“ Theater provides opportunities for role play , allowing for varied perspectivetaking , self-expression , and increased empathy .”
“ Theater provides opportunities for role play , allowing for varied perspectivetaking , self-expression , and increased empathy .”
landing when they arrive to class . By allowing boys to settle into the space and reset from their very busy days , providing opportunities to reflect and edit on collaborative work , encouraging them to make mistakes through creative exploration , and practicing process over product , we are helping boys build neural pathways that reward learning , thereby “ helping to remind them of our human instinct to create ” ( Martin , 2020 ).
The third-grade boys put this into practice by choosing a show , casting themselves into roles , deciding upon and then creating set pieces , choosing costumes , and blocking a fractured fairy tale . While asking a dozen 10-year-olds to collectively decide on how to put up a show requires careful questions , and lots of scaffolding , the look of pride on their faces at the end of their performance is priceless . The boys are given the time and space to make decisions and collectively problem solve without adult intervention . This skill will serve them well as they head off to the Upper School .
To create , as Greene said , “ is the ability to envision the possible - that enables us to feel another person ’ s point of view ” ( Judson , 2021 , p . 11 ). As educators , we need to redefine creativity into “ possibility thinking .” If we approach our classrooms as safe spaces for our students to choose challenges rather than avoid them , value appropriateness , tolerate risk and ambiguity , and confront uncertainty , we are offering them the opportunity to find their own flow , and contribute to their personal development and well-being . In the Pre-Kindergarten Creative Arts class , the boys spend the year choosing stories to transform into classroom productions that they share with their homeroom teachers . Offering them the opportunity to make all of the decisions and to value their choices , builds confidence in expressing their opinions .
The arts teach students to act , rely on feel , pay attention to nuance , and appraise the consequences of one ’ s choices , and to revise and then make other choices . It is through the arts that we become more qualitatively intelligent . Our boys deserve to live in a world that allows them to find their own voices and express themselves in the ways they need to . The performing arts can help boys become more tenacious , team-oriented problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively . It is imperative that we give boys permission to access the full spectrum of their deeper emotional lives , so they can become more fully integrated emotional beings . •
Citations :
Judson , G . ( 2021 ). Cultivating Leadership Imagination with Cognitive Tools : An Imagination-Focused Approach to Leadership Education . Journal of Research on Leadership Education . https :// doi . org / 10.1177 / 19427751211022028
Martin , B . ( 2020 , June 11 ). Brain research shows the arts promote mental health . Saltwire . https :// www . saltwire . com / nova-scotia / opinion / brain-research-shows-the-arts-promotemental-health-460862 /
Dance offers opportunities to explore controlling one ’ s own movement in space in conjunction with others , especially useful for quickly growing boys .
A scene from the the fifth grade ’ s June 2024 production of Oliver !
Fractured Fairy Tales
Meg Myette is Choral Director and Music and Theatre Teacher at Saint David ’ s School .
Summer 2024 • 27