Here is what the School District is "targeting" to have taught in theater classes.
Click on the images to enlarge them.
It seems that kids for whom English is a second language are having trouble with these mathematical concepts, and theater teachers are being asked to come up with ideas as to the best way to include this information in a theater class. Does this make any sense at all?
The theater curriculum is being hijacked, is what it boils down to. And, will the theater teachers be liable if the kids still don't "get it?" After all, Jim is not a certified Math teacher. I don't think any of the theater teachers I know are certified in Math. Never mind the fact that most students for whom English is a second language do not take theater.
We have become so accustomed to "accountability" taking the form of these "TAKS" tests that we are forgetting that there are other things taught in school. Because theater has no "TAKS," it's OK to use theater time for remedial Math. Never mind that theater and speech skills are some of the most valuable things a child can learn. If you can't measure it on a paper, filling in little ovals with a pencil, it doesn't count as much as something that we were taught in school by 4th grade. Never mind that these TAKS are for 9th and 10th grade, and they are being targeted for 6th, 7th and 8th grade theater.
Somebody needs to take away my soapbox.
Maybe the children are having too much fun during theatre classes. Can't have that, you know!
ReplyDeleteThat has got to be the stupidest, most idiotic thing I have heard all day!
ReplyDeleteIf the Math teachers can't get that simple of a point across to these students, why should a Theatre teacher have to clean up the mess?
Part of the problem with the whole thing is that the kids who are being "left behind" don't care one way or the other if they get left behind or not. If the kids don't want to learn, you can't teach them anything.
Kids like me get dragged backwards because of this whole mess of an education system. We get bored and eventually give up and not care just like the rest of them.
WTF???
ReplyDeleteOh, I can't think of anything else to say... ok, I can.
This is just evidence to support the school district's a)misunderstanding of the purpose and value of theatre and the liberal arts on students and their emotional intelligence b)their misunderstanding that the kids who are enrolled in the liberal arts must not have enough to learn otherwise?
If math is taught to help us learn how to think, theatre can do the same thing without adding math to the cirriculum.
Amen, Fire Berry!
ReplyDelete