How Extracurriculars Shaped My Life

For many children who grow up in impoverished or at-risk communities, school offers few spaces for healing the pain of racism and sexism. Many students, myself included, spent years of our lives in varying levels of pain inside the education system, but received little assistance in recovering from issues that affected us inside and outside our schools. In this context, extracurricular and after school programs are extremely important spaces for students to heal. I want to tell you my … [Read more...]

11 Life Lessons of Theater

If “All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players,” then there’s no better place to prepare for life than in the theater. I made this list of 11 theater lessons as a reminder of how much performance art can help the development of our young people. This post, like my 31 Life Lessons of Sports post, is designed to help booster club leaders articulate the value of extracurriculars. Sometimes we forget why we toil to support programs. Even when we do, it’s hard to articulate … [Read more...]