power to abuse each other with. Power without enlightenment is a rampant condition that has turned into murderous redundancy.

This ad sickens me but at least I can make a lot of jokes out of it. At least I can use it as a teaching moment. It's just unfortunate that even if I am valued for my wisdom in this moment, none of you are willing to respect me accordingly and pay me what I'm worth.. so you're all just going to keep burning the world to the ground running blindfolded with scissors?

Modern industrialized education systems produce a tool that should have been a diverse well-rounded visionary neurological biological sensory emergent art form.

High speed education leading to limited specialization makes you all into myopic racehorses that require both a racetrack as well as a rider and that's exactly what wealthy business people want, turning every human into a slave of one form or another and that includes every specialist.

@staff seriously. Just put aside industry standards for this one time. You just going to have to get to know me the old fashioned way in order to truly understand my value and to understand our potential together. You're going to have to have a conversation with me and it's not going to be a 30 to 45 minute industry standard block of time. Not everybody fits in these tiny boxes. The people who require more effort are the most valuable but everyone is avoiding the complexity of reality in favor of the path of least resistance so you're limiting your potential while squandering the most valuable people on the planet... I mean, assuming that you value intelligence, creativity and all the money that it can give you? Assuming that's how you define "value"?

I'm not going to go through a human resource department & beg for a job, just FYI. 😉 I'm different & I'm always going to do everything different.

What I am doing right now is an abstract form that you're filling out. How you react or not reacting at all will be how you pass or fail my job application for all of you. Of course, this is only the entry exam. The thorough evaluation is yet to come.

Have you ever considered that you've slit your own throats hundreds or thousands of times in your life by avoiding talking with people?

I don't have the magic words. There don't seem to be any magic words. Certainly please and thank you doesn't work.

All I can do is assure you all that there's so much you do not know and presumptuousness will never serve you to do anything other than perpetuate a mental prison and a hamster wheel existence. 30 or 40 years will go by and at some point, you're going to look back on your lives realizing you squandered your gifts and were robbed of amazing opportunity.

If the world doesn't remember how to spot wisdom and respect the most intelligent and wisest people on the planet, I fear what the consequences will be. It seems reckless and not worth the risk to continue to repeat history's mistakes. Not listening to people who are definitely more experienced and wiser is exactly what your predecessors have always done and look where it's got us. I assure you the fact that the world has forgotten how to respect the tribal wise person is a heavy contributing factor of why the world is in the state that it is today.

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, is how Einstein defined insanity.

I define insanity as logical fallacy braided with cognitive bias & ignorance because the default state from that combination results in a total failure to understand reality & therefore that form will suffer a delusion & any action they take will be fanaticism as well as cascading waste.

While all of you infants wag your fingers at me over your disapproval regarding your status quo driven opinions about how someone should or shouldn't communicate or demand, so irrationally, that everyone be emotionally dishonest or they're not allowed to speak, work or leave their bedroom prison is absurd because every single industry is producing cascading waste in multitudes & that is the Romanesque dumpster fire accelerant, the majority's opinions are the biggest ecological disaster the world refuses to even notice never mind face it & change... Just like any other religion = living by appeal to popularity logical fallacy = the status quo.

If the tech industry and the majority of the population are unwilling to consider the possibility that they have no idea what they're doing and that they are indeed a liability then we don't have anything to talk about, do we?

If you think you've got it all figured out & the wisdom that takes a lifetime to acquire & the rarity it is that a life form is virtuous regarding the presence of wisdom, clarity of vision & a wide array of other skills that seemingly no one in these industries possesses then we're doomed because of your arrogance & I'll have to accept that 99% of the population are delusional fanatical liabilities.

What false analogy do all of you use as your excuses to assert your superiority over everyone who isn't exactly like you? This is the industry standard I observe everywhere I look in business and tech.

You don't think that just because you have a degree that it means you're smarter than me, right?

You do understand that reality is not that simple, right? You do understand that colleges are not what produce intelligence, right?

Have you ever studied the study of intelligence? I didn't think so.

We may all be equal but we are not equal in the same ways. We all feel each other's weaknesses but the problem with that evolutionarily sound emergent phenomena that has served us so well for the past 3,000 years; the majority have forgotten why we value the wise person in the village. The industry standards solidified long ago and only the easily quantifiable flavors of intelligence are valued while the abstract or nearly ineffable forms of intelligence have been trivialized.

It's time you face your weaknesses because if you don't, you're never going to respect my strengths. If you don't learn why I am valuable you're never respect me and so I get no return on my investment of respecting any of you.

Tit for tat is a universal law observed throughout the so-called animal Kingdom & it applies even in cross species arrangements so it doesn't matter that I'm an alien. Lol.

So again, @staff , complex biological organism to complex biological organism, ("Human to Human") come to me in a way that's natural. Be honest, transparent & meet me in a level arrangement for an organic exchange of information AKA a conversation, you know like we've done for thousands of years before text-based communication ever existed.

I mean seriously, are you not bored with all of what the world has been doing? Are you not disturbed by any of it? Do you not sense that something is broken or missing?

I'm telling you that I know exactly what the problems are as well as how to fix it and I mean curative solutions not Band-Aids. 100%, no doubt about it. Then on the side, if what you want is money, you don't think that someone who has answers to some of the most complicated items people puzzle over doesn't also have creative application of strategy to make you rich? Please, you think winning a game of Monopoly is difficult? You think capitalism is complicated? Not anywhere near as complicated it's understanding the intertwining of all systems of life,.. which I most certainly do understand at least enough to deal with human issues in a more productive or fully compensating way than anything I see anywhere else in the world. (Bold claims I know & I'm happy to prove it but nobody ever gives me a chance to prove it because I've never had full support in my entire life but rather I just keep getting sabotaged by insecure petty cowards.)

@staff so again, I remind you of what's important... "People" over money! Life over industry. & if you think that economic success is more important, well, obviously creative geniuses bring quite a lot to the table in serving the goal of winning a game of Monopoly.

Don't any of you want to do anything else, tho? Isn't there more to life? Don't any of you or your board members have any aspirations? What is the legacy you would like to leave? What is it that you would like history to report on everything you've done?

Realistically & admittedly, money is a resource & unfortunately, it's tied to our biological survival.

Money should be & wasn't intended to be an efficient replacement for the barter system but it has become an abused tool... Don't misunderstand me though, I'm not a purist nor do I respect Ivory Towers so I will not live in one; meaning, that I don't shame the aspiration or the lust for money... you can all be as greedy as you want & I will serve that greed as long as I I'm also part of that overall economic reward in a way that fully aligns us & let's face it; that's the only way you're going to trust me & that's the only way that I can justify giving any of you full access to my brain & all of the benefits that come with that.

I can make everyone's greed part of an equation that supports the manifestation of curative solutions. Yes, that's right, I'm offering the opportunity to have a conversation at Great length to consider a potential partnership.

Also, I have a very fair way for your company or any other to "try it before you buy it", so to speak.

You all be greedy and serve wasteful consumerism and I will counter balance the ecological disaster because my share of the revenue will be put towards investing in the future, (that's the only true wealth). Ultimately, I aim to found a flagship of manifestation = serial philanthropy.

