More Alike than Different: Teaching Empathy Through Arts and Inclusion

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Susan 
Well, hello, Kirsti. I'm so glad you're here with me today. Of course, of course. So for people who may not know who you are and the work that you do, can you give us a brief introduction just to get us started?

Kirsti 

So glad to be here. Thanks for having me, Susan.

Kirsti 

Yes, absolutely. So hello, my name is Kirsti Lewis and I live in Chicago, Illinois. Recently transplanted here from Atlanta and work with an organization called People Like Us, where we provide educators with resources to use the arts to create more effective learning environments for students with developmental disabilities.

Susan 

It's amazing. I love the work that you do. You've also gone through Arts Integration Certification. you know all about the standards connections and the ways to make this deeply meaningful for people. And I love that. Even though it's outside of a traditional education model, which is also really interesting. Now, can you tell us what led you to people like us? Because I know this is not just an organization that you work for. It's very much a passion of yours.

Kirsti 

Yes.

Susan

Tell us how you got involved in that kind of work.

Kirsti 

Absolutely. So I grew up as one of 12 children and my youngest sister has Down syndrome. So when we would all be playing on the playground, I could make friends with whoever and my sister would try to do the same. And whether it was a speech barrier or just looking different., other children that she would try to play with would often just stare or run away, talk to their moms. And this led frequently to my sister Emma coming over and saying, why do people not like me?

Very hard question for a nine-year-old to sit with or know how to answer. So that was always lodged in my heart. I'll bring that full circle here in a moment, but I was always personally involved in the arts. And I was once at an audition, pinning on my audition number and I turned around and my mom was pinning an audition number on to end the shirt.

And I was like, mom, she can't do this. She can't read the audition slides. She can't communicate with the directors. I don't want her to get rejected yet again. My mom said, I have two daughters. I love to perform. I'm gonna have two daughters put their best foot forward.

Emma auditioned for that show and made her debut on stage as James and the Giant Peach, a pelican in James and the Giant Peach. For her audition, they had her pantomime, different things, and it was an incredible experience, a rehearsal for me when I was sitting watching the director work with the ensemble.

And she was trying to get students to be less self-conscious and to make bigger movements. All these things that she was not having to direct Emma in, but other students in. And sitting and thinking to myself, the discomfort of rejection and wanting to protect someone from that, it's such a drive for me to want to keep Emma, in this case, from opportunities. But what a disservice that is.

So again, fast forward and the community theater decides to build a program for students with disabilities and asks, this is when I was older, if I would be a part and teach choreography for the program got to be involved in that program that started with about eight students, grew to about 150 in five years because of all the things that you Susan know the arts do for participants with speech and communication and movement. And there was a moment where Emma was repundling a show. She came off stage at the end. She was getting her flowers and her picture taken. And she just looked over at me and said, Kirsti, people like me and it was a moment where I have seen the joy of the arts, but what a powerful medium the arts can be to transform perceptions, to build friendships, and to provide skills in a way that I had not seen academics previously do for her. so that is the backstory that really set everything up for what we do today.

Susan 

Yeah, so how did you pivot that into creating this organization called People Like Us? And really tell us, what does your organization do and how do you do it and all of the good stuff?

Kirsti 

Absolutely. So that was very foundational for me. I went on and did a thesis in society's attitudes towards people with disabilities paired with the best advocacy strategies to address that. And through this learned that if you provide people with information, and contact, they get understanding and empathy, which are the two ingredients that transform a negative attitude into an inclusive mindset. And so out of that came a documentary and the whole people like us nonprofit. And the original goal here was to use film as a medium to give a vicarious contact and to provide information, to change viewers' perceptions about different groups of people.

Now, when the documentary aired, it was far more successful than we had expected, and out of that came more arts educators, theaters, people asking, well, how can we create a program like this one we saw in the documentary? So we never moved on to talking about other populations and groups because we have always stayed right here in this sweet spot of using the arts for people with disabilities. And so that's where we are today. Out of that documentary came a team of neurodivergent performers.

