CHAPTER SIX - Drama in the Classroom

Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of drama in the classroom. Maladjusted people of all ages can find a salutary release in dramatic action, and many teachers believe that dramatic work slackens the minor tensions of the rather artificial world of education and it awakens potentialities in pupils unaffected by the usual type of lesson. However, this occurs only when the class is not merely watching or reading but acting, and acting in the fullest sense, with the whole being of the children. Acting is a natural form of child's play; however, between the early outlet for emotion and imagination in action, and the effective presentation of a part in a scripted play, there is a great gap. Drama should be primarily an exploration of life, an extension of the emotional and imaginative world. There should be great variety of feeling in the early, simple exercises, and the teacher should try more to awaken the feeling than to stress the action.