Play is Powerful

Okay, so I have a confession. Sometimes when we are interviewing new teaching artists, they will answer that their least favorite age group to teach is the youngest age group. Sometimes they say “Pre-K,” sometimes they say “under second grade,” sometimes they say “itty bitties.” In truth, this is what most of our teaching artists say, not all, but most. More often than not I have heard the phrase “it's just playing, you're not teaching them anything.”

What?!

Of course it's play! What do you think that Shakespeare wrote? How do you think that children learn? Better yet, how did you learn?

There is, however, a silver lining to hearing that as often as I have - It just means that as we continue to grow ETC’s Pre-K programming, I get to do a lot of it. Because that young age group, the younger-than-second-grade age group, the kiddos- who-are-still-fully-kiddos-and-will-greet-you-enthusiastically-even-if-they-have-never-met-you-before group, those are my favorite kids to teach.

Don't tell my 5th graders. Or my 4th graders or even my older adults…though I think that last group would understand the most. 

Students who are not yet in Kindergarten are growing and learning at an alarming rate. There are plenty of studies to show us just how much language acquisition and physical awareness and all of those other important things happen before the age of five. I am not, nor will I ever be, a medical professional. But I am a teacher, and I can tell you that all of those studies are true. And if you are lucky enough, like me, to visit the same students once a week for 3 months or 6 weeks or even 3 months a year for multiple years, you will see that growth.

You will see the student who doesn't make eye contact with you for 4 weeks because they are shy or still learning to speak a different language than you speak suddenly pass you the silly ridiculous ball of energy with a confident and resounding whoosh when it's their turn.

You will see the student who is autistic and still figuring out how to interact with other people, especially people their own age, grow like a flower when you count to 10 because they watched you model it and practice it week after week. Your steady presence in that room once a week has taught them that they can use their actor tool (their body) to better understand what they have been learning in school.

You might even have a student who doesn't interact at all with his class smile at you bigger than he has at anyone all here and show you a giant stretched out face when you tell him to show you a “googly-plex” face. Because he is a math wizard and “googly-plex” is a just silly enough version of his favorite word that you found a way to connect with him through theatre. And he will happily move his face from zero to “googly-plex” with you from that week out - interacting with you and his peers in a way he hasn’t done all year.

The real confession is that whooshing an imaginary ball of energy and saying words like “googly-plex” instead of “googleplex” and pretending to be a seed deep in the ground IS play. And I get to do it all the time because my job is awesome. ETC does awesome things. And we often focus on the incredible things that theater education can do for adults and teens and shy Middle School students and secret musical geniuses. I know how life-changing our work can be for all ages, and it really is cool writing musicals and teaching 80-year-olds that they can be actors even now. But…

You can also find me giggling with the 4-year-olds and delighting in new ways to connect with them as their minds find new ways to connect with the world. We’ll be playing. And, it’ll be AWESOME.

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Did you know - a lot of our Pre-K programming is in Title 1 schools? Students in Virginia who qualify for public Pre-K have financial or developmental needs, and your donations can help bring ETC directly to them! Community members like you, who are passionate about helping students grow, can give directly for preschool programming whenever you donate! Monthly donations can promise that students get consistent and regular ETC programming throughout the school year.. Will you give to help students continue to grow through play?