I often joke that I believe the skills learned from introducing students to improvisational theatre and the improvisational mindset are like the elixirs that were sold from wagons that rolled down the street of old west towns. It (these skills) can fix/heal everything.
I hyperbolize slightly, but I do believe that introducing a student to improv as early as possible in their education fills in many of the gaps of the traditional, reading, writing and arithmetic education by making them more proficient in what used to be called the “soft skills” and more recently, social emotional education.
Debates between educators, governmental officials, communities and parents have been hot and heavy recently as to what students should or should not be taught in schools.
I have no doubt that the debate will continue for the foreseeable future with each party believing that they know best and have the best interests of the student at heart.
(Below) is a post from kiss951.com discussing what parents think their kids should learn early in life.
What Parents Think Kids Should Learn Early in Life
What do parents think kids should learn early in life? Parents count on schools to teach their kids to read, write and do math. But it seems some parents want their kids to be learning more than traditional academics. According to a new survey, eight in 10 parents think educators should also spend time teaching kids’ things outside of academics. Things like soft skills and current events.
The Poll according to SWNS Digital of 2-thousand parents of children under age six finds:
- 62% prioritize their kids learning soft skills before they turn eight, compared to 37% who put math first.
- The top non-academic skill parents want schools to focus on in early childhood is financial literacy. (61%), Followed by sewing or knitting (46%) and Internet safety (45%).
- The most important character traits parents think kids should learn early in life are honesty and respect.
- Social issues should be part of the early childhood curriculum, according to nine in 10 parents, while 66% say kids should be taught about different forms of discrimination in society, and 61% think healthcare topics like affordability and access to treatments should be included.
- The top three teachable moments parents in the poll think are most important to include in a child’s early education are listening to professionals (like scientists and software engineers) talk about their field (51%), discussing the news (48%) and reading a book together (44%).
- Nearly nine in 10 (87%) of respondents feel their children’s school curriculum is sufficient, and 95% devote at least two hours a week to talk to their kids about what they learned in school.
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We at Planet Improv will never debate that all the bedrocks of a quality education should remain in the curriculum of schools for our students.
We also respectfully suggest that organizations like ours continue to partner with educational organizations to help fill in the gaps of soft skills (the list is far too numerous to mention here) and social emotional education that educators just don’t have to the time to introduce and reinforce at length.
It is our honor and pleasure to provide these adjacent skills to the students of our communities.