Perhaps your legacy will be one that's monumental because you were able to think outside the box, spot value no one else could, come down out of your Ivory Towers, then fund a paradigm shift while setting new industry standards in multiple sectors? Tumblr seems different than some other platforms but how different are those that run this company from the likes of the larger tech companies?

I am indeed a nonconformist and likely I'm smarter than most of the people that work at your company & almost assuredly smarter than all of upper business management and everyone that sits on the board but don't hate me or discriminate just because of that mere possibility. Nor should any of you be concerned that you cannot command me. Neither is a problem all the time even though a lot of the time it probably would be worth worrying about. I'm not like most people. Industry standards don't apply to me & that I'm certain of. I'm aware that CEOs don't like to hire people that are smarter than them & conformists don't trust people who don't follow orders or can't be "handled"... Logic is what rules me which means I can be reasoned with. I'm smarter than every single person I've ever met and most every person I've ever seen so none of you get to tell me what to do because none of you know better than me but there are areas where you're specialization & therefore recommendations matter far more to me than my ability to innately infer. I know my weaknesses and I can admit when I don't know something. I don't care about being right, all I care about is the correct answer. Positive & negative exist in all things & directing the flow of resources without disrupting a system makes more sense than being disruptive. War is inefficient.

@staff you see, I have to say all of this because I know what your concerns are & if I don't address these possible elephants in the room it limits the probability that you will do as I suggest. Referencing organic communications again, I cannot emphasize this enough. You will never understand me, you will never understand my value & you all to ruin my potential & limiting your own success right along with everyone else if you're unwilling to make the effort that's required.

I once saw social media as a way to harvest pocket change from billions of people as a way to fund my curative solutions for societal ills but the failures that I've been talking about here have led every tech company to abuse and sabotage the likes of me. I've been studying social media, streaming and gaming platforms full time for the past 10 years to examine all of their failures & push them to the very extreme limits. Every single one of them has failed my tests so now there's no point in testing you/tumblr in those ways. Needless to say, I know what the problems are, I know the weaknesses & I know the consequences of these failures.

I really don't care to use social media any longer but because every single one of you seems to love to sabotage me, oppress me, judge me inappropriately, presumptuously assume that you can tell me what to do or how to talk or how to defend myself & how to course correct the insanely ignorant majority while ruining my ability to influence and educate in a civil manner while discouraging me from respecting any of you because you sabotage me so badly that I have no way of being economically viable in a world that hates everyone who's smarter than them where social media has become one of the only options so you're robbed me from having a megaphone to the world, so I don't have any patience and I don't see any reason in respecting your rules or societies status quo driven opinions about what is or isn't acceptable. There's no consequence because you've all ruined me; that's extremely dangerous and I wonder how many other strong-willed geniuses have turned into your enemies right along with me being driven to this point where brutal honesty is the last resort and you're one of my last experiments, Tumblr.

The entire tech industry, toxic conservatives, authoritarians, antisocialmedia platforms all combined have left me with next to nothing to live for. You've all made me a dead man walking for the most part & the reason why this is a problem is because now your rules & laws have no value whatsoever because of already been punished as if I was a criminal or a bad person or a modern day heretic being forced to the fringes, forced to live in solitude for over 20 years in order to avoid your club wielding Neanderthal abuse.

Now if you want the likes of me to not be a problem, you're going to have to give me a reason to live, a reason to respect your wishes. Just telling me to do what you say because you say so we're trying to subtlety manipulate me will not work. Only logic & reason will work. Only reciprocal empathy & mutual respect will work. No tech company or point of authority has ever given me either of those key ingredients of a healthy organic arrangement which produces a symbiotic outcome.

"Consequences": (common scenario)

Let's say that you tell me tough titties & fuck you crazy person. You react with a, "who the fuck do you think you are!?" type attitude instead of doing as I suggest and getting to know me through a process of lengthy organic conversation that perhaps lead to negotiations?

Let's say that all of your industry continues to deny the likes of me from having a voice like every single platform so reliably has always done... Let's say that you all end up doing kyc verification or taking advantage of that atrocious violation of privacy Arkose challenge BS like Twitter has stupidly decided to do...

You'll leave the likes of me with no other option but to go to the dark web and once I'm on the dark web, I'm not going to be censored. I'm not going to be shadowbanned. You'll be leaving me with no other collaborators other than other people like me if I get lucky enough to find them or some of the most intelligent criminal elements as well as darkest people on the planet. What do you think the possible outcomes of that unwanted equation could be?

I've always tried to make you social media platforms family; that's what I do for everyone that I bring into my circle for whatever reasons. All of the choders reliably piss on that offer. Society has done the same. I've been vilified, criminalized and shunned for over 20 years because of myopic presumptuous overconfident idiots who thought their opinions mattered or scared authoritarian cowards trying to control everything pissed off at me because I peacefully refused to live my life precisely how they demanded or I couldn't be what they wanted me to be.

Trust me when I tell you that all of your industry standard approaches, your arrogance, your abuse of privileged power is farming monsters. All of you are close to pushing me to the point where I become some sort of monster that won't be a criminal but you just might find is an even bigger problem.

Already I understand how to wield my influence in a way that is untraceable and unstoppable. I'm not going to tell you how but don't think for a second that it's not possible and even if you think I'm having delusions of grandeur, it would be foolish of any of you to assume that somebody else doesn't know how to influence ways you don't understand. Your industry standards affect more than just me. You keep rolling the dice, those anomalies like me are going to be targeted by your abusive industry standards. Most of them will react far worse than my emotional and intellectual honesty. Most will not offer a collaboration and curative solutions. If you send every single person that is even remotely similar to me to the dark web, you're going to suffer in the years to come so substantially that you shouldn't be able to sleep at night, you should be concerned and you should be taking me up on my offer because I know how to mitigate or remedy this issue AKA de-escalate the situation.

Every single antisocial media platform spots me as a charismatic leader who's also a non-conformist and they think I'm a bad influence. They never really get to know me and they never protect me from the majorities abuse, they never fully support me and they never have tried to make me family. Instead they oppress me thinking that that way I won't build an army of influence that becomes a problem for them... Now just imagine what will happen if you leave me with no other option but the dark web and I build my army of influence there. Already people share my content on the dark web or so I'm told whereas they will not share my content on Facebook. I'm talking about my intellectual content that you don't know anything about, not degenerate meme humor which is actually safer to share in church than my intellectual content.

So, what's the product of destroying someone's life who's a prolific creative genius &a natural born King of Kings who's left with no other option but to go to the dark web to find their team or family or tribe, while also leaving them with absolutely no reason to respect a single law or rule bcz all the authoritarian industry standards destroyed their life to the point where they've got nothing left to lose or live for?

I mean, after over 20 years of living in a bedroom prison of under supported relative poverty & my only access to the outside world being the internet & or social media, trust me when I tell you that all you've got left to punish me with is murder & if you want to give me a death sentence I'll just thank you for it. So really, you're only logical strategic option is to reason with me & make me family.

