Dan Holt discusses humor and the gifted child, focusing on how gifted students have complex ideas and cartoons can be a way of helping them communicate those ideas.
Every child is the product of his/her interaction with the various influences he/she encounters during daily living. Gifted students are notorious for being able to see and aptly point out the inequalities in life and society. They are very concerned with issues of justice and fair play (Renzulli, et al., 1976). Several characteristics of gifted children relate to humor. Various social, moral, and ethical issues can be addressed and explored through humor. Humor can open a safe window through which the child can observe, understand and enjoy the human condition with all its imperfections. Humor allows for, even encourages, an enhanced awareness of the world, its passions and its various juxtapositions. Cartoons are a concise expression of these complex ideas.
An advanced sense of humor is a part of the definition of gifted children. It is partly because of their fast language skills and better awareness of their surroundings that they can understand and appreciate the humor, but it is also because of their knowledge base. Of course, some students will use humor as a defense mechanism. So listen and see if your student’s humor is positive or negative. Below is a description of the differences in positive and negative humor.
Students need positive methods of dealing with deep, and often depressing, issues of life. Humor is natural and involved in almost every aspect of life. It is a universal part of the human experience. Positive humor can be the “safety valve” which allows the experience of life to continue, yet keeps the stress of existence from growing to unbearable levels.
Humor and stress are both phenomenon which, in order to be understood, must be examined and evaluated from various, interrelated perspectives. Interestingly both humor and stress have negative and positive aspects, neither of which can be ignored or considered in isolation one from the other. Humor in the work environment, whether that is school or the office, is becoming recognized as a vital part of increasing creative solutions to problems and reducing the negative effects of stress.
Stress can help students successfully deal with the events of life and in so doing it can become an important source of self-confirmation. Successfully dealing with various stressors gives students an indication of self-control and personal power. Too much or too little stress, however, can be harmful to the well-being of the student and detrimental to personal development.
Learning is fun…or rather; it is supposed to be fun. Remember the laughter of the baby that learns something new or one of those “ah-ha” experiences you have had? It is contagious and feels great. In fact, laughter from positive humor is healthy for the body and the spirit. In order to practice, teach, and encourage positive humor in the classroom or home you need to understand it. The more you understand positive humor the more likely it is that you will create a happy, secure environment where it will be both safe and fun to learn.
Learning involves the complete self, including emotions. Research is proving that we must pay attention to the whole student, not just the logical/reasoning aspect.
Destructive Humor vs. Constructive Humor
You know it is Destructive when it…
Lowers self-esteem, belittles someone, excludes someone, creates tension, stimulates laughter AT someone, perpetuates a stereotype, creates barriers, creates defensiveness, closes off creative thoughts, and focuses on negatives.
You know it is Constructive when it…
Raises self-esteem, is supportive, includes people, reduces tension, stimulates laughter WITH someone, confronts stereotyping ideas, breaks down barriers, relaxes people, stimulates new ideas, creates a positive atmosphere and energy.
Purposes of Humor
Establish relationships
Relieve Anxiety
Release Anger in Socially
Acceptable Ways
Deal with Painful Feelings
Facilitate Learning
Facilitate Creativity
“Rights” of Humor
Right Person
Right Type
Right Amount
Right Route
Right Time
Life does not cease to be funny when someone dies, anymore than it ceases to be serious when someone laughs. George Bernard Shaw
Negative humor should not be confused with “dark” humor. Dark humor is employed to help relieve the stress of bad situations. It is interesting that most people who work in areas of high stress, such as surgeons, psychologists, firemen, police, soldiers, etc employ "dark" humor to deal with the fears and stress they encounter in daily life on the job. Humor is a way of relieving that stress. Laughter actually releases endorphins and is natures "anti-depression medicine". Being able to express “dark” humor in cartoons can also contribute to the feeling of some control over life for the student.
Don’t laugh…you’ll interrupt my depression. (Holt, 1998)
This unit was intended to help you, as a parent, help your student gain a new perspective on life. It was designed to teach ways of seeing humor in the world. Your job is to help your child not only tap into their passions, but to teach them methods to define and express their passions in understandable and socially acceptable ways. Cartoons are the mirrors in which we see ourselves and our fellow human beings. We all know that gifted students have complex ideas and cartoons are a way of helping them communicate those ideas.
