Tuesday 16 October 2012
As usual, no support when it comes to Drama lessons
Today I experienced a classic example of how unimportant drama is considered in my place of work (secondary school). On Thursday this week, my pupils will be performing 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Greenwich Shakespeare school's festival. We were having a rehearsal in an allocated room when a pupil who is not involved with the performance came in to the room. I explained that there was a rehearsal taking place, to which she informed me that she was feeling ill and had been told by one of the senior staff to leave her lesson and sit in the drama room. I can only imagine how a teacher would complain if I had sent one of my pupils, feeling ill, to sit in on one of their lessons! Obviously this member of staff, and unfortunately many like her, don't see that a rehearsal taking place two days before the performance, does not welcome random 'ill' people to sit in on! This is something I experience on a daily basis. Earlier this morning I had the father of one cast member call me to say that his daughter would be dropping out...with two days notice. He said that we would have to find someone else. Easy as that. Unbelievable.
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Sarah, this has annoyed me and I really feel for you. The arts are constantly belittled by people who refuse to believe that they are a key subject. Having a teacher allow a pupil sit in on your lesson makes it even worse as it also gives the pupil the impression that your lesson is not as important as any other as quite rightly they wouldn't let them go and sit in on a science or English lesson. It seems silly. Did you speak to this teacher? Maybe it would be interesting to interview them for your inquiry. Hopefully they would learn a lot and realise that what they did was wrong -at least! I could go on!
ReplyDeleteI hope you manage to find a replacement for the part in a Midsummer nights dream.
Best wishes, Emily
I hadn't thought about interviewing this teacher, but that's a really good idea. It's made me realise that I have been focusing on interviewing people who are artistic, which of course would produce a biased responce. It is definitely worth asking this teacher. My main problem that I'm experiencing is that the teachers as so uninterested (and of course busy), that they are not at all enthusiastic to be interviewed. I will ask though. Thank you for your suggestion.
ReplyDeleteThis is extremely frustrating! And like Emily says, the worst part is that the teacher in question is warping the ill students views on drama!
ReplyDeleteIt's just so demeaning for a fellow teacher to treat your class in that way! Next time you have an ill child in your class you should send him/her to sit in the teachers class. Call it an experiment!!
On a serious note, you should definitely try and interview the teacher. It would be fascinating to see what they have to say.
Liam.
I find this quite unbelievable! Not only do I worry about the welfare of "ill" and actually ill students but I also extremely angry that another member of staff would so willing give a student the perception (the basis of my inquiry) that Drama and theatre is a subject that can be taken for granted... or somewhere to "relax" and "recover".
ReplyDeleteI want to know what subject that member of staff teaches!?
Jess.
She isn't a subject teacher, Jessica. She is the vice principal of an additional site the school occupies.
ReplyDeleteWhat a hard situation, but Im going to throw a spanner in the works and be devils advocate. Perfect opportunity to used a 'random' situation to try and spark interest in drama in that individual, rather than saying 'NO BUT' lets give 'YES AND' a try. Of course i totally agree with this being a total ignorance to the performing arts and its level of importance in schools and the curriculum.
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