Classroom drama, The Hindu Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

PAROMITA PAIN

Drama does not replace textbooks, but it draws out the unspoken and seeks to zero in on people's lives providing a context.

The Teacher's Centre programs inaugurated recently at Goodbooks, Chennai, had a session on theatre in education conducted by theatre personality Maya Rao. The workshop was about teaching methodologies to increase student participation and response. The teachers, from schools of Chennai, were mainly from the elementary classes. Maya emphasized the importance of theatre as an important community activity that must be drawn into the world of teaching. The role of theatre in the classroom cannot be overemphasized for there is little formality to be observed and is as close to life as possible. 

Maya believes that theatre is a great teacher since we learn our ultimate lessons from life and theatre emulates it best. Children learn through their minds and bodies and that's why songs help them assimilate better. Theatre incorporates music. Children are naturally theatrical and the first signs of acting are found during play where little stories are performed. In fact theatre is sophisticated and needs an audience but play is something that is very natural and they take to the arts very spontaneously. Thus teachers have no excuse not to use theatre in the classroom. It also makes them sensitive to issues and makes them curious. Curiosity is the start of learning. It is important to set up this state of curiosity.

Learning and teaching are organic on-going processes. Teachers need to set up areas for themselves to learn. In a classroom issuing a set of circumstances, not just instructions make children want to discover. A theatrical experience in the classroom is about learning through living and students come out of it with complete ideas about the topic. A child's imagination is an active platform and must be appealed to reduce academic stress.

Drama can draw out the unspoken. It does not replace textbooks. It seeks to zero in on people's lives and provide a context.

"Theatre is not just a vocabulary but a cognitive act", says Maya Rao. "While acting kids are not just watching but also reacting." Thus theatre enables learning where children mostly facilitate lessons, where the teacher is not the foundation of knowledge and teachers and students meet on a common plane of understanding.