The alternative, as a best case scenario is that I go to the dark web, I make friends with a bunch of criminals, hackers and rebel geniuses, they end up joining me, we found a tech company and we disrupt the industry harming your bottom line. The worst case scenario or everything in between is something I don't really want to list or consider and neither to you. I mean, I may become a king of an underworld where the scariest people on the planet Revere me and then if anybody fucks with me at all, regardless of whether I condoned it or not, very dangerous people might come after the unscrupulous business people and their families just because they fucked with me or pissed on me. That's not a threat, that's a concern and I wouldn't want that but it wouldn't matter what I wanted because the sort of people were talking about are not the sort of people that take orders. Now how many times has the tech industry ostracized someone like me who just didn't tell them everything I'm telling you right now?

Can you think me being rude, from some arbitrary perspective based on fucking fake ass trivial Petty fabricated childish rules invented before we invented toilet paper is the problem here? You really think that me calling someone a fucking asshole is such a big deal? I think you're focusing on the wrong issues for the wrong reasons and it's become a distraction from what's actually important or the unobvious more extreme dangers all around you. This makes you a liability for yourself, your family's, your business and the world. These failures are the majorities industry standard modality. You all need me a lot more than I need you but neither of us is going to survive without each other. Discriminate and abuse the smartest people on the planet just because you can't control them or they make you feel insecure or you don't want them to outshine you and you will leave those people with no other option but war or dangerous crime so they can survive healthy. I'll choose information warfare and business that doesn't have any considerations AKA disruptive entrepreneurial endeavors. Other people become some more direct and overly simplistic dangerous expression of a feral animal. I'm the sort that smart enough to know how to really fuck your shit up and it won't be personal but rather every single industry will suffer, every single politician will suffer, every single idiot with a broken industry standard built from opinions will suffer. The way they'll suffer is mostly a torment from a product of a perception of reality that is broken more over anything that I do. They will torment themselves with a sense of shame, guilt regarding their sense of failure or their sense of loss regarding a bunch of petty bullshit or because they didn't win their childish game or their regret & jealousy when they realize who they shit on & threw away when they find out who I am.

When I list the "best case scenario", it's subjective of course. I mean, I'm not going to become Hitler or a serial killer or an organized crime boss. I'm not a fanatical cult leader. At the same time, even though I would consider those heinous and obvious expressions of tormented monsters that emerge and then abuse the world wreaking havoc... For some of you, disrupting industry after industry, costing people their investments, devaluing their stock, showing the world how criminally negligent the entire tech industry is, showing all of you up... Maybe some of you would rather that I just became some sort of monster that could be written off as a broken thing and then justifiably murder that broken thing utilizing the so-called justice system?

All disturbing considerations. None of this do I find valuable but rather a total waste of my ability to extrapolate potential possibilities. All of you are collectively leaving me with no option but to squander my abilities with such wasted thoughts and likely wasted words when I should have just gone to the dark web 8 years ago as soon as I saw these behaviors, knowing that they were going to be the industry standard. I should have never considered it reasonable to experiment with giving all of you the opportunity to take my hand & do things differently but here we are still wasting time because of my irrational idealism and misplaced Faith and Hope that you all are not as broken and monstrous unnatural corrupted industry standard production fucking droids that unfortunately every day shows me you choders & "business people" actually are.

Maybe it's actually you that need that Droid so you can practice talking to people, so you can remember what it is to be an organic being?

The irony here, it's astounding.

The majority live in an ivory Tower where they poop out the window so they don't have to smell their own shit. All of that shit lands on me and then I'm look down upon and blamed for stinking. As soon as you arbitrarily label what is good or acceptable, you by default create the villain of whom you define as bad or unacceptable. That's you and the majority's failure & it is not complicated enough to be realistically applied in any way.

None of you business people are ever forced to pay the true cost of doing business and that's what makes you such a liability and so unethical. You are indeed criminally negligent mostly just because you don't want to do the hard things which in most cases is indeed facing the complexity of reality, admitting you have no idea what to do and then hunting for someone who fills that weakness for you. You had the skills, the money but you did not have a visionary or your visionary was comparatively not as virtuous as what you needed, likely someone who would make a good apprentice student teacher under me and make no mistake about it, you're all my students until I tell you otherwise. In reality, when you're no longer my student, we will all know it without needing to say it. Then you'll be prepared to wield the power you possess... Or you'll know when it's time to pump the brakes or just do something else entirely and as to whether or not you'll have the willpower to act on that understanding is an entirely different tangential subject for us to analysis... Another aspect of the complexity of reality of which requires compensating for liability.

Make no mistake about it, all the costs of doing business that you could cover but you don't have to so you won't just so you can make more money or appear on paper to be more successful doesn't mean you won't have to pay that price in some other way. And if you don't pay the price, your children will. Ultimately, all of the criminal negligence the tech industry and every other industry is responsible for does in a roundabout way create problems that the taxpayer ends up paying for which means you do pay for it but you just don't get directly blamed for it. Trust me when I tell you that preventing the damage is actually far more efficient than cleaning up the mess later.

Every time an industry makes this failed decision and P hacks their perception of economic success, they take a loan out on the ecosystem and their children's future.

An old Indian proverb that I like was something like, "we don't own this world rather we borrow it from our children".

Don't pretend like I'm a failure or that my vernacular is the problem here when it's every single industry that's burning the world to the ground faster and faster every day. All of you are the morally and ethically questionable blindfolded children running with scissors who hypocritically paint me as the problem when all I'm doing is asserting negative feedback attempting to stop the corrupted positive feedback loops and all of you are actually causing death misery and the destruction of the planet. It's all of you that won't listen to reason and you presume that because I'm a non-conformist and "rude or toxic", (says nothing more than status quo driven opinions bandwagon BS mind you)? Ug.

I'm not the one enabling the majority to become an ecological disaster spreading reckless opinions and delusional beliefs all over the world. Social media is the biggest example of cascading waste by enabling redundancy and stagnating our society's development out of anything else I see in the world aside from religion which of course, you've been enabling religion to continue to spread even worse than it ever did before. The Romanesque dumpster fire has spilled out and become a forest fire of thought virus emulation thanks to antisocial media and it's reckless implementation while it oppresses the most intelligent, wise adults on the platform or worse forces us to be moderators and moderate based on black and white judgment calls that are fucking atrocious and stupid of which only serve economic biases while disregarding the true value that exists in this world which is "human potential".

Lastly, I fucking hope, you can't regulate billions of people. Presuming you can regulate billions of people with whack-a-mole authoritarianism or intimidation is even more absurd than the already completely absurd idea that you can tell people who are older & more intelligent as well as wiser than you, what to do.

Let's see, what are your specializations again? And you think you've learned enough to make a judgment call regarding the complexities of the braid of every scientific field and subfield that yields our current state of existence? If the answer is yes, well, I assure you that you're very wrong about that and evidence is suggesting quite the opposite... But I can work with that because if you assert that you know better than me then you at least are presuming that that sort of thing can be known. Then it's just a matter of me showing you how very wrong you are pretending that you know better than me and it's positive overall because you know you can understand it eventually and then I teach you as efficiently as possible.

