Author: wpadmin

Once you’ve been bitten by the performing arts bug, there’s not much quite like it. The strings on a violin make a melody, the stories, and jokes that you crafted culminate with an eruption of laughter and applause, and the individual steps of each person in a dance group creates a singular, rhythmic wave of inspired imagination. An ensemble becomes a family. It’s art in motion.

If you have developed a passion for the arts, it is probably difficult to describe the magic you experience while on stage, and it keeps you going back to it time after time. The joy of show day will surely make powerful, lifetime memories, but the effects on your mental, physical, social, and emotional development will stay with you for years to come, both on and off the stage.

If you are still on the fence about whether performing arts are right for you, then these undeniable benefits will place you firmly on the side of stagecraft. Shall we list a few?

SELF-EXPRESSION

Through the performing arts, one can examine and channel their emotions through narrative, music, and movement. Some people find certain feelings more difficult to express and participating in performing arts programs provides the opportunity to express a range of emotions in a healthy, controlled environment. Learning to express themselves through art will make it easy for them to creatively express themselves in other situations, in school, in social gatherings, or future job interviews. Performing arts engage people’s imaginations and lead them to develop their own, distinct voices.

CONFIDENCE

A performing arts education provides the opportunity to practice stepping outside of your comfort zone in a safe setting. Even after weeks of rehearsal, it takes courage to go out on a limb and accept whatever response comes from being vulnerable on stage. The confidence that grows when you perform will translate to every corner of your life, from educational accomplishments to social ease.

COLLABORATION

Unlike sports or games, a theater performance has no winners or losers. The only ‘wins’ are when everyone works together to create the best show possible. Performing arts in the curriculum pushes you to think not only about your contributions to the show individually, but how your performance can enhance the show as a group. Students learn how to lead and how to follow, and that combining each person’s insights creates mutual success that is powerful.

EMPATHY

Embodying another person’s story through acting, voice, dance, and music allows one to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Especially when portraying a character different from themselves, you learn to understand the differences and embrace similarities, thereby forming bonds with people from all walks of life.

Many of us enjoy performing simply for the fun of spending time with our friends and participating in creative play. But the arts have an impact that lasts much longer than the show. Performing Arts give us a chance to develop priceless life skills, helping us scale new heights in life. And all it takes is a bit of song and dance.

As they think about their future, high school students can face a wide range of education and career choices. How do they choose? Who helps young people make their educational and ca-reer choices? To what extent do schools help students with these decisions? Do counselors play a role? If they do, how much do they manage to steer? Given the importance of education and career decisions for life success, these are not idle questions.

High school students are influenced by factors from within and outside during their school years. The six critical external factors that influence a student’s decision-making include –

1. Peers’ fake wisdom: Seemingly strong opinions and discussions of peers about specific streams being more rewarding than others-“STEM pays.”
2. Parental lost treasure: Tendency to turn their ambitions into the youngster’s life lesson–“You need to make money to survive.”
3. College rankings: High-ranking colleges make the rest look irrelevant or less remarkable.
4. Colleges define courses and majors: A case of the tail wagging the dog. There are as many or more happy people from good colleges as elite ones – “I’d rather do General Studies if I can go to a top-rated college”.
5. High scores reflect interest: High scores in subjects do not necessarily reflect an interest in the subject– “You’re doing well in Chemistry. I am sure you like it.”
6. Celebrity culture: Influenced by their icons from the school, colleges are preferred by stu-dents-“I like their sports program, so I’d pick any major in this school.”

It’s essential to be mindful of being influenced. Better to make a personal decision than be in collective confusion.

High school is fun and challenging. At the same time, it comes along with making multiple decisions every single day, regardless of what else might be going on in your life. Waiting for that moment of ‘perfect mental clarity’ is not usually practical. How about a simple mind map that may make today a little less hard for you?

Answer these simple questions. You can make it easy for yourself by forming a buddy system with a friend.

What is your purpose today?

What do you have at hand?

How do you put it all together?

Here are the five things you may choose to bear in mind while adopting the mind map technique:

• Make sure you are sufficiently informed and disregard all conflicts of interest;
• Give value to information and document it;
• Take account of all relevant factors and ignore any irrelevant ones – set priorities;
• Think through actions that are within your power and try to act upon them;
• Always make decisions that are within your range.

Wondering if you will still fail? It is an informed decision now that you have done your best with what you know and what you have acquired. No one is free from making errors, so just make sure you revisit and update your knowledge from time to time, so that you can tune your actions and decisions accordingly.