Theater to My Major/Minor!

As a psychology major I like to take courses that go hand-in- hand with psychology. Sociology is something that has always interested me because it fascinating learning about the human psyche and how it functions but it’s also interesting to learn how the cultures that influence how the human psych functions. I believe that theater play an enormous role in the lives of children/adults and should continue to do so at any cost necessary. One day I would like to go into the field of Developmental/Child psychology and I think that children need this extra curriculum activity in their early development to help them explore the world around them and to also help they expand their cognitive abilities. Theater is a great way to expose children to the world; its way for them to have fun while learning at the same time without them knowing it. One thing about children is that when they are being forced to learn, they tend to take less of an interest in whatever is being taught. But with theater the children will be learning about the productions in movies, music, and plays while at the same time the children can actively play a part in what they are learning about. Like the saying one becomes what they do, when we expose children to theater at an early age it will help stop discrimination and ethnic/racial inequality in the world. For example, countries like Africa, China, Japan, India, and some others have significantly played a role in the development and growth of theater. By teaching the children that other cultures other than their own have impacted the world will help them accept other people of other cultures with arms wide open. As a child in school I was always afraid to talk in front of my peers. I feel that I got over that fear mostly by being forced to work in small groups and interacting with my peers. By introducing theater to children while they are still in their developmental stage, they will be more self orientated and outgoing later on in life. This is due to the fact that in theater it requires one to act out scenes and put themselves in the shoes of the characters they are playing. This will be great for a child who is very shy and afraid to interact with others; if theater wasn’t available for a shy child, that child could later on in the future be anti-social or be afraid of interacting with others because they never got a chance to build up their self confidence. In the future, I plan to use theater in my work place as much as possible to give the children a way to express themselves to me by using actions and words together. Some children who have been neglected or abused find it hard to be them selves in society without feeling like an outcast; I will incorporate theatre into therapeutic sessions in the form of role playing and other activities. For example, as a child many children like to pretend play or reenact what they see around them; by doing this I will be able to help the children conquer their obstacles with ease while showing them a good time. I want my patients to feel comfortable enough to perform in front of one another and know that they can all help each other in triumphing over their shortcomings/ barriers. There is also the history part of theater that we are learning about during this class. This is also important for children to learn about even though they may not be able to understand a lot of it until later on in life, they can still learn some of the general vocabulary words and things like that. It is important to try to get children interested in something at an early age because when you are young you tend to have more synapse connections in thebrain that you would as an adolescence. In conclusion, I think theater is a very powerful/useful tool in the teachings of children about the world.