Troupe Directors: News and Updates for Colorado Theatre Teachers
University of Northern Colorado announces
Masters Theatre Education Program
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Coalition for Theatre Education Statement on Freedom of Expression
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Extracurricular Extras: What Kids Learn From the Arts - from MSN, by Mary Seehafer Sears
It's rehearsal time at the local children's theater. There are no desks, no teachers lecturing in front of chalkboards. Instead, kids mill around, painting scenery, practicing their lines, working with a choreographer to get their dance steps in sync.
This is not schoolwork - and for some kids, that's the magic of it: a way to express themselves in a non-academic way. On stage, backstage, or simply in the audience, commitment, concentration, and focus are required, but these skills are used differently than they are in school. A child who is not popular in school may do beautifully in community theater productions. A shy student may come out of her shell in ballet or painting class. The arts give kids a way to participate and interact with others, away from solitary pursuits like computer games and watching TV. And it sets them up for future success. Ruth Goldman, a teacher of performance arts and music for more than 30 years in New York City and northern New Jersey, sees the arts- dance, painting, drawing, theater, and design- as a place where all children can shine.
"The arts give children confidence, and the opportunity to freely share their feelings," she says. "They take children off their usual track. For instance, dancing is innate for children, and lessons give 'jumping around' some structure and sensible movement," she says.
And your child doesn't have to be a performer to reap the benefits. "Not everyone will become an artist or a performer," says Goldman, "but you can create good listeners; this is a talent that can be exercised throughout life. I may not be able to do that, but I can understand it, by being a detective: listening, reading, studying, or finding out more about something that interests me."
Goldman encourages parents to follow through on their child's interests. "If he finds an artist he likes, help him seek out that person's work in other places." This keeps the quest alive.
SAT Scores and the Arts: Consistent Results
Consistency is the hallmark of SAT scores of college-bound high school seniors who have participated in the arts, either through study or performance. In the past three years, students involved in the arts have combined verbal and math scores so similar that they vary only a few points each year within the category of their specialization. For example, students in music performance varied only 4 points above and 3 points below the three-year average of 1062 for combined verbal and math scores.
The other remarkable feature that has also been uniformly replicated over the past three years is the differential demonstrated between the SAT scores of students involved in the arts and those of students with no involvement in arts activities. Students in the arts scored an average of 82 points higher every year than their non-arts counterparts. Whatever the prevailing educational theories may purport about the "Mozart effect," empirical evidence here clearly indicates that arts involvement shows a consistent and significant bounce in SAT test results.
The correlation between arts involvement and SAT scores is consistent even to the degree of arts involvement. Students with more than four years of study in the arts scored seven points higher than those with four years; those with three years of study scored twenty-one points less than those with four; those with two years scored twelve points less than those with three; those with one year scored eleven points less than those with two; and those with one-half year or less scored twenty points lower. The total point differential between those with more than four years of study in the arts and those with one-half year or less was eighty-nine points, again an indicator that arts involvement enhances students' scores.
While it may prove difficult to quantify the precise recipe, the proof is definitely in the pudding: involvement in the arts goes hand-in-hand with better SAT scores, and the more years of involvement, the greater the gains.
Reprinted February 2001, from The College Board, College-Bound Seniors National Report: A Profile of SAT Program Test Takers for 1998, 1999, and 2000.
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SAT Scores and the Arts |