TAMARA GURHS | Education in the creative arts helps develop skills critical to employment

Arts training and education in creative and theatre pursuits is often seen as a nice-to-have school offering.

At other times, it’s seen as a fun field relevant only to creative, “artsy” individuals who might later find a careeras a performer or a fine artist. This is far from the truth.

Education in the creative arts educates the whole person. It helps to develop the 21st century skills critical to future employment –creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking.

It encourages, entertains and educates children to be leaders, and assets to their communities. Theatre arts does what traditional academic disciplines cannot. It builds empathy and understanding, communication skills, as well as problem-solving and conflict-resolution abilities. Sadly, this is a skill not often taught in mainstream education.

Writer and education theorist Sir Ken Robinson was extremely outspoken about how the schooling system knocks creativity out of children.

“We need to educate our children for unpredictability,” he famously said. “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

As someone who has spent their career combining theatre and education, I am convinced that theatre arts skills – empathy, creativity and the ability to look at lifef rom a different angle – are precisely the skills we need for our children, communities and nation.

Around 2016, I created a play called Space Rocks, with several other playwrights. We later took it to the US, to a festival of writing for children. I came to understand the value of writing for children as a form of activism.In writing for children, you reach their parents.

Let’s face it, children are inheriting a messy world. Theatre arts can provide a platform for children to raise their voices on the state of that world –through plays, new writing and new ideas. Unfortunately – especiallyin SA – schools are severely under-resourced to meet these needs.

Data shows the arts can have a profound effect on schooling. For example, the ASSITEJ Kickstarter programme, funded by RMB a few years ago, conducted research into the benefits of arts training at schools. The study found a marked improvement in attendance on the days when pupils had drama and music classes. Their emotional needs were being met by those subjects.T

here is a lot to be said for adding more creative arts courses to the mainstream school curriculum. While we work to achieve that, independent programmes can add immense value. For example, a compact Saturday workshop programme at the National Children’s Theatre (NCT) in Parktown, Johannesburg, teaches music, dance drama and physical theatre.

Drama is great for helping children build confidence, and is a space where introverted or neurodiverse kids can process the world creatively. Independent arts and theatre initiatives add a vital extra dimension to education, but we face funding challenges of our own.

As arts institutions, we must also learn to advocate for ourselves and our industry, to articulate the value we bring. For governments to really see that value, perhaps we need to emphasise benefits such as leadership development, or problem-solvi ng. Artists are about turning ideas into art, practically, using scarce resources. Those skills are exactly what you need when trying to build a better society. It’s about applied creativity. For us to develop that, we must start with our children.

■ Gurhs is CEO of the National Children’s Theatre