To have the idea is only the first part of the process...they need to know how to communicate the idea to complete the process. Some basics in cartooning will help them express those ideas through graphic representations...and have some fun in the process.
Question: “What would the world be like if starting today all the babies in the world were born with four thumbs?”
This four thumbs exercise is something that I have used for the past fifteen years or so with over 2000 people. Here are some things that always occur. Most of the answers that I get are negative... “it would be harder”, “it would be more expensive”, etc. There are the positives, but the negatives far outweigh them.
And where do people place the thumbs?
Typically, people put one additional thumb on each hand either beside the little finger or beside the existing thumb making four total thumbs. Next, people put four thumbs on each hand maybe replacing the fingers...which, of course, makes eight or ten thumbs not four. Whichever way you thought of it...you were in the vast majority.
In fact, only a couple of sixth graders, a twelfth grader, and an adult woman out of over 2000 have ever suggested that the thumbs be any where else other than the hand. Of course, the question is if the thumbs were on another part of the anatomy would they still be thumbs? Well, that technical question aside...the point is that most people censor themselves.
The question doesn’t tell you the thumbs have to be on the hand...you limit your own thinking. What about a thumb on the forehead to wipe the sweat out of your eyes when playing tennis? What about a thumb in the middle of your back to scratch it where you can't reach? What about a thumb on the calf of your leg to hold up your socks? On your nose to hold up your glasses? Well, you get the picture.
Rule Number Two: Don't limit your thinking!!!
To see humor in the world you usually have to look for it...at least be open to seeing it when it is right in front of you. Teach yourself (your student) to see things...not just look at them. See with an eye to details and juxtapositions...look for those "odd bedfellows" whether they are in politics or physics or economics.... Open yourself up to the world around you.
I tell teachers that they should give students a test that asks them to cartoon the subject. Say, do a cartoon about a molecule, or osmosis, or WWII, or a verb...if you can cartoon it you have to not only understand it, but be able to communicate that understanding effectively. If a student does a cartoon that is effective in communicating a point about whatever then that student understands it.
Another area where cartoons come in handy for some students is in taking notes in class. My mind is all over the place all the time...I'm what they call a random nonsequential thinker in some "learning styles" terminology and I know there are others out there like me. Anyway, what I have found is that by drawing I can occupy my mind with the drawing and be better able to pay attention to what is being said. In other words, drawing helps me focus.
In fact, I'm considering writing a book on the subject and how some students are better able to concentrate by drawing instead of taking notes with words. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words. I want to make the book about teaching this type of student how to develop a "short hand" of images that they can pull up fast to draw and represent a whole concept instead of laboriously writing out in long hand a sketchy note about the lecture. Cartooning is largely about icons or stereotypes that represent vast amounts of information. If you see a drawing of a person with a stethoscope around their neck...you immediately think “medical person”, right? Now if you expand on that and use these stereotypical images to represent concepts you could put together in a drawing and save time, be better able to focus, and be better able to remember the lecture later wouldn't that be terrific?
It is very frustrating to try to write each word out of a teacher’s mouth...why not just draw a picture that represents the concept and later you can look at it and remember that concept...?
I think that some quotes on the subject of humor might be a good way to wrap it up:
"You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, you can survive it." Bill Cosby
"Anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of." Tom Lehrer
"Laughter is the closest distance between two people." Victor Borge
"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh since there is less cleaning up to do afterwards." Kurt Vonnegut
"He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh." The Koran
"Comedy is tragedy...plus time." Carol Burnett
"Humor allows man to create perspective, to put distance between himself and whatever may confront him. Humor allows man to detach himself from himself and thereby retain the fullest possible control over himself." Viktor Frankl
"To be playful and serious at the same time is possible and defines the ideal mental condition." John Dewey
"Stress and humor must exist in order to create the dynamic force that propels the human animal. It is in learning to accept and utilize both, that people are able to advance beyond the fear of living and find the joy of life." Dan Holt
Dan Holt has a bachelor's degree (BFA) from the University of Oklahoma in art with a teaching cert in grades 1-12; masters (M.Ed.) from University of Georgia at West Georgia in counseling and psychology; and Ph.D. from Purdue University in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in gifted education. He has taught in the high school classroom and at the undergraduate and graduate levels. His book Cartoon Thinking can be obtained from Zephyr Press (800-232-2187) and more can be learned about the international academic competition Dan started in 1994 called Let’s Get Real at www.LGReal.org.
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