Arts educators, therapists like occupational therapists, speech therapists, a team that came together and began to create a really robust curriculum and resources for how to use the arts for students with disabilities. And what we do today is provide consulting to schools or organizations like a community theater, helping them to learn how to use the arts to create more effective learning environment.

Susan 

So powerful. And here's the other thing I love about your story, Kirsti, is I think every educator has a moment or a story that keeps them hooked for when the days get hard and drives their passion. And it's one of the reasons that I love arts integration. I can tell you that story about a girl in fifth grade, Jasmine, who. couldn't read and suddenly we put this musical in front of her and she's the star of the show and reads the whole script and learns how to read because of the arts, right? It's the reason that I'm so passionate about what I do when I drive it. And what's wonderful to me about your story about Emma is that Emma is Jasmine and Jasmine is Emma and it has nothing really to do about the disability. It's that the arts are the avenue. It's the mechanism that opens up opportunities for literally everyone.

And so I think there's more similarities, like as Maya Angelou says, know, that we're more alike than we are unalike. And so I think that's so powerful. You said though, when you were talking about Emma's experience in the show, that the arts do all of these amazing things for, you know, everybody who is part of them, but especially for people who others maybe dismiss right off the bat.

What specifically, if you could dive in, just so that people who may not work with different populations may not know, what are some of the specifics that you have seen about the arts that work really well for working with all kinds of different abilities?

Kirsti 

Absolutely. So sitting at a desk all day is not good for any learner, particularly learners with disabilities that learn in a way other than lecture and writing. So the visual and performing arts are a very powerful medium to teach necessary content in an engaging way. So when students participate in these arts related arts related activities, we see a big improvement in social emotional learning in expressive and receptive language skills we see those strengthen. We also see literary skills increase exactly like the example that you just mentioned. And then a greater contribution to the classroom as a whole, with students engaging with one another, which is a big challenge, but also between teachers and departments. So if we can use a production of Little Red Riding Hood to bring the speech element in and the speech language pathologist can be working on these lines with the participant but the occupational therapist or the physical therapist can be working on the movement and then we have a lot of that tactile costume design fine motor skills happening we can bring teachers from exceptional education, from arts together, and then the school therapists, we can all come together and partner on a project that can start to break down those silos, which we find to be really helpful to just start with that co-teaching or start with that collaboration in a school environment. But really my primary point would just be that everybody wants their students to succeed, but desk learning has its limits.

And so when we want to think about reaching IEP goals, it can be really helpful to bring in that kinesthetic learning and supplementing traditional instruction with these activities. Again, we can use academics as our content, but how are we engaging the learner in a way that isn't just sitting still in a desk?

Susan 

Yeah, yeah. I think back, especially from my time in the classroom, when as a music teacher, it was the opportunity for many of our students with disabilities to get the state required hours to be a part of the general population, right? And I think, unfortunately, sometimes this becomes where people just throw these students and don't know what else to do with them and…

It's unfortunate because these students want to be a part of everything. They want to belong, right? And just like all of us. But I do remember that many of our arts educators and classroom educators as well were nervous because nobody's been trained in how do I support a learner who has Down syndrome or a learner who has oppositional defiance or a variety of other disabilities that they're working with.

What are some ways that you have seen that have worked to empower educators to really see the students for who they are and work with them at their various ability levels?

