The Teacher-Student Relationship in Drama

The struggles I've had over the past few weeks have really made me think about my relationships with my students. In the middle of all the drama, my assistant principal told me to start writing detentions and "stop being so nice." While he has point, it feels more complicated then that. This isn't fully thought out, so bear with me.

I student-taught both history and drama. I found that the relationships I formed in history classes were incredibly different from the ones I formed in drama. In history, students were individual entities. I was asking them to do intellectual work. When they misbehaved or didn't work I could deal with it on an individual basis without it causes too many problems. It didn't matter if they were pissed off at me and decided not to work. A difficult relationship with one student generally did not affect the rest of the class. That is not true in drama.

I ask my drama students to reveal themselves emotionally, to put themselves in the position to be embarrassed, to work with partners and with me on an emotional level. They have to trust that I won't lead them to embarrass themselves and that I will protect them emotionally. They have to trust me on a different level then they have to trust other teachers. They also have to trust each other. This becomes more true as they move into producing plays and need to rely on each other to succeed. If one student disengages, it affects everyone else and all the work they have done. They are more emotionally invested in their relationships with their classmates then they are in other classes. Often they have worked together for years and have a history with each other. I teach the same kids for multiple years and expect to see my students again. That is not as true in traditional subjects. When one student gets angry at me, it can't just be a matter of giving a detention or throwing them out of class. A good relationship is vital to the work we do as theatre practitioners. If that is gone, we will not be able to produce good art. So I can't just punish the behavior. I have to find the root of the problem and try to fix it. I have to be emotionally invested enough for them to trust and work with.

I saw this last year. I took over for another drama teacher that had been well-liked. Many of her students decided from the outset that they were not going to like me because I wasn't her. It was wretched and affected the feel of the entire class. They rallied others to sign petitions to get me fired, talked and goofed off during every class and refused to do any work. It became impossible to get anything done. Punishing them did nothing; they just got more angry and caused more problems. The students that I was able to form a relationship with, who decided to try to work with me were able to move forward and put on shows. But there were several students I ended up removing from the class because nothing I did worked. They continued to insult me, interrupt rehearsal, refuse to do assignments, throw fits when given detention and complain about me to the admin. Without that relationship, we could not do anything.

I don't know if this makes sense. I am not saying that students don't need to trust teachers in other classes. I guess I'm saying that there is more emotional investment in drama classes and it is easier for students to feel betrayed. And that betrayal affects the whole class. And it can affect the class for years afterward. The emotional nature of drama changes how I have to interact with my students. Throwing punishments will not solve problems because the problem is not the behavior, it is the reasons behind the behavior. In history the reasons behind the behavior were things like boredom, stress or confusion. In drama it is betrayal. That emotion is harder to fix then boredom and has bigger consequences in my mind.

Anyway, it's a hard balance. It's hard to be someone your kids trust while maintaining order and a safe space. It's just hard.