How I got here: Student Empowerment

I was getting restless at my arts admin job and answered a craigslist post for a theater teacher. I had left teaching to learn about the administrative side of running an arts education program. The post was a once-a-week gig teaching an after-school theater class that would transition into directing a full musical at the end of the school year. Most importantly, it would allow me to keep my 9-5 while filling this void in my life that had been created by sitting at a desk. I interviewed with the Assistant Principal and was asked to come in and meet with the students who has "asked for" this program. I was very confused and taken aback, students had asked for a theater class? And the administration had listened?

I met with the three students who had petitioned the administration for a theater program. The theater curriculum had been cut several years ago and these three young women had rallied their friends, approached administration and the parent board requesting a theater program. Their passion and their interrogation of me changed the course of my life. Who are these young people who are demanding what they want out of their education? What is this high school administration who is listening to their student body?

These three, 16-year old young women knew their was something missing from their education and were not afraid to ask for it. So often I see my students cower at the idea of speaking with their teachers. Adults in the classroom are unapproachable monoliths to respected and never questioned. I was inspired at a generation of young people who were passionate, self-aware advocates.

I learned quickly that their tenacity knew no bounds! At the end of my contract the AP brought me in to talk about "moving the theater program forward." Naturally, I prepared a thorough proposal for both a curricular and extra-curricular theater program that the school could afford. I sat down in the office and was instead met with a stack of letters that my students had written to the AP requesting that the school hire me full-time to implement a theater program. Before I could say a word, he said, "so do you want to job?" Putting aside my life-long rule that I would NEVER teach in a high school, I accepted the position solely because I wanted to teach this specific, diverse student body who were passionate, fearless, and self-aware.

I developed a 4-year theater curriculum based not on what I wanted to teach or that even plays to my strong-suits as an artist or educator. It is a curriculum designed for this specific school, these specific students, at this specific time in our global experience. I change a lesson or unit with my students, thus my curriculum is new and unique to each group of students I have in the room. It is about teaching to the people in the room, rather than at them. They are young, but this generation that is fiercely entitled. Entitlement often bares a negative connotation, but when applied to education entitled is exactly what every young person should be. Every young person is entitled to a well-rounded education and I am proud to teach a group of students who demand that from me every day.