Kirsti 

Absolutely. That is a great question and probably the number one question that we work through. I do want to go back to what you said about Maya Angelou. Really, it is more alike than different, but that's not very helpful for an educator that feels that overwhelmed. So in response to that, for example, we have an entire course where we break down the top principles that are taught to educators that are in exceptional ed and we put them into the framework of these arts educators. Things like scaffolding, things like promoting choice making, using social stories. So there are these tools like social stories or talking about how to find a just right challenge with our lessons, how to make an activity more challenging, how to make it have more support. And so there are these methods, but again, a lot of these methods are being talked about in the general education classroom. Scaffolding, for instance, is not something that's now just used in exceptional education. And so while

It can feel very daunting. How am I gonna modify all my curriculum to meet so many different needs in my classroom? There are ways to scaffold and add supports or add challenges that don't take up all your time as an educator. That's one of the primary ones that we have seen utilized to help educators feel more comfortable when these students come into their classroom, really getting a good education on how to scaffold and then watching tons of examples about how to do this and then, you know.

I am a big fan of the Institute, which is why I came and got my Arts Integration Certification because I wanted to build out those skills. I know that in the Institute there are so many templates and great resources that you can take and then apply your content to these templates. It's very similar with scaffolding, for instance. If you can get a framework for yourself of how to scaffold something as an educator, I think you're going to feel a lot more equipped with these students that are coming into your classroom. And there are great frameworks out there. We have some frameworks. There are others that provide really great frameworks. But scaffolding is where I would start. And then the other thing that I would really encourage teachers to seek to understand is the gradual release model. I do, we do together, you do together, you do alone. Just that working to show the students and model, then gradually give them more and more responsibility. I think that for teachers that have these students in their classroom, if you can dive into scaffolding and the gradual release model, you are going to be heads and shoulders above where you feel like you are right now.

Susan

Yeah, think as you're talking it's reminding me so much of universal design for learning, which if people are not familiar with that principle, I know it came out, I mean, dozens of years ago, and it hasn't been as popular right now, but I am seeing a comeback. The thing about UDL and universal design for learning is that you're leveraging techniques and tools that are good for everyone, right? So scaffolding is great for everyone.

Kirsti

Absolutely.

Susan 

The gradual release model is great, literally for everyone. And it's just the best practice in teaching and learning. And so if we're going back to our roots and our best practices, I think this is something that, yeah, it might feel at first like it's something extra, but it's not. As long as you're weaving it in to what you're currently using in your classroom, and there are lots of ways to do that. I think that you're providing a more inclusive space for everyone. Can you share a story, maybe one of your favorites from a classroom that maybe has implemented some of the techniques or the tools that you've shared that was a success? I think that's helpful for people, like lots of models that you shared.

Kirsti 

Yes, absolutely. I am gonna highlight the incredible work of one of the teachers that has been partnered with people like us. She, I was recently at a conference presenting. She came and pulled me aside and said,

Three years ago, I was tasked with teaching this exceptional education group of students, or class group of students, and I had to do a unified theater class.

I had no idea what I was doing. I was so upset that I had to all of a sudden teach students that I didn't feel equipped to teach and I wanted to give them a good experience, who am I to be able to do this? So I was Googling, Googling, Googling, came across you all and I just got set up with one of your free resources.

And then she pulled out her phone and started showing me all these pictures of a production that they had put on with one of the free scripts and choreography and music that we provide and just talked about this student's name and that student's name and the growth they saw as well as the partnerships that started to flourish between the teachers. And those stories will never get old the stories of someone feeling completely unequipped, maybe failing in year one, but then getting set up with the right resources and then the right partners and casting a vision and seeing all these teachers come alongside to create beautiful sets and incredible costumes and to hear how the perceptions of their primary classroom teacher, so maybe the exceptional ed teacher, getting to change their perception of a student because they see what that student can start to do when they're put into an arts environment. But for that transformation to happen, we have to equip our arts teachers, right? The teachers that went to school to learn how to do exceptional ed, they don't know how to teach music, theater, visual arts. So we really need that pairing between teachers.

But those stories will never cease to inspire me to continue to just get the right resources in capable people's hands. Because people are so capable. We're just also limited for time, right? Time goes so fast. And so I think having the resources into people's hands and then watching what they do on their own is something that is continually inspiring for me.

