Cultural Settings

When going to teach at a school it's really important to learn about the society of the area and the community that lives there. By this I mean learning what social and ethnic groups are prevalent, because those are the types of kids that will be in your class. If the teacher doesn't know the students, doesn't know anything about who they are, what they go through, their history, then the students will shut off because they feel like you don't care about them. Why would they care about you and what you're teaching them? If you take the time to learn about their heritage and where they're coming from, you can reach them in deeper ways and make the learning process more important to them. They will learn more and they will enjoy the experience more. Specifically learning about the student's culture is extremely important. Not only will you have a better idea in how to approach them on the subject so they have something in common with it, but you can also know how to adjust the type of performances being done so it is more beneficial to the students participating and to the people of the community coming to watch. For example if you have students that are mostly Hispanic, and perhaps you know there is a gang problem, shows like West Side Story could be beneficial because they can find something in common with the characters. An inner city class might have trouble relating to a play about a country boy and vice verse. These things should still be explored so the student's horizons are being opened, but perhaps that is an action for the future after you've created a connection with the students and the community.