Blog 10

I was very inspired by both of the readings for this week. With my background in performance, I was easily able to identify with Susan B. Andrews’ Writing As Performance, and I appreciated the many connections she made between the two processes. I loved her notion that “everyone should be afforded an opportunity to be published and to ‘perform.’” I think when teaching writing, it is important to give students a higher objective than simply getting a good grade on a paper. Preparing a piece of writing to be published, even if in a local paper or magazine, will give students the extra motivation to really develop their own voice as writers.

I was also really affected by Andrews’ description of how her Alaskan Native students used this process to pass down cultural heritage and life experiences to younger generations. I remember that during 9th grade English class, we prepared several pieces for entry into the Scholastic Writing Awards. In the same way as Andrews discusses, students were forced to constantly revise and reword their writing for the “final performance.” I am happy to report that through this effort, one of my essays was chosen for publication in a magazine. Interestingly, I still consider that work to be some of my best writing to this very day.

Reading Alejandra’s article on the use of art in her elementary language arts classroom was incredibly appropriate after having just this past week attended two lectures at Dickinson College by playwright Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; 3 time Pulitzer Prize winner). Albee raised some amazing points regarding both the state of theater in the United States and the problem with America’s public education system. I was so glad to discover that his thoughts and opinions helped to confirm the reason I decided to go back to school and get my teaching certification. He talked about the fact that the lack of arts education in public schools is part of the reason that we are seeing a decline in the amount and quality of creative art in our country. Like Alejandra, Mr. Albee made the point that “all students need to learn how to see, to interpret data from the world, the canvas, and the page”.

In Albee’s opinion, elementary school room walls should be filled with abstract art, so that from an early age, students can begin making sense of the beauty in the world around them. He discussed the important role that the arts play in allowing people to reflect on themselves as humans and to make changes if they don't like what they see. From my experiences in the classroom so far, I think it is evident that there is too much focus on testing and not enough on preparing students to be responsible and observant human beings. As Edward Albee so brilliantly pointed out, the arts is the one thing that truly separates us from other animals. It gives us the ability to make sense of our reality and the world in which we live. The more schools begin to cut art and music programs, the more our society as a whole stands to ultimately lose.