No drama? We could do with some in our schools

No drama? We could do with some in our schools

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/no-drama-we-could-with-some-in-our-schools

2025-01-11

By---Kelvin Seah Lee Nguon is an adjunct lecturer in communications and runs workshops in dramatising personal narratives. He is also a stay-home dad to two teens and an avid writer/blogger.

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In 2024, I met up with an ex-colleague and good friend who retired as a senior lecturer at a local tertiary institution. She had been teaching there for the past 30 years.

Chatting over a cup of coffee, we talked about her retirement and what she recalled from her final months of teaching. Of the many anecdotes she shared, one stuck with me.

After lobbing several questions one day at her class of students majoring in communications, and receiving yet again another round of stony silence, my friend finally asked them in exasperation:

“Did you not hear me? Do you know the answer? Are you not confident enough to speak up? Or are you just not motivated enough to bother?”

The students remained dead quiet.

I understood and felt my friend’s frustration. 

Seen but not heard

As an educator myself for over two decades, I have seen the trends of increasing student reticence in classrooms and wondered why. Despite Singapore chalking up many global academic accolades every year, I have found that in one area, our local students still continue to fall short.

That area is speaking up.

No doubt, there could be many causes, including those alluded to by my friend’s questions to her students. Poor or distracted listening. Lack of knowledge. Absence of intrinsic motivation. 

However, I think the root causes for our students’ chronic reluctance to speak up are the fear of public failure and being raised in a risk-averse environment.

If the classrooms my friend and I have been in over the years are anything to go by, then speaking up – a highly valued trait in any job or setting in the world – is sadly and increasingly, rare among our young in Singapore.

I believe the answer to reversing this troubling trend lies in making drama a compulsory curriculum in Singapore for students aged six to 16.

Let me explain.

Let’s have some drama

I say this because drama develops self-confidence and risk-taking.

At its core, drama is a multimodal form of pedagogy that engages learners at different points of entry, from novices to those with theatre training. It integrates visual, auditory, verbal, and kinaesthetic elements that enhance students’ ability to deeply internalise a learning encounter. 

Using body language, facial expressions, sounds, and props, drama encourages on-the-spot improvisation and also offers a gamut of opportunities to engage in every moment meaningfully. It helps students glean knowledge not solely from verbal cues, as is the case with most didactic lessons in schools, but also pick up clues from the stage or setting, and the people around them.

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Over time, drama helps nurture and unlock reservoirs of latent capabilities in students. It equips them with skills to develop into assured young men and women.

Specifically, it helps make them less afraid to fail and more willing to take the plunge when confronted with any challenge, big or small. These challenges can range from volunteering answers in class without fear of saying something wrong, to initiating and creating new projects or ventures, and challenging status quos to innovate and break new grounds. 

Drama training essentially acts as a rehearsal for life, equipping young Singaporeans with the poise and assurance they need to excel. By learning through trial and error (a hallmark of drama training) and seeing failure as an integral part of the creative process, students develop fearlessness and creativity, qualities that are crucial for innovation and progress.

The ability to empathise, collaborate and communicate effectively also forms the bedrock of strong relationships and successful careers.

Employers have always prioritised these skills, and will continue to do so. This is clearly shown year after year when skills like “communication” and “emotional intelligence” consistently rank high among the list of sought-after competencies in the job market.

It is my firm belief that a training in drama can turn a timid child into a fearless leader, and get a reticent teenager to uncover the power of his/her own voice.

And I am not alone.

Empowering students

In a research study conducted by the National Institute of Education in 2012 on the role of drama in the teaching of social and emotional learning in the Singapore classroom, it was found that drama can effectively engage students.

They come away exhibiting enhanced confidence, empathy and self-awareness.

Some schools like Raffles Institution and CHIJ St Nicholas incorporate drama into their extracurricular offerings, with students reporting increased confidence in public speaking and self-expression. These attributes have been linked to their success in national debates, presentations, and leadership roles both in school and beyond. 

The Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) runs a Speech and Drama Arts (SDA) programme to transform students into confident communicators, as well as empower them to be inquisitive and compassionate individuals.

The programme helps build language, social-emotional and critical thinking skills. It strives to improve a child’s motivation, self-awareness, self-regulation and empathy.

Students have to think and explore various outcomes, experiences and perspectives, which greatly raise their sense of who they are and how they can better relate with others.

Where I teach, freshmen undertake a module that requires them to draw from individual life experiences to weave personal stories. They then deliver these narratives through monologues, debates and collaborative group performances, all the while harnessing the power of persuasion through drama. 

In the course of facilitating the module, I have watched transfixed each time how drama “opens locks” and shows sides of my students’ inherent boldness and ability to communicate that neither they nor I knew had been in them all along! 

Needless to say, both my students and I come away from such moments empowered and affirmed. 

If such drama programmes were mandated for all levels of mainstream education from ages six to 16, I have no doubt we will see an explosion of confidence and deeper engagement in primary and secondary classrooms, and well into tertiary institutions and beyond too. 

Teachers and employers will see more motivated and interactive individuals who dare to speak up, because these individuals have both the self-confidence and the wherewithal to navigate social and emotional settings with greater aplomb than what I now see in my classrooms.

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The world’s our stage

In Parliament in 2024, Nominated MP Usha Chandradas asked if the Ministry of Education would consider introducing drama or theatre studies into core primary school arts education from Primary 1 to 6. 

I believe it’s an important question, but I would go further to say that the “ask” here needs to be even more ambitious (Primary 1 to Secondary 4), and be driven by a greater impetus and persistence for a better outcome. 

Why? 

To match the crisis at hand that tertiary educators like me are facing today, and which employers and the workforce will face tomorrow (if not already)!

For the silence in every classroom now is deafening, save for the voice of teachers like my friend and I, pleading for a response from our tongue-tied audience. A response that, unfortunately in most instances these days, is either the clacking of keyboards, the tapping of mobile devices, or simply faces that are averted or cast down all around the room.

As Singapore celebrates its 60th year of independence in 2025, my birthday wish for our nation, and my hope for the next 60 years of her still-young history, is to see our young people grow in traits like self-confidence, independence, interpersonal relationships, and risk-taking.

To see them demonstrate competence and gumption to speak up and articulate themselves clearly and persuasively under any circumstances, and in any part of this complex world we live in. 

After all, what’s that famous quote in the theatre world? All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players?

If the world is truly a stage, then it’s high time we taught our students to play on that stage. And not just merely play, but play long and play well. 

For the stakes, should they continue not to speak up, have never been higher.

Kelvin Seah Lee Nguon is an adjunct lecturer in communications and runs workshops in dramatising personal narratives. He is also a stay-home dad to two teens and an avid writer/blogger.