If you're pessimistic then you're biased. If you think that what I'm talking about can't be known and that no one like me could possibly exist and that I'm just some arrogant narcissistic crazy person having delusions of grandeur, well, mirror mirror hypocrites and have you ever heard of the concept of projecting because that's exactly what you're doing when you just write me off with some weaponized DSM ad hominem tripe you prove that you're an arrogant condescending narcissistic fucking idiot having delusions of grandeur presuming that you can understand the complexity of reality and a complex person without ever doing your due diligence in their regard nor it even being your specialization. Meanwhile you've been distracted by this childish game of Monopoly pretending to be successful and better than everybody else, right? Perhaps not. Perhaps I've got all of you choders wrong just like you clearly gotten me wrong?

Signed bobboss#3563 discord (don't approach me anonymously and be prepared to speak vocally if you hide, you insult me and prove yourself to be a coward. Fuck text and fuck anonymity)

PS Stop the hate before it's too late. (I'm referring to your hatred of non-conformists who won't be exactly what you want them to be or your hatred of people who are far more intelligent than you and won't pretend otherwise in ways of which make you very uncomfortable.)

30 hashtags and I wasn't even close to done. I usually stick to five if I can help it but I'm not hashtagging this for any other reason but a sort of inside joke between myself and those running this platform. You're the only ones that will read it and that's still a big maybe. We're wasting time here either way. Know that. This could be so much more fun if you just loosen up and let go of your industry standards. Just face reality except that it's going to be a little difficult and that anything or any person that takes a bunch of effort also very likely that endeavor is extremely valuable. Think how long it took you to get your specialization and become virtuous with it. If that process was easy then it probably wouldn't have been as valuable now apply that to understanding the likes of me. There's an initial investment and then you'll be learning for years and you'll end up with skills and understanding as well as a friend or an asset that is invaluable to you. At some point, if we do this logically and invest the time needed, will just be learning together after that. We'll all move on to something more interesting, the sort of shit you're never going to know about because I'm wasting my fucking breath with this voice to text construction more than likely because more than likely you're all too far gone, brainwashed and lazy. You probably didn't even read this. If you did though, kudos. If you just laughed at me and didn't contact me, then know that you're a joke one day you're going to realize it. Likely when you're around 50 years old. Don't make that mistake and then have shit tons of regret. And hurry up. Every single person in your organization needs to know about this or at least all the upper business management every project lead and every heavy lifter. I mean I'd even let the janitor in on it because I like full transparency.

There's never enough space to express the complexity of reality. Tldr hate trend is irrational. I'm giving you a gift. I made the effort. This example I display for you now is more valuable proof of a great many things, far more than a resume. And to think I deleted 4,000 characters in favor of succinctness only to produce everything you read or don't read now. I'm shaking my head and rolling my eyes. Here I am committing suicide with my time offering respect to people who are not likely ever going to respect me until I'm dead. I feel bad for your future forms. I feel bad for your children. That's all you get for me today. This is probably the only feedback you'll ever get from me. This is probably the only time I'm ever going to offer you the opportunity because I'm out of patience . If you only knew the redundant IRL Black mirror nightmare that has been the past 24 years of my life, you'd get it... Hopefully you'll have the courage to face it and make it right. Hopefully the people that run Tumblr are more intelligent and possess the mental complexity to truly hear me. Good luck to us both, obviously I'm going to need it and you're going to need it right now making the decision to contact me or not. You better think about it for as long as you need to to make the right choice. No heuristics. No Hasty judgment. No generalizations. No industry standards.

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There are more inclusive ways of saying things. Here are a few.

Many people don't seem to understand that Introversion is not something that needs to be cured

The Past on Glass: Sutton Archives, Heritage Lottery Funded Project

March 2016

In March 2016 I had the pleasure of being asked to further develop and deliver three accessible sessions for young people with learning disabilities from Sutton Mencap.The Past on Glass project was created by Sutton Archives with Heritage Lottery Funding. The project digitises and uncovers the stories behind the Knight-Whittome glass plate negative collection. I worked alongside Abby Mathews, Project Officer and Kathleen Shawcross, Borough Archivist and Local Stidies Manager.

Here is an extract from the blog post about that Abby wrote:

One highlight on our activity plan – and something that we have been looking forward to for a long time – was a series of pre-arranged workshops with Sutton Mencap, a local charity, established in the 1940’s by parents and carers. The charity supports over 80 children and 200 adults with a learning disability in the Sutton area ‘to have fun, learn new skills, socialise and make friends’.

Throughout March we ran a series of workshops for a small group of visitors from this charity based on the idea of self-image and photography – using our glass plates as a starting point to think about some of the issues surrounding portraiture, both now, and in the historical context.

We were very lucky to have the help of Sarah Glover an heritage education facilitator, in the running of these sessions. Over three weeks, a group of nine participants plus their carers attended both Sutton Central Library and a local historic building, Honeywood Museum, to learn about the collection and be involved in activities designed to explore the collection: what it is; what it represents; and to see if it held any resonance for them, as young people who have grown up in a world ruled by technology and convenience.

Read more here:

The Past on Glass Blog Post

Abbey Mathews wrote the following recommendation:

Sarah worked with us at Sutton Archives throughout March 2016 to deliver a series of workshops to Sutton Mencap. Her professionalism, creativity, delivery style and flexibility to the needs of the group made the sessions a huge success. It was a pleasure to work with her and we would recommend her without reservation to any Heritage projects looking to offer creative and worthwhile learning sessions.

More Great North Wood Sessions

November 2017

Hello! Bit belated, however I would like to share a few words about the six sessions that Coralie Oddy (who also runs Remini-sense) and I delivered in Crystal Palace Park as part of the London Wildlife Trust's continued Heritage Lottery Funded: Great North Wood Project. 

It's hard to express how delighted I am with the fact that about five years after first starting out on Crystal Palace Park heritage projects I have been able to develop my skills in terms of completing my Masters in Museums and Galleries in Education, learn about Joanna Grace's Sensory Storytelling, tour guiding and oral history techniques from the Inspired by the Subway project - and most of all meeting like minded creative people to work with. Nothing beats the feeling of sharing a passion, brainstorming, developing and delivering a project with others. So thank you Coralie and Emmie! Thank you also to Penny who works in the Crystal Palace Park Information Centre building for welcoming us and the Friends of Crystal Palace Park for having us.

Coralie and I led six music, sensory and storytelling sessions over three days for between 6-8 adults with learning disabilities. We delivered the sessions in September 2017, a little over a year following the delivery of our initial Crystal Palace Park sessions for the London Wildlife Trust with Emmie Ward. Emmie was part of the development of these sessions. 

