The main goal in parenting is to raise your children to be competent adults, correct? Preparing them to live in the real world sounds like a trite simplification of a parent’s purpose in life, but with a quick glance over at the kid glued to his IPad, finger in nose, juice spilled on his jeans—we see how difficult this preparation really is.

The “real world” has no shortage of challenges for your little princess (who right now is crying because she missed her favorite TV show) to face. If “all the world’s a stage”, as the Bard put it, then it seems only actors can be equipped to navigate its intricacies.

No, I’m not saying all your children should become actors. That was a metaphor. We need many other “roles” to be filled on our world stage; we need electricians, doctors, lawyers, cashiers, politicians, nurses, candlestick makers and more! The problem is this; I would wager that success in none of these fields is possible if a child isn’t taught early on to think critically and with an open mind.

Children have so many natural tendencies toward empathy and imagination and these tendencies are slowly weeded out by the traditional education system because they’re not deemed practical. Those of us who become artists then spend years in training trying to rediscover and build up those tendencies from scratch. Aside from empathy and imagination, another important trait is confidence and being assured of oneself. How many children do we know suffering from crippling shyness?

When a child takes a performing arts class and is given the chance to perform on stage, he or she will be acquiring valuable skills that can be transferred to every profession out there. The memory it takes to learn pages and pages of text? Little Amanda is well-prepared for her Bar exam. The vocal exercises on projection and articulation? Shy Bruno will be a fantastic orator and win an election someday. The relaxation techniques and breathing exercises worked on in acting class will ensure that your child will not faint when taking an exam because she forgot to breathe (this does happen).

Ensuring that our children have strong interpersonal skills and are excellent speakers is not as light of a matter as I’m making it out to be. Recently in one of my workshops with children, I noticed something completely disheartening. Not one child in my class of 12 could successfully repeat a tongue-twister. Can you? Can your child?

"A big black bug bit a big black bear made the big black bear bleed blood"

Remember that we should hear “t”, “b”, “r” and “l” sounds clearly.

A combination of our text-and-email obsessed society and the regional accents your children may be picking up without realizing it, have led to very poor speaking skills. We have become too lazy to pronounce every syllable in a word, so we just fuse them all together. Recently I told one of my students that even though she was trying to say “My mother’s home” in a monologue, I was hearing, “Mymudderzome.” This may sound like a harsh assessment, but it’s true. Remember, not one child out of twelve could repeat the tongue twister with perfect accuracy and articulation. How many times have you asked yourself why your child can holler at the top of his lungs when he’s ranting about something at home, but come time to give an oral presentation he’s Mr. Mc Mutters-a-lot?

How does one acquire clients, deliver a defense in a court of law, give an interview on TV, or communicate to a police officer in an emergency without a strong command of language and eloquence?

Aside from voice and speech, what else does a child take away from a performing arts class?

  • Good posture and bodily awareness that doubtless helps with the way one presents themselves to the world
  • Soft communication skills like listening and learning to read body language
  • Teamwork; a sense that the whole ship goes down if one person doesn’t do the work
  • Confidence; claiming their space and their moment
  • Knowledge of canonical works of art (plays)
  • Imagination-building
  • Emotional intelligence and empathy
I know for some parents the idea of enrolling their children in “acting” or “theatre” immediately makes them worry that their child will want to (*shudder*) become an artist professionally. In my experience, this rarely happens. Most children bit by the theatre bug are happy to maintain it as a hobby while they pursue other careers. Others will not put it aside so easily. But hey, I turned out just fine!