MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCE
CLASS
When I was in seventh grade, I took a dance class for my PE
credit. Over the semester we divided up
into groups and created dances, then shared them with our class. At the end of
the semester all the students got to perform a show for the whole student body. All the students except me and another girl
who had a broken arm-we got to sit in
the Locker room by ourselves.
For years I thought I had no talent for dancing. Fast
forward to college and my theatre degree.
I needed to take tap dancing and ballet. I was incredibly nervous about taking the
classes and held out until my junior year.
Much to my surprise, when I took tap, the teacher taught us step by
step. He taught us to say out loud what
our feet were doing, “Shuffle-hop-step-fa-lap.” I suddenly realized that I
could dance, no one had ever taught me the steps. Ballet was wonderful, it was exercising to
live classical piano music.
As I began teaching drama, some twenty-five years ago, I
thought about how my middle school teacher could have included the two students
who weren’t in the program—one of us could have worked the record player, the
other could have manned the lights. This
whole experience could have hardened me to treating my students the same way I
was treated, but instead, it made me conscious of how people really do need to
feel included. I allowed all my students
the chance to be involved in a performance, acting, making the program, lights,
sound—if the desire was there, I included them.
"I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." --Mother Teresa
Have you ever felt excluded from something? It wasn't a very loving feeling, was it? Did you pass that same feeling on to others, or did you learn from that incident and affirm that you would always treat people in a kind and loving way.
Love and light,
Sandy Smith
Comments