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Monday, February 11, 2019
Amid push for STEM education, arts instructors stress value of theater
Education Dive: As schools continue to expand science, technology, engineering and math opportunities, theater programs are proving beneficial in fostering soft skills and enhancing academics.
4 comments:
Lenora G
said...
I remember learning in high school that during The Cold War (or may WWII) the US was falling behind other countries in STEM areas, and the president proposed a law that would strengthen our schools, specifically for military benefit. While STEM is extremely important, this emphasis on developing science specifically for the benefit of our military really highlights what's wrong with the way we think. No one wants to develop their arts program, because to a lot of people that isn't a career path. That's why in many schools it's an extracurricular activity, something that you do as enrichment rather than a career. The ironic thing is that as art students, for a lot of us our extracurricular "hobby" is actually often times STEM. I think that once the world stops thinking of STEM as the career and arts as the backseat that everyone will be able to become well rounded individuals.
The way Bayfield High School runs its theatre department is very similar to how my high school ran ours. We had a 40-50 person crew with a cast often larger than 50-60 people. Everyone who tried out for cast was given a role to some degree. My director worked really hard to make it an inclusive environment to get more kids involved in the arts and also into a strong community. This article says that the arts promote a number of skills (creativity, risk-taking, communication, collaboration, etc), and I absolutely agree. It has been proven by science that the arts foster a learning environment for all of these things, and I have seen myself and my peers grow in these areas through participating in theatre. I am really glad that there is a push for more curriculum to start adding in the arts, specifically theatre. Theatre crosses into so many other subjects, and its interdisciplinary nature can help students grow in so many ways.
STEAM!!! Not STEM that’s what educators need to be looking forward to and pushing for in the future. I’m currently in a teaching course at CMU and STEAM is the correct way of putting it in todays classrooms, science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. My high school I remember back in 8th grade made that transition from STEM to STEAM and it made so much sense that no one even batted an I. There are so many skills and techniques you learn from different art disciplines that you can’t get from hard learning like math and science that schools of course shouldn’t be neglecting any kinds of formal education especially at early ages of development and of course that includes high-school to build as stable a foundation as possible you need to build the widest base possible. Excluding the arts is like excluding an entire half of the brain and you can miss students and let them slip through the cracks when you stress things that don’t matter as much to them.
I completely agree with Mattox here. It needs to be STEAM, not STEM. Like Mattox, I remember when in middle school when my district made the transition from STEM to STEAM. This article brings up probably the most important reason why theatre needs to be taught to students at a middle and high school level, and even at an elementary school level. I spent most of my high school career as the vice president of an organization called Students for MICA which stands for the Mercer Island Center for the Arts. As an organization, we pushed for an arts center on our island and helped explain the importance of theatre and the arts for students, which is why I am so passionate that schools start thinking about STEAM instead of just STEM. That one addition of the A includes so many more students and like Mattox said, includes the other half of the brain.
4 comments:
I remember learning in high school that during The Cold War (or may WWII) the US was falling behind other countries in STEM areas, and the president proposed a law that would strengthen our schools, specifically for military benefit. While STEM is extremely important, this emphasis on developing science specifically for the benefit of our military really highlights what's wrong with the way we think. No one wants to develop their arts program, because to a lot of people that isn't a career path. That's why in many schools it's an extracurricular activity, something that you do as enrichment rather than a career. The ironic thing is that as art students, for a lot of us our extracurricular "hobby" is actually often times STEM. I think that once the world stops thinking of STEM as the career and arts as the backseat that everyone will be able to become well rounded individuals.
The way Bayfield High School runs its theatre department is very similar to how my high school ran ours. We had a 40-50 person crew with a cast often larger than 50-60 people. Everyone who tried out for cast was given a role to some degree. My director worked really hard to make it an inclusive environment to get more kids involved in the arts and also into a strong community. This article says that the arts promote a number of skills (creativity, risk-taking, communication, collaboration, etc), and I absolutely agree. It has been proven by science that the arts foster a learning environment for all of these things, and I have seen myself and my peers grow in these areas through participating in theatre. I am really glad that there is a push for more curriculum to start adding in the arts, specifically theatre. Theatre crosses into so many other subjects, and its interdisciplinary nature can help students grow in so many ways.
STEAM!!! Not STEM that’s what educators need to be looking forward to and pushing for in the future. I’m currently in a teaching course at CMU and STEAM is the correct way of putting it in todays classrooms, science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. My high school I remember back in 8th grade made that transition from STEM to STEAM and it made so much sense that no one even batted an I. There are so many skills and techniques you learn from different art disciplines that you can’t get from hard learning like math and science that schools of course shouldn’t be neglecting any kinds of formal education especially at early ages of development and of course that includes high-school to build as stable a foundation as possible you need to build the widest base possible. Excluding the arts is like excluding an entire half of the brain and you can miss students and let them slip through the cracks when you stress things that don’t matter as much to them.
I completely agree with Mattox here. It needs to be STEAM, not STEM. Like Mattox, I remember when in middle school when my district made the transition from STEM to STEAM. This article brings up probably the most important reason why theatre needs to be taught to students at a middle and high school level, and even at an elementary school level. I spent most of my high school career as the vice president of an organization called Students for MICA which stands for the Mercer Island Center for the Arts. As an organization, we pushed for an arts center on our island and helped explain the importance of theatre and the arts for students, which is why I am so passionate that schools start thinking about STEAM instead of just STEM. That one addition of the A includes so many more students and like Mattox said, includes the other half of the brain.
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