Educational Reform, Part 2: The Performing Arts

Last time, I went on a bit of a bender about the subtle and not so subtle incongruencies between the theory and practice of progressive education. If the mission of these schools is to empower their students, some are offering little more than lip service. When these massive schools close and get broken into several small schools, the facilities are divided among the different academies. So where there once was an auditorium, music studios, dance studios, a costume shop, three gyms and five labs in one school, there is now one school with the auditorium, but no labs, another school with the dance studio but no music studio, and the third school with a gym and no shop. Space in New York is limited, and there is no simple solution. But many people overlook the issue completely. What happens to our students when they lose their performing arts programs?
Like I said before, the performing arts are the best way to empower students. Performing gives students not only a chance to create art, but to become the art itself. Students are given the chance to become musicians, dancers, singers, and actors, even if only for the duration of the class, and in performing, they are truly learning through experience. Even in technical or design elements of the performing arts, the students are going through more than an isolated exercise in class; they are contributing to and supporting in the creation of new art. Even if the students are putting up the umpteenth production of Guys and Dolls or A Raisin in the Sun, they are creating art that only exists in the moment. It only exists in their moment – the moment they are creating it. Giving students an opportunity like that is truly empowering to them, and can be very rewarding to the facilitating teacher. Sadly, all the effort can be undermined by unsupportive or disinterested administrative staff, which is exactly what I saw at this new, progressive, “student-centered” school.
In this technology course I’m taking, I started thinking about how technology can play a part in fixing the issue of not having enough space. I’m hoping to hear from others in our class and community about ways to use technology to create performing arts opportunities where there are none. Dance students can create, choreograph, and record movement studies in a relatively small space, and using some of the movie making software we are exploring in class, edit the small pieces into a larger work, and share it over the internet. Music students have endless possibilities, it seems, using programs like Audacity to create and manipulate audio. Singers and actors can practice creating a portfolio, or audition reel of sorts, using much of the same software. While technology can not replace the thrill and necessity of live performance, it may be a suitable substitute and teaching tool when space is so direly limited, as it is now in the public school system.