“If you were an object, which object would it be?”
Veteran comedian and improvisation teacher Chris Gessard raised the question to a group of high school students in Northern California during a laughing workshop he was leading. He recalls someone who identified it as a fruit.
“When I was a kid, I was sure I hated avocados,” Gessard recalled what the student said. “Then I tried it and I actually love them. And it’s been my experience over the past few years as I’m learning to love and accept myself.”
It quickly became clear to Gessard that improvisation was not about avocados or fruits about it. It was a big moment, and students were taking huge risks to understand something about themselves – their gender identity in real time.
“Now, young people live in a world where these experiences are often politicized in the spotlight,” Gessard said. “So, to see kids being able to do comedy exercises, it feels light, accessible and not too heavy.
Many school districts have turned to comedy as a way to support students’ mental health. In 2023, Gethard co-founded Laughing. the study That comedy is effective tool For students Social Emotional Learning And society Connection With their friends.
Since Gethard co-founded the program with Parent CEO Marlon Morgan, nearly 6,500 students and educators from 26 different schools, districts, or youth organizations have participated in the workshop. Nonprofit organizations Wellness together.
“One of our reasons [partnered with Gethard] “He was already sharing his mental health through HBO’s comedy special,” said Morgan, a former school counselor.
“Take a chance in the spotlight”
Research shows that students who practice social emotional skills in a safe environment with well-defined goals Improvements Social behavior, emotional regulation, academic achievement.
“We have a clinical psychologist who goes through all the improvisation exercises,” Gessard said. “They can say – “These are things that make people interesting, and they also prioritize nonverbal communication, strengthen eye contact, be happy with failure and put the spotlight on it.”
Christina Patterson, a senior and peer counselor at Lincoln High School in Stockton, California, said the pandemic closure forced her to spend almost days scrolling through social media, “But there’s nothing new,” she added.
For the first time since her school implemented a mobile phone ban, Patterson attended a laughing workshop and said that even an hour had come across the level of engagement she had always looked for on her phone. Like Patterson, recent students report through better cognitive, social and academic outcomes. Game based learn and interactive play, It will be compared For lecture-based instruction.
“I feel like I’m working with interactive people. They’re not trying to teach you, but they’re trying to teach you together,” Patterson said.
The Laugh Together Workshop is led by one of the program’s educational artists, including drawing art, play, games, and more, along with professional comedians, actors, performers and children’s psychologists. Treatment Research and develop Social Emotional Learning Building communication skills for each exercise. For Gethard, the workshop will be a success if he can teach his students something without realizing it.
“We want our kids to not only watch slide shows, but also spoon these lessons, but also make each other feel more connected and comfortable,” he said. “We want them to feel that they are allowed to at least throw ideas out there, and no one is going to judge them, pull them apart or criticize them.”
Sophia Stutor Tropez, a senior and peer counselor at Lincoln High School, helped establish the Peer-to-Peer Summit. She recalls starting the day with anxiety about the big presentation about the mental health resources she had later that day, but after a few skits and improvisation games, she felt more confident, relaxed and connected to the people around her.
“I learned that the majority of balancing heavy topics in mental health, such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse, is learning how to fight against things that can help you with those emotions,” Stewart Lopez said.
Marcus Alcantal, a senior and peer counselor at Lincoln High School, said his favorite exercise at the workshop was that he became an apple. He had to think with his own feet why he felt like he was, so he improvised skits with the ones who decided they were trees. In another exercise, he said that the volunteers started with juggling the ball, then the student added another ball, then another ball, then another.
“It’s a fun expression of how you can make so much happen mentally in your head, and that you can learn to unravel those ideas and organize them for yourself and others,” Alcantal said.
About 5 in 5 Most of the teenagers and Stewart Lopez’s friends at school experience symptoms of anxiety and depression, she said. Therefore, the workshop was particularly helpful in understanding how laughter works precisely in the brain, such as how endorphins and serotonin receptors alleviate feelings of sadness and anxiety.
” [improv exercises] And, with our feet, we can prepare ourselves to deal with a variety of situations. ” said Stewart Lopez.
More recently, Gethard has completed nine workshops at high schools where more than half of student organizations are taking Individual Education Plans (IEPs) or accommodations for students with learning, developmental or behavioral disabilities. During his first workshop, he noticed that most students reach for their cell phones in the middle of exercise or on stage. To guide the students into the experience, he told them to simply take a breath and try to attend.
“After the first few workshops, the teacher approached me and said, “My ability to focus on it and focus is a dramatic leap compared to week one,” Gessard said. “She said, “They never got the ability to concentrate after Covid, but if they can continue doing this, they’ll change the game for these kids in the room.”
Percentage of anxiety and depression – I shot it 70% are the top of California children between 2017 and 2022 Health-related drivers Absenteeism for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Research shows that reduced social interactions, coupled with excessive dependence on screen time, exacerbated students. Social cognition Skills such as cooperation and communication, and Executive Featureswarnings and memories.
Alcantal was in the seventh grade when the school was closed. And when he returned to face-to-face instruction as a high school freshman, he said he found it difficult to start a conversation with the people around him. Stewart Lopez said she had been protecting her for a while since she was worried about meeting social expectations about what she should look like after the school lifted its mask order.
“The pandemic is like, ‘What if I don’t fit? What if I’m different from the others?” she said.
For Stewart Lopez, laughter feels like home. It’s how she and her sisters have overcome the separation of their parents, and plans to take new risks with new people at university this year.
“We’re creating that safe space to help students get real-time responses to the risks they’re taking, and to make it okay for everyone to take risks,” said Morgan, CEO of nonprofit wellness.