Coralie and I loved leading the sessions and meeting people from different homes and organisations. We varied the sessions slightly depending on the needs of the group. We had a great mix of participants and a couple of the groups had members who were predominantly sensory beings. Sensory beings is a term used by Joanna Grace to describe how this group of people largely experience the world:

Sensory Beings - people whose primary experience of the world, and meaning within it, is sensory. Joanna Grace  The Sensory-being project

We focussed on sensory activities for these groups, however sensory experiences was a primary way of communicating our theme with all groups. I (and I am aware many others) have often argued - If you make heritage activities accessible to people with as many different needs as you can -  such as in sensory ways - then the visiting experience will often be more pleasurable for all  anyway. I also believe in exploring themes that anyone would want to explore in a heritage venue. It is not purely about simplifying things it about how you develop your programme of activities: I believe one should always get to know the subject as well as you can. Even when working with nursery aged children I am not satisfied with just knowing the basics. It means I probably take longer than anyone else to prepare anything, however, it is just the way I work. I need to understand the topic as fully as I can to work out the essence of what I want to get across. Spending a lot of time in preparation means that you are able to really develop activities that: actually make sense; are meaningful to the heritage location; and link to anything/connections you know between the participants and the theme. Most of all spend time with people and have a passion for the people you are working with. This will ensure experiences are truly accessible and mean that nothing is part of the session just 'for the sake of it' or an on the surface accessibility.

I think the photos of the session materials are more useful than any explanations I will give here. These photos follow below. Our main theme was the park and it's different uses. One theme was focussed on the history of the area before the park - when the area was covered with the Great North Wood. We explored the plants, animals and people who lived there. Check out my song about Margaret Finch - famous for being called the Queen of the Gipsies and telling the fortunes of young reveller visitors to the area. For the second theme we concentrated on  The Crystal Palace and included meeting Queen Victoria at the opening ceremony of The Crystal Palace (with added harp music accompaniment that I recorded as part of my community audio trail) and an exploration of the aquarium (of which there are still some remnant walls in the park if you know where to look!) and some of the inventions on display such as Maxim's Flying Machine!

Here is some of the feedback we got:

Botany on Your Plate at The South London Botanical Institute

June 2017

I recently developed and led three afternoon workshops for adults with learning disabilities at the South London Botanical Institute as part of their current Botany on Your Plate series of workshops and events. As far as I am aware, the workshops are the first to be developed there specifically for people with learning disabilities. However, there is already a rich educational programme in place for children and adults.

Founded in 1910, by Allan Octavian Hume, The South London Botanical Institute (SLBI) in Tulse Hill is situated in a Victorian house and garden and though smaller than the likes of the Natural History Museum, is a fascinating centre for heritage and botany alike. It holds a herbarium, library, education spaces and a botanical garden. I really wanted to develop these sessions in order to help make it more accessible for local people with learning disabilities.

I developed the workshops to cater for a variety of skills and interests. The first session was art based, the second cooking based and the final session used music and storytelling to explore the theme of botany on your plate.

The group that came are based just up the road in West Norwood and are members of the L'Arche London community. L'Arche is a local Charity with its roots in France where it was started by the philosopher, theologian and humanitarian Jean Vanier. L’Arche is very present in the local community and is about to celebrate 40 years of being in West Norwood.

I began planning these sessions with thoughts on what it would be about the theme Botany on Your Plate that could resonate with people. The obvious thing is that of food and my experience of most people's enjoyment of shared meal times together in the homes - where good food and conversation is often present! L'Arche has its own garden project and so the link between growing and eating food is a a connection that people will already make. However, I was keen to develop this further and help people get to know the layout of the house and garden.

In the first session I developed an activity where people could eat specific fruit and then find the corresponding plants in the SLBI garden. These plants were not necessarily bearing fruit, so I put photos of the fruit near to the plants and made the activity into a treasure hunt. We then searched for vegetables in the house to then use for printing to create our own plate designs. The second session saw us exploring herbs using out senses and working out what they were. This was good because we could use some herbs from the L’Arche garden as well as some from the SLBI garden and some extras from elsewhere! We made herbal teas from different recipes that I got from Rachel De Thample. The final session used a sensory story from Coralie Oddy (Remini-Sense) about gardening. This in concentrate on the seasons and the growing cycle and we also sung songs on this topic to complement it. We also had a search in the garden and brought things in to tell and/or show the rest of the group what we found on our search.

It will be interesting to learn what people took away from the session and what they remember of it. I hope that it is the beginning of a connection between the SLBI and L’Arche and will also pave the way for other local connections.

Sarah Glover is a freelance education practitioner who particularly works in the area of heritage, music, storytelling and accessibility. 

May Day Music Sessions

May 2017

Hello! So having had a break from blogging and sharing of ideas, I decided that it is time to share again! My current sessions are based on the theme of May Day and I and sharing them with groups of adults with learning disabilities.

I have devised three session plans but each with the possibility of being repeated and extended upon. Thanks goes out as always to the people who probably have as much to do with these ideas and plans as I! So firstly to my colleague Emmie Ward - together we led joint sessions with a May Day theme around this time last year. Since then I have had 'Unite and unite, let us all unite!' on my mind! Emmie needs to get her own blog up and going :) Also credit to the English Folk Dance and Song Society - who have a fantastic online resource bank. (I really must add some more links to this website).  For now just type in EFDSS Resource Bank and you'll find a plethora of resources including info on May Day. I used that as my main source of research in terms of the the things that take place on May day.

I found some rhymes in a lovely and very small old book that I have from my family and I have made up simple tunes to them. The Padstow May Song and Hal An Tow (A Helston song!) are both great and very catchy and with interactive possibilities. I couldn't really find a version to listen to of the Mayers Song, (despite googling to the best of my not always the best googler ability.) However, I like it as a rhyme too - as I first found it.

Looking at my plan below I can already see the elements that I have not actually carried out yet. Either because I decided to simply and repeat or to adapt to the different people in the group. I hope it is of some interest/help to you. I am still finding my way in the sessions I lead, especially when newer groups, however, this theme does make me happy :)

Extra songs/activities:

The Trees Grew All Around/We are Beating the Bounds

I can see clearly

Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World

Singing in the Rain/Raindrops keep falling on my head

Story/script ideas

Use a tone chime or similar – this time I used a triangle to set the tone/scene

Explain that the next few sessions are going to be on the theme of May Day and the May Day celebrations that have taken place since a long time ago!

Session 1

-Sing the hello song – allowing people to smell the scent of real blossom/flowers

-Say that it is the evening/morning and House name is getting ready for May Day.

-Say the individual names of people there who are getting ready.

-Introduce the soundscape and any related items.

-Then for session 1 for example, say persons name is collecting flowers/leaves for the May garland. Then go through everyone individually with different items to addand build hoop with them. Say that house name is trying to make the best garland in the whole of town name. (In an excited way!)

-Also prepare the horse with e.g. wooden clapping mouth and decorate with bells

Rhymes and Songs

A May Day Rhyme

{C} Good morning, Missus and Master,

I wish (up) you a happy {G} day;

{C} Please to smell my garland,

Be {G} cause it’s the {F} first of {C} May.

The Mayer’s Song

We’ve been a rambling all this night,

And sometime of this day;

And now returning back again,

We bring a branch of May.

The Mayer’s Song (Final Verse)

The moon shines bright, the stars give a light

A little before it is day,

So God bless you all, both great and small,

And send you a joyful May

The Cuckoo

The cuckoo’s a bonny bird, he whistles as he flies

He brings us good tidings, he tells us no lies;

He drinks the cold water to make his voice clear,

And when he sings cuckoo the summer is near;

Sings cuckoo in April, cuckoo in May;

Cuckoo in June, and then flies away.