Susan

Yeah, I think, especially in the midst right now of all the budget cuts that we're seeing everywhere, in literally everything, including in exceptional education and in arts education and the requirement almost of have justification, right? Justification behind the funds and why do we do this and why do we still have these programs and are they necessary?

And I would challenge anybody to listen to a story like you just shared or that I just shared that that it's not what we're sharing is not, you know, magic. And it's not just a one off. It's truly it changes kids lives. It changes teachers lives that teachers who didn't know how to do this suddenly become equipped to do it. They see the change that actually happens. It's so incredibly meaningful. And empowering to everyone involved. So I think that's the power of those, the work that you're doing and the stories that you bring to the table. On the flip side and in the reality, is there anything that you have seen that maybe surprised you or was a challenge that you had to overcome?

Kirsti 

Yes, absolutely. So I think that buy-in is huge. When you have an administrator that is bought in to integrating the arts versus someone that you're trying to convince to totally different playing fields. And a lot of times it's understandable with funding, right?

When a school gets funding to integrate the arts, it's great to be invited into those schools because everybody's on board. You might have some teachers that still need to see the effects, but from the administration standpoint, people are bought in. When you don't have that buy-in, I've still seen the grassroots effort amongst one or two teachers start to…

get some influence with administrators, but it's a lot harder. I want to go back to what you said as well when we're talking about the necessity and arguing for these programs. And a lot of education for students with disabilities is really focused on vocational training.

And when we think about vocational training, there is definitely a subset of jobs that just happen to be the jobs that are focused on, like office work, cleaning, volunteer positions, and a grocery store. And so a lot of effort goes towards coaching students in these ways.

We had a parent in a college approach us once and say, can our student do an internship with you? They were in a transition program, so 18 to 22, they had to do an internship.

We brought that student on, did coaching, did the internship together, and then we get to go and present at conferences, do consulting with schools. So we trained this student in how to present. And she was able to come up with her own speeches, her own things that she shared. And we were able to not only take her from that internship, but then hire her and pay her to come and provide consulting.

And I will never forget getting a letter in the mail from that parent that outlined so often throughout her child's education. Her child said, I want to be a professional communicator. And she was steered into directions of, what about office work? Or what about learning how to be a host at a restaurant. You know, some of these other jobs that were maybe more common for people with disabilities to receive training in. And she was just so set. I want to be a professional communicator. And her mom just told the story of like it never being taken seriously until she received this paycheck for going and presenting and what that was able to reveal and show as far as like vocational opportunities to even the educators in this transition program. And I think it's really important when we're talking about buy-in and some of these challenges to remember that there are careers in the arts. There are volunteer opportunities in the arts. The arts are not a supplemental part of our communities, they are employers. And so I think that's always something that hurdle of buy-in of like even just challenging mentalities to say there are opportunities here. You just may be less familiar with them.

Susan

Yeah. And I'm so glad that you brought this up. because it reminds me that my sister-in-law, who has developmental delays, she was a part of a statewide program for a long time that they would place them in temporary positions, right? And so, and if she didn't have a temporary position, then they would just do some office cleaning or they would have a place for them to go during the day until they're temporary work. And I remember at the early stages of my marriage watching Eileen, she was like, just the dullness in her eyes and she hates cleaning. She hates cleaning. I mean, she's not any good at it. She's like, I don't like cleaning. I want to do it, right, when she found work that for her, she enjoys hospitality. She really enjoys being around people. And so she ended up finding work at a local hospital, being able to provide tray service to the patients. And at the same time, in her spare time, works in some theater components and she loves the sound of music. And so she loves going to the theater and being able to experience those things and volunteer for those things.

