Hello Beautiful People,
Recently I directed a high school production of A Chorus Line.
And, well, my choice of show was questioned a bit. Was this a good fit for these students? What would they be learning from a show about dancers?
A show about dancers.
Oh my. Clearly, I had some explaining to do…
Yes, this is a show about dancers – but that’s just the surface. It is a show about seventeen artists and their road to self discovery. It is a show about seventeen artists and their love affair with New York City. It is a show about finding your tribe. People who will accept you for who you are with open and loving arms no matter what — and it teaches it’s audiences that gender, race, and sexual orientation play no factor in a person’s worth. It is a show about falling on ones face, and having the dignity and grace and strength to get back up, time and time again. It is a show about art — and what it means to have a life in the theatre. It is a show about seventeen people — and the life events that shaped them into the men and women that they are when we, the audience first meets them.
But alas, I digress.
During tech week, one of the mothers paid me a visit. She wanted to thank me.
Thank me.
I’ll admit it – I was thrown a little off guard.
I mean, what was she thanking me for? It was educational theatre – it was high school for Pete’s sake – I was just giving her kid a shot. That’s what you’re supposed to do as a teacher, isn’t it? You see that little spark of excitement and potential in a student and try to cultivate it.
Right?
I mean…right?
But, as I listened to her gracious and beautiful words – I began to realize what she was actually thanking me for – see, her child had Aspergers Syndrome, and she was thanking me for giving her child a place to belong in high school. She was thankful to the theatre department for accepting her child with open and loving arms. She was thankful that her child felt like she had a home away from home.
She was grateful for what the play had done for her child – for, despite the play rehearsals and the countless hours that she spent afterschool on this production, her grades improved. They were better than they were all year-long.
When her daughter was born, the doctors thought that she wouldn’t be able to walk without assistance. Speech was going to be limited. And so, to see her onstage, singing and dancing – well, it felt like nothing short of a miracle.
Why am I writing this now?
I mean, the play is over. The school year is practically over.
And yet, these students will probably not have another experience like this in their high school careers, because, when it comes down to it there is no substitute for arts education. For when a student is able to lose him or herself in theatre, music, dance, and visual art – they are able to find out the inner workings of their own heart and soul, and they begin to understand the stories of those that surround them.
See, when it comes down to it – arts education teaches us how to be better versions of ourselves.
And yet, there’s all these budgetary concerns about next year. Woes and stresses over testing and the Common Core and APPR are looming over ever educators head.
And trust me when I say, nobody’s concern is over their paycheck. The concern is over what’s happening to the education system in this country – programs being slashed left and right – three period of math and science, and forgetting about the arts.
The concern is that we’re forgetting what education is about – to help, to guide, to inspire.
The concern is that we’re not letting teachers teach.
The concern is that we’re focusing too much on tests, and not on helping to guide and inspire the future generations.
So, as budgets come up, think before you slash. Think before you vote. Think before you criticize – and do your homework on the new educational policy that so many are fighting against.
Live, Love, Learn,