Top Takeaways
- Many school districts are using comedy and improv workshops to teach students social-emotional skills, encourage self-expression and foster social connection.
- Through the comedy program Laughing Together, professional comedians and mental health clinicians develop workshops based on exercises that can improve student mental health.
- Game-based learning and interactive play can engage students who might have fallen behind academically or socially during the pandemic.
“If you were an object, what object would you be?”
Chris Gethard, a veteran comedian and improv teacher, posed this question to a group of high school students in Northern California at a Laughing Together workshop he was leading. He remembered one who identified as a fruit.
“When I was a kid, I convinced myself that I hated avocados,” Gethard remembered the student saying. “And then I tried one, and I actually love ’em. And that’s been my experience the past few years as I’m learning to love and embrace myself.”…