May Gosling and ‘May Goslings past and gone. You’re the fool for making me one’! 

More About The Great North Wood

From around 2016 I think!

I have an ongoing interest in the The Great North Wood. When working on projects about The Crystal Palace I became entranced by the idea of the wood that previously covered much of the local area - It would have spanned from Camberwell to Croydon!

I recently developed two music and storytelling projects for adults with learning disabilities about the Great North Wood. The first was a weekly class for adults with learning disabilities based at West Norwood Leisure Centre about The Great North Wood, developed with a collective entitled Sound Tracks. This comprises of Keith Park, Emmie Ward and me.

The second project was in association with The London Wildlife Trust and funded by the Crystal Palace Park Fund. Coralie Oddy, Emmie Ward and I developed and delivered 10 sessions for adults with learning disabilities in Crystal Palace Park about it's history - centring on its history as part of The Great North Wood. Find out more about Sound Tracks here.

In May 2013, I jointly created a tree walk in Crystal Palace Park with a museum colleague. The walk included nature activities and storytelling about the Great North Wood for local children.

In June 2015, I jointly curated an event about The Great North Wood in Brockwell Park as part of the MADD 2015 programme. The event included folk music, blue printing and storytelling.

A Couple of Sensory Stories

November 2016

Hi there again...

Fresh from my day of music and storytelling sessions I thought I would share a couple of stories with you. My version of the Gunpowder Plot Story, which we worked on for the past couple of weeks and and The Highwayman story that I created today.

The Gunpowder Plot story I have to say thanks to the people on Joanna Grace's Facebook page who shared their stories and ideas for Bonfire Night sensory storytelling. The Highway Man was a bit last minute today as needed to fill in with a story last minute. So I could call it my ten minute Highway Man story... gather what props you can and random props you have with you. I got most of the ideas from when Keith Park, Emmie Ward, Coralie Oddy and I did our Great North Wood Storytelling - The Highwaymen (and women) was one of our themes. But both were sort of creating the story around props I already had. Thanks Emmie for a few of those on display in the tweeted pic :)

The Gunpowder Plot

Now we gather around the fire and remember, remember the 5th of November! (fire on ipad and candle scent)

A long time ago In 1605, there was man called Guy Fawkes. (chime)

A long time ago In 1605, there was a King called James 1. King James was not very popular with Guy and and his friends. They were annoyed about the King and his government. (Wear crown and say ‘no we don’t like you!’ but can also say we don’t like you as King but we like you as .... say their name)

So, Guy Fawkes and his friends decided to have a plot, the gunpowder plot. They wanted to blow up the parliament. (Popping candy on hand/eat)

They filled 36 barrels with gunpowder! They planted them under the cellars of the Houses of Parliament - ready for a big explosion. (Cedar wood scent for barrels) (can emphasise the secret through quiet voice)

However, there was a traitor in the group! One of Guy Fawkes friends! He got worried about all the people who would get blown up. He sent a letter to his friend warning him! (Big Ben chimes on Big Mac)

So the police, the guards of parliament arrived – on their horses (clip clop) they went down the stairs (walking sound) and crept slowly (shhhh) and….. bang! The plot was rumbled! The plotters were arrested, tortured and executed. (Bang on the drum)

Now we sit and remember remember the 5th of November. We light a bonfire (fire on iPad and bonfire scent candle)

And sit and watch fireworks (fireworks torch and sounds or app)

Then go home for a nice cup of tea (have a cup of tea/tea break)

The Highwayman

It was Autumn in the woods and the leaves were gently falling

(leaves in a basket – can handle them or drop them on people/the floor)

The leaves were red, yellow, orange, green, brown

(say whatever colours you find – show the colours – can spread them between different people rather than person by person)

Animals were looking for food and the wind was rustling in the trees

(rainmaker or shaker or similar sound)

There was a damp smell in the wood - after the rain

(cedarwood or similar smell – it sounds a bit like the musty leaves, but you could also get musty leaves)

Then suddenly!! The sound of horses hooves

(clapping sticks/pieces of wood – we have some round slices of wood – we had enough for everyone to make the sound who wanted to - we also sung ‘Horsy Horsy don’t you stop because it is a favourite song of one of the people in the session)

It was a carriage with wheels going around!

(rolled hoop – saying ‘and the hoop rolled past….’ And gave a chance to push if people wanted – if not you can find anything that goes around as a visual stimuli)

There were rich people inside the carriage, enjoying looking at their jewels and money

(glass nuggets, money, or anything jewel like – we had a lot of baskets to hand so I handed a basket to everyone and then put the nuggets in each persons basket and encouraged them to look through them and be interested in them J)

But they didn’t know that someone was waiting for them! There was a swish of a cloak!

(piece of material – or a cloak if you have one – the material I grabbed was quite light so I swished it past people and over some people and gave the chance to feel)

And the brim of a hat

(feel a hat – I found a straw hat which was not really a highway man but did the job of being a hat)

The Highway Man was waiting and he said “Stand and Deliver! Your Money or Your Life!”

(encouraged people to repeat the words ‘stand and deliver’ and sung that bit of the song)

He took all their money and jewels

(one person had a cloth bag and asked people for their money and they tipped their nuggets into the bag)

Then he rode off

(clip clop sounds)

And the animals continued looking for food and the leaves rustled in the wind

(rainshaker again – or whatever you used)

I also added on a bit about the highway man sitting by a fire and had the fire app on the ipad and also the scent of a bonfire candle – but that might make it a bit too long)

I then did a bit of call and response with ‘The Highwayman’ poem.

Montessori and Learning Disability

November 2016

I have just been looking back to the power point and hand out that I made for the training day I gave to my colleagues in L'Arche back in 2009. It was the subject of one of the thrice yearly (I think they were) training days that I organised for the support assistants who worked in the the day provision workshops. I really continue to feel strongly about the links between Montessori philosophy/education and good practice for working with people with learning disabilities. Don't get me wrong I am open to other methods and love learning new skills, however, my Montessori training and work has remained a constant source of inspiration. I hope you will find my thoughts interesting!

Later that same year (2009), when I was first seriously working towards working in the museum sector, I was invited by the the then leader of the education team to carry out a week or two's work experience at the London Transport Museum. As part of that work experience I carried out several observations of how nursery aged children interacted with the museum - as it was then. I then wrote up extensive notes into a report for the museum, which included my reflections and suggestions for ways forward.

The following text is the hand out that I created for L'Arche and then adapted for the London Transport Museum. The actual notes and the power point are not included here. Let me know what you think and if you are interested in hearing more or perhaps even asking me for some consultancy? (Better get something about work in there!) :)

Just please bear in mind that I wrote the handout back in 2009. My role at the time was Day Provision Co-ordinator and I supervised the then five different workshop leaders. It wonder if I what I would write the same and different if I was compiling an up to date list...

The handout is/was as follows:

Questions: (Inspired by the Montessori Method)

What do you think the workshop does well and has to offer the people with learning disabilities who come to it?