When we find work, and I think this is true for anyone, when we find career and work that is meaningful and purposeful to who we are and lights us up, it changes who we are everywhere else in the world, right? And the arts themselves are not, as to your point, supplemental. They are employers. They are also the reason that we get up and do the work that we have to do, right? And so for Eileen, it's not that she's doing the work in the arts, but the work enables her to participate in the arts that light her up and allows her to have a fulfilling living experience in the world, you know, as a member of society. And so I feel like you're right in terms of the buy-in that it is a struggle, but at the same time, we need to change this perception that the arts of this are the fluff on the outside instead of the core on the inside of why we do the things that we do and how we express ourselves is as a human experience, right?

So for those teachers and schools who want to become more inclusive through the arts, what are some advice that you would give them to get started?

Kirsti 

So on top of understanding the gradual release model and digging in scaffolding, if you want a topic to start with, start with activities that develop choice making. And I guess we should back up. I will do a restart to that. So for educators that are wanting to become more inclusive, I would really encourage just conversations with the exceptional education department. Just start with conversations. What would it look like to partner together?

Or for educators that already have some students with developmental differences in their classroom, if you're wanting to say, how do I start to serve these students better? One easy thing that I would start with is developing choice-making. So just grab onto a topic and whether it's a graduate release model or scaffolding, choice-making is one that can be even more palatable or just easy to wrap our minds around, I want to just bring some awareness to learned helplessness. So learned helplessness being the thing that occurs when someone becomes less motivated to make a decision or pursue a change because they don't believe they can control the outcome of a situation. We saw a lot of this increase after the pandemic in our classrooms, but

Especially for students with disabilities who a lot of decisions are made for them, we see a lot of learned helplessness. And so the way to combat learned helplessness is to teach students how to make choices. This could be, if you're a visual art teacher, really encouraging students to choose the materials that they're working with. In theater, we can do plenty of improv activities, right, to develop choice making.

We just want to remember that decision making is a skill. So it has to be practiced in order to be learned. But this is one of the number one things that I love to see a teacher start to do. They're really going to prioritize developing choice making. And the growth and change you can see in your students is really amazing over time.

So just remembering like it has to be practiced, but if you want to be more inclusive, you want to add some kind of teaching to your classroom that's really going to equip these students, choice making is one that I would start with.

Susan 

Excellent. Well, Kirsti, I could talk to you all day because you're so fasc- I mean, like the content is fascinating, but also just your insights are so wonderful and translatable into practical classroom experience. So I appreciate that so much. What are ways that people can stay in contact with you, find out more about people like us and all of the amazing things that you're doing?

Kirsti

Absolutely. People Like Us Doc, D-O-C, like documentary, PeopleLikeUsDoc.com is the way to stay involved. There's a newsletter there you can sign up for where you can get 30 second tips or activities, lesson plans to your inbox.

There are also resources there like the Red Riding Hood production we spoke about earlier where you can download that for free. It will take you through about 16 lesson plans, choreography videos, if you want to start something in your classroom today. And then on that blog, you'll find lots of resources. The Identity Web monologues is a great place to start. Those even have some lesson seeds in them for social studies, ELA, math, science. So that is a great place to begin as well and stay connected.

Susan

I love that we will put all of them in the show notes so people can easily find all of those wonderful resources. Thank you so much for joining me today. It has been such a pleasure to be able to connect with you again, hear your progress, and to help others understand what it is that you're doing. It's amazing.

Kirsti 

Absolutely, and I want to truly thank you again, Susan, for what you have done and created. If anyone is listening and you're thinking about the certifications, I just want to encourage you, do it, go for it. You will be a much better educator as a result of it. I know it challenged and grew me, and there was a great community. The team breaks everything down in such easy to understand ways. So I'm just gonna say again, it was an incredible decision, a long time to pull the trigger but definitely go for it if you're on the edge there as well. So thank you for what you've done.

Susan

Thank you so much and it's such a pleasure to hear that. I know our team works really, really hard to ensure that others have a great experience. So I appreciate that and I am so grateful to have you as a part of our community as well. Thanks.

Kirsti

Thanks, Susan.

 

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