Post-Election Thoughts

I know we're probably all sick and tired about hearing about the presidential election by now, but I saw this photo on the Obama campaign's tumblr and felt like I needed to share.

During a really, really interesting discussion with one of my theatre professors, Mr. C, last year, he told my class a story about a children's show he directed. It was a version of Charlotte's Web and the department invited tons of local schools to see it, including many schools in urban and lower-income areas. As Mr. C watched the students come into the theatre, he was so excited. For many of them, it was going to be the first time they had ever seen a play before. Throughout the performance, he spent more time watching the audience than watching the show. The kids fell in love with all of characters, but particularly Wilbur, and Mr. C couldn't wait until after the show because they had arranged for the actors to meet the kids in the lobby after the show.

Mr. C stayed behind in the auditorium after the show ended to congratulate the crew, as he had always done. He walked out into the lobby and saw the kids talking to all their favorite characters. As he scanned the room, there was a huge crowd of people around one particular person and he couldn't tell who it was. He started accounting for each of the actors and realized that the kids weren't crowded around any of the actors. The person that all these students had flocked to was Miguel, one of the custodians.

Miguel had been with the university theatre department for years. He was a friendly face in a cutthroat environment and he would always ask you how your day had been. He was also, Mr. C noticed as he looked around, the only person of color from the university in the room. What sort of message had their show unintentionally sent? From that point on, Mr. C told our class, he made a concerted effort to make sure that he casted his children's shows conscientiously and included as much diversity as he could.

When I saw the picture above this morning, it wasn't hard to connect this story to it.  It just reminds me how incredible it is to live when we do.

The Value of The Arts

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea what to write about today. Fifth day of NaBloPoMo and my ideas are already running dry? Rough. And then I stumbled across an article in The Atlantic and knew what I wanted to blog about.

Should Science Majors Pay Less for College Than Arts Majors?

My degree in theatre and I both say, "No," followed by a resounding, "Go to hell." And that was the polite phrasing.

Basically, a Florida task force is recommending that the Florida state university system find a way to lower the cost of tuition for students majoring in topics "in high demand by Florida employers." So probably math, science, technology, business, et cetera into eternity. The Atlantic goes on to present a bunch of different possible problems that could arise out of actually implementing these recommendations, but really what it comes down to is that our society is continually devaluing the arts and that infuriates me to no end.

I had the privilege of being able to take a Creative Drama course during my undergraduate years in the literal birthplace of the Creative Drama movement, Evanston, Illinois. Theatre, and Creative Drama specifically, allows people to live out situations that they might never have been confronted with and offers the opportunity to see the world through someone else's eyes, if only for a few minutes. Children benefit from exposure to the arts. Evanston public schools have a mandatory semester of Creative Drama every year from kindergarten through eighth grade. After observing in several of those classrooms, I can say with the utmost certainty that those children were some of the most understanding and cooperative children I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

There is such a move these days toward standardization in education and frankly I find that tragic. Apparently, I was one of the last graduating classes from my public school district that actually had some say in what classes I took and how I wanted to spend my time in school. My sister, currently a junior in high school, is constantly frustrated because she feels like her teachers and administration aren't listening to what she wants. She has no idea what she wants to do after high school and is nearly always feeling the pressure to decide. She loves to make things, to learn, to meet new people. She is also incredibly budget-conscious. There is no doubt in my mind that she would have a terrible time studying something she absolutely loved knowing that she would be paying less if she were studying something that the government deemed worthy.

And that perhaps is the crux of it. No one should be able to define what is valuable when it comes to education. I am tired of having to defend my decision to major in theatre to anyone and everyone. I am bone tired of people sending me articles that list "Theatre" as one of the least employable majors, and that's not even taking into consideration that most of those lists only consider acting when they think about theatre.

Education is a valuable thing. Education is also a deeply personal thing. You have to want to learn. You have to be excited about your studies. If you're not, then it's a waste of everyone's time.