What aspects do people like about working in the workshop? What is unique about the workshop?

What things do you feel the workshop could do better with in what it offers people with learning disabilities? Are people as independent and in control as possible?

Environment: (How the workshop space is set up.)

Is there order in the environment?

Does everything have its place?

Do people know where to find everything they need without the help of an assistant?

Can the people reach everything?

Is everything within their reach appropriate? (So you don’t need to say no or stop someone from taking something.)

Are there any unnecessary distractions in the physical space? (E.g. large colourful pictures and or objects.)

Are people working in a space that is appropriate for them? (E.g. sitting, standing and with where in the room they are and who else is near where they are working.)

Is there enough opportunity for movement in the work place and within the activities themselves?

Daily routine: (Timing of things)

Is the timing of daily events clear?

Does everyone know what is happening and when?

Is the routine as it is working for everyone or do people require changes?

Is everyone clear about the work they are doing, goals/expectations, boundaries?

Activities/Work: (In the environment)

Are they suitable for people?

Are they too difficult? If they are, is there a simpler or part activity that could take its place?

Have you observed, broken down and tried the different movements needed for an activity?

Could some people be challenged more?

What new skills could people learn and be involved in?

Is there a particular skill that the people are expressing a desire to refine? If yes, how can you support them with this?

Are people choosing their activities?

Do the activities have a clear purpose and meaning?

Are there any jobs that assistants are doing, that adults with learning disabilities could be doing? (E.g. getting cups and taking them back at tea break.) Remember we are enabling people to be as independent as possible. What may seem hard work the time will be worth it in the long run.)

Assistants: (As teachers)

Do you have a positive attitude to everyone in the workshop?

Is there favouritism?

Are you aware of your prejudices?

Do you approach people in a positive way?

Are you careful about not criticising their work, even in a subtle way? (You can show the activity at another point, rather than criticise at the time. Or look at the appropriateness of the activity)

Do you value all activities and work the same?

Do you allow people to take their time and repeat where necessary? Do you give people time to finish their work cycle?

Are you doing too much for people? (Think about even the small things/parts of the process.)

Do you ensure that you don’t interfere when the person is concentrating on their work? (Even by speaking to them with a positive comment! Concentration is a very important skill to develop.)

Do you make sure that you don’t constantly praise people? (People should not rely on others to feel good. The aim is that it comes from within.)

Are assistants clear with people about when the person can make a decision and when they can not?

Are people allowed to make all possible decisions?

Do you take time to sit back and observe?

What areas do you feel you need more support in?

Some quotes about Montessori education.

‘An adult can substitute himself for a child by acting in his place, but also by subtly imposing his own will, substituting it for that of the child. When this happens it is no longer the child that acts but the adult working through the child,’ Montessori.

‘The most important discovery is that a child returns to a normal state through work…. A child’s desire to work represents a vital instinct since he cannot organise his personality without working; a man builds himself through working.’  Montessori

'It is important for us to know the nature of a child’s work. When a child works, he does not do so to attain some further goal. His objective is the work itself, and when he has repeated an exercise and brought his own activities to an end, this end is independent of external factors.’

‘It is necessary for the child to have this order and stability in the environment because he is constructing himself out of the elements of the environment… it is his foundation.’  Montessori

“A child’s different inner sensibilities enable him to choose from his complex environment what is suitable and necessary for his growth. They make the child sensitive to some things, but leave him indifferent to others. When a particular sensitiveness is aroused in a child. It is like a light that shines on some objects but not on others, making of them his whole world’  Montessori

Bonfire Night Session Plan

November 2016

Hello again,

I have been doing plenty of writing to describe the music sessions that I lead in L'Arche and so I thought it might be useful if I share the format that I use for them.

The sessions usually last about two hours with a twenty minute- half an hour tea break in the middle.

I am going to share the Bonfire Night session plan....

To continue from my previous blog entries... the session before the bonfire night one was about the rural work turning more to the towns and cities with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Elements included watching the Pandemonium section of the London Olympic Opening Ceremony. We beat on large metal and plastic flower pots and used glass nuggets to represent money in a noisy way....

I write the plan beforehand but then add any adaption I make (hence different tenses) - and there are often plenty of on the spot ideas!

As always I have many thanks to give to my fellow colleagues for taking part in the session.

Where you see the * and ** and *** you can see the ideas I learned from Emmie Ward. In particular her use of the Big Mack as a musical instrument and for recording voice. Emmie also has great techniques for the inclusion of people's vocalisations and interests into songs.  I also learned the songs for this session from Emmie. I'll ask Emmie to share more about that at some point as she has lots of great techniques :)

Bonfire Night  3

rd

November 2016

Attention Grabber Activity: Firework App on IpadFirstly just me taking it around before the hello song... everyone else got a turn in the soundscape

Soundscape: Bonfire Night Ssss of a Fizzy drink being opened, crackling of popping candy with water, firework app on ipad, sliding whistle, (rain maker (firework falling sound), crackling paper, bang of the drum (we said 1, 2, 3, bang - everyone has the opportunity to hit drum on the word bang) peoples vocal sounds on Big Mack to play (integrate their interests) *

Activity: ‘We’re all walking along to the fire’  song – action: we poured salt through a flower pot into a small washing up bowl and said it was gunpowder for the gunpowder plot and listened to how it made a quiet sound and we needed to be quiet… can say shhh –

Activity (Contd.): I then said let’s listen to find out if the plan worked! – I asked: Will there be the sound of Big Ben chiming or the sound of an explosion? We counted down and then… heard... yes big ben chiming (iPad) so the plot failedName activity: (soundabout) beat X 4 then name three times and move on. (we did one name and then another) This sort of connected as if naming the names of the conspirators pouring gun powder. (could link this more to the plot or being part of something in future) **

Rhyme: Remember, remember, poem call and response (I actually did this later in storytelling)

Rhythm: Boom Whackers – continue ‘hit, rest, rest, rest’ activity, with everyone having a chance to play them. We stamp feel throughout to keep a beat and i renew the rhythm in-between every person, but anyone can play any pattern they like as it all fits... I play it on the low red one, but again anyone can do anything... The stamping and me doing it in-between seems to help people to create a connecting rhythm.

Vocal Warm Up:Included Do re mi.

Songs:

London’s Burning

Ring of Fire (after singing through we repeated burn burn bit and people took turns to move the fire poi) ***

Great Balls of Fire (added peoples own endings to ‘Goodness Gracious) ***

Weaving in Sounds

October 2016

Hello again! It's about time that I explained a bit more about what I have been doing on the theme of rural/work life past.

Connecting with the Autumn theme I begin sessions by creating a group soundscape of  travel - train and time travel. Tibetan Chimes and other instruments such as tone chimes are useful to set the scene for going back in time. You can also add in appropriate rhythm rhymes and words. Have a google for some poems if you want something to get you started :)

We follow the soundscape by singing our 'We're All Walking' song (courtesy of Emmie Ward) - this time singing that each person is ' walking back in time'. Playing the chime again signifies this. We have continued to use the turn taking activities that I described previously. Activities have included having a bowl of water and a measuring jug - scooping and pouring water  into the bowl, or ladling the water. Everyone gets a turn with the activity after we sing their name. I've also used popcorn instead of the water. Last week I used a short cardboard tube and everyone posted a small round piece of wood through it. (It could have been anything though - e.g. a conker or bead). Whereas the popcorn had been like grains of rural life/time, I said that posting the object through the cardboard tube was an indication of the industrial machinery that was to come. I know - I'm pushing it a bit!!!

