Performing Arts In The Classroom
Today I watched a TED Talk by Asa Beckham about coming
out of the closet. She talks about coming out of the closet as not strictly
something that gay people do but that we all need to do as human beings whether
we are straight, gay or otherwise. She equates coming out of the closet with
having hard conversations. By having these conversations, we let go of the stress
we keep bottled up. This is important because our body can hold so much of that
kind of stressed pressure. We all experience hard situations, no matter what
level they are in comparison to others because it’s all we know, our
experiences are all different. Someone’s house burning down may cause them as
much pain and stress as someone else who has just lost their dog and it is our
job to empathize with them, to try to understand, which we can do by relating. When
our friend’s house burns down we can feel what they are going through not
because we have experienced our house burning down but because we have lost our
beloved dog and that level of loss is relatable.
With the performing arts, we do just that. We are able to
feel empathy for characters and situations that extend out into the world.
Students are taught techniques that get to that place where they can understand
what the other person is going through and that makes the experience so much
more authentic. A theatre teacher has said that “studying and participating in
drama gives high school students opportunities to recognize emotions and
practice different ways of interacting with each other, which are important
parts of building empathy. For teenagers who are trying to fit in and negotiate
relationships with one another, the ability to recognize emotions in oneself
and others is vital for working in society” (Davis, 34).
A fifteen year old student named Ryan felt useless to his
friend, who had just lost his father when his friend pushed him away saying
that he didn’t understand. During theatre class one day, Ryan really threw
himself into the role of someone who had just lost a parent. He felt enabled
and helpless. The pain brought him to depths of despair in a way that allowed
him to “feel from the inside out.” It was during this exercise that Ryan was
truly able to have an idea of what his friend was going through. Another student
named Tina says that she liked theatre because it gives her “the time and
opportunity to problem-solve in the fascinating arena of human feelings-to
investigate a role and consider the sorts of situations that evoke one emotion
or another. It’s hard work but I feel it is important to my development as a
human being (Davis, 38).
“Students
are deeply interested and attached to the process of giving form to their own
emotions. They also welcome the chance to recognize and learn about the
emotions of others. Adolescence is known as a period of intense feeling, deep sensitivity,
stress, passion, egotism, self-sacrifice and devotion. On this account,
students value the arts classroom as a safe haven for encounters with learning
that is immediately relevant to their own personal development and growth”
(Davis, 99). “When curriculum seriously included opportunities to find mutual
respect in their various self-presentations and understandings, the dominance
of black/white, right/wrong or in/out can be overturned with an expectation for
gray; the discovery that a good question is more important than any answer and
the realization that we are all together in figuring it out” (Davis, 58). Maxine
Green sees the “arts as a counter to indifference and disappointment. The arts
create a dialogue that opens the questions for you and in the interchange with
someone else. And the recognition that there are multiple perspectives, many
ways of looking at the world is an accomplishment to honest dialogue” (Kohl,
181).
Frances Lucerna, who founded the Arts and Cultural
Council for Youth and co-founded the El Punte Academy for Peace and Justice in
Brooklyn encourages her students compassion by using the arts a way to make
social change. “For us, everything starts with the creative process. It’s the
way we bring people together to engage in dialogue. We talk about this process
of ‘see, judge, act’ where we look at the world around us and look at the
situation in our community or a certain issue that’s impacting us and then we
have this dialogue around it and research it and then we create these action
plans to make changes. As we open possibilities of thinking about these issues
dynamically, we develop ways to express them and teach about them through the
arts, whether it be through a mural, a drama, a one-act play, a piece of
choreographed dance. We try to develop works that will translate the impact of
this issue on our lives and suggest creative strategies for coming together to
make change. (Kohl, 53-54)
Lecerna’s
students really have taken action. They became toxic avengers as they did
scientific research on a nuclear storage dump in their community and then took
that information in order to create a form of guerrilla theatre that they
performed in order to get the word out to the community so that more people
could be informed and encouraged to take a stand. And then again when they led
a 1,700 person peaceful march in protest of a fifty-five story high incinerator
they wanted to put in their community. Through artistic ways, the students were
able to fight for social justices in order to protect their own backyard. These
were kids who were struggling with school and so dropped out and came to the El
Pentue academy where they experienced a sense of meaning as part of their
community and eventually graduated.
The
students discovered who they were and what they stood for. They found their
purpose and place in the world they were helping to heal. They found their own
personal power. “Once you get people hooked into their passion and connect that
to a purpose, you get transformation that allows students to experience their
own power. We believe in the idea of students’ limitless capacity for
developing and becoming special, caring people. That is inherent in the
creative process and in the arts. It’s a way of thinking and being in the world
that allows us to connect that to ‘if we can change this, we can definitely
change this circumstance. We are not victims, we are powerful people who have limitless
possibility and potential; we just need to harness it and do it together and we
can make a change’” (Kohl, 54)
Works
Cited:
Davis,
Jessica Hoffmann. Why Our High Schools Need the Arts. New York: Teachers
College, 2012. Print.
Kohl,
Herbert R., and Tom Oppenheim. The Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories
about the Importance of Arts in Education. New York: New, 2012. Print.
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