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Role of drama in schools

Question from Rizwan: What is the role of drama in schools?

Hector's response: Dear Rizwan, thanks so much for your important question. I assume that you are talking about the role of drama as part of the curriculum in our educational system, before College. I couldn't emphasize enough the crucial role of drama and all the other art forms in the formation of our children. Education comes from the Greek word Educare which means "to lead it out." The "it" could be understood as the resident spirit in a person. That which makes us unique and that all traditional cultures valued as the “gifts” that all children brought into the world. "Instructare" means "to pack it in." In my opinion our current educational system has being reduced to simple instruction. We are trying to pack in the same information in all children without figuring out who they are. The main expression of this collapse of imagination in schools is the obsessive attention given to standardized testing. (I don’t know of any couple who ever got together with the desire to have a “standard child.”) Of course there is an amazing failure of these efforts and more and more children are losing interest in the educational process. In my opinion the arts and drama in particular are the most direct paths into the beauty of all human beings. Art is one of the main vehicles for the discovery/expression of our uniqueness. In my personal experience I have done trainings for teachers and residencies with children in several schools from the Pasadena Unified School District and the LAUSD (Los Angeles USD) My emphasis in these workshops and trainings has been to incorporate drama into the curriculum. (You can find very valuable resources in that respect in this entire web site including the California Framework for the Arts)

Drama games and exercises can be used in every single topic from math to language arts. Teachers use drama games as a way to facilitate group integration and to bring out the spontaneity of their students. There are several ways to use drama and role playing for the exploration of positive alternatives to conflict in schools. Of course, the most obvious use is to explore the understanding of subject matters in language proficiency, history, literature, etc. When a child is given the opportunity to perform in a short skit about Marthin Luther King for example, it will be harder for that child to forget the impact of MLK, than if the child tries to memorize the historic event in a conceptual manner.

Drama allows us to explore all the different facets of our personality in a safe imaginative way. Through acting we can be kings, presidents, beggars, Gods and Goddesses, professionals, street people, killers, lovers, historic characters and yet we will always be able to return into who we are. Through acting a so called "troubled child" can for example act his anger out by becoming a character instead of becoming the anger and hurting somebody or him/herself. In theater a child could kill and be killed and yet be able to go to recess afterwards and play with their classmates. They could also reflect regarding the emotions derived from such radical human situations. There is much more to be said about the pivotal role of drama and the arts as part of the educational process. For that reason is very troubling to witness the myopic decisions of our so called political leaders who continue considering the arts and the expression of individual power as the least important aspect of our society and culture. A culture without artistic expression is condemned to disappear. Without the influx of beauty it is my opinion that we are raising monsters. Hope these ideas could motivate further discussion.

"this is a manila site 2" "get acrobat" "get quicktime"

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