I realised last week that soundscapes have started to take over the first half of the session. Following the turn taking activity we have moved into a second soundscape. At the moment this is a knitting/weaving soundscape. I start this section through playing a track by the band Capercaillie called M'loam. I find it creates a gentle contemplative atmosphere. To symbolise spinning wheels we roll and spin everyday objects on the floor - such as empty food containers, lids, cotton reels, wooden objects. You can roll the objects to someone or just randomly roll them, experiment and encourage others to do the same. I found a wool ball winder (from the Craft Workshop's weaving days) and we took turns spinning that around. It is a good visual object and makes a bit of a creak too.

This activity then led into a more active sound making soundscape, where we clicked knitting needles together, tapped wooden sticks and played thumb pianos. Last week my colleague and I found some tapestry forks with metal prongs and some metal loom winders. Together they make a good guiro style sound.

The soundscape led into singing 'Yan Tan Tethera'. It is a song I learned from Aimee Leonard that she developed as part of the Yan Tan Tethera project with the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Listen to Aimee singing it here on Soundcloud. There are more songs and information about the project at the Yan Tan Tethera project link above. Yan Tan Tethera is a sheep counting system traditionally used by shepherds in the north of England. Read more about it on wikipedia. I think it is also used for counting stitches.

I started the activity by singing the low part of Yan Tan Tethera and unwinding the wool from a ball of wool so that gradually everyone was holding onto it around in a circle. I added different voice parts gradually (taking turns with the parts myself) and people joined in with whichever part they wanted. I didn't ask anyone to sing anything in particular and it seemed to happen naturally that people took different parts. It was also really helpful that the support staff present joined in with different parts too.

It would be interesting to experiment with colours and weaving movements and sounds as with the Yan Tan Tethera project. There is no Weaving Workshop anymore, however there are still looms in the Craft Project , which are used occasionally.

I think that is probably enough for now! More about the other songs we have sung in a future post!

Learning Disability Music Sessions

October 2016

My broad theme for my current term of sessions is Autumn and work songs. We have already had a few sessions and I thought it might be nice to blog a bit about what L'Arche is, how I got to the theme and what I have been up to so far. Read on to read more about L’Arche and my theme.

L'Arche London is a charity based in West Norwood, South East London. I have worked for L'Arche in various ways and for various lengths of time since first leaving University many years back! I first went as a summer assistant and never seem to have really left. The charity supports adults with learning disabilities to live alone, in flats and in larger houses.

The community also runs day services, which currently centre around a garden project and a craft project. L'Arche originates from France and started in London in 1977. The community was set up to give people with learning disabilities their own home and sense of community. Previously people with learning disabilities were living in impersonal and often unpleasant institutions. The history of the day provision is also fascinating as the founders realised that people with learning disabilities wanted (and many still do) to do real work, have a job and earn money. The history of the day provision and community could be a whole heritage project and is something that I'd like to consider while some early members of the community can still share their stories.

I didn't intend to write such a long introduction, however, L'Arche's past helped me decide on the theme. Work is at the heart of many songs old and new. I love folk songs and folk work songs are a plenty :) I thought it would be nice to explore some early songs about rural life as a starting point.

The early September sessions began with an Autumn theme and we have gradually moved into the rural and work theme. The sessions begin with an attention grabber and at the moment always include a soundscape, turn taking activity of some kind, voice warm up, songs and percussion instruments.

Autumn Theme

I will share a couple of examples of activities that have taken place in the sessions. The first attention grabber activity was shaking leaves in a large plastic box. I took the box around shaking it and offering others to shake it if they wanted. I did this before singing the welcome song. I didn't say anything at first and just walked past each group member shaking the leaves as a way of beginning the session. When creating the autumn soundscape we also experimented with comparing the sound of a smaller sized box to shake the leaves, shuffling the leaves in a different way and with hitting the bottom of the box to mimic walking in rhythm. We hit sticks together (twigs and  clapping sticks), snapped twigs, turned rainmakers, waved big leaves and shook sycamore seed bundles. We took time to listen to each of the sounds independently before adding them and experimented with loud and quiet/fast and slow and stopped suddenly to pause and listen to the introduction of a new sound. As well as the above sounds, one of these sounds was the dropping of an acorn or two to the floor, with pauses in-between. I built up different Autumn soundscapes over a couple of weeks. There are also quite a few sounds you can find online and of course can record your own if you want to add some real life sounds.

We then developed the theme by singing a song written by Emmie Ward called 'We're All Walking Along... (through the woods)', which I have used before in our Crystal Palace Park/London Wildlife Trust project. Even though there were up to 12 people with learning disabilities in the session, we took the time to sing it for everyone, while people had the opportunity in pairs to walk around the centre piece. At the end of singing a verse for someone, that person was given an acorn and could drop it into the large plastic box, which made up the centre piece. At the end I and then anyone else who wanted to - shook the box to a rhythm and heard the sound of all the acorns together.

Work Theme

I feel I have written way too much already! However, to give you a little taster of the work song sessions.... I continued the Autumn theme into the work theme. The attention grabber for the next session became the sound of pasta shaken in a box to recreate the sound of a train. This was an idea I learned from Coralie Oddy. Again you can experiment with the fast and slow/loud and quiet. The soundscape changed from travelling through the woods to taking a train and walking to work soundscape. As well as some of the Autumn sounds we also had some street sounds of bike bells and cars. Setting a regular rhythm was key here - and leaving space for others to take over and add to the rhythm. In the song part of the session we sung 'I've been working on the railroad' and concentrated on singing just part of it and everyone having a turn on the uke (instead of the banjo!) if they wanted.

The travelling back in time idea has become part of the current soundscape and you can use a tone chime of any kind to signal the going back in time. It was nice to intersperse the chime sound with the sound of the train and working on railroad. The turn taking activities (whilst singing 'We're all walking)  have since included dropping conkers into a bowl of water, ladling water and this week pouring corn with a measuring jug. I thought these all in some way represent time passing and link in with the autumn/rural theme. Today, I cornily said that pouring corn could be symbolic of the the grains from farming and also the grains of time!

More to follow on the work theme and in particular the knitting/weaving theme that is also part of the L'Arche history and rural history. I hope the blog entry has been of some interest and I have not pointed out the obvious.

As with all the work I am up to at the moment. I owe much of what I practice to inspiration from many people. Today's thanks are to Emmie Ward and Coralie Oddy. Emmie is a fantastic music teacher, with many years experience of teaching people with learning disabilities. I have learned so much from observing her music sessions and working with her on the Sound Tracks and Crystal Palace Projects. Coralie Oddy, I met through attending a Jo Grace Sensory Stories workshop and we started storytelling together for the Crystal Palace Project as well as Sound Tracks.