Peer to Peer as Theatre: Part 3

The Peer to Peer program is part of a larger group of programs we call Creating Communities We Want.

The act of preparing Peer Leaders to step away from their own studies and work with the younger members of their school community in a theatre process does more than just address the vulnerability of the transition to high school.

It addresses the need of the Peer Leaders to grow socially and emotionally by participating in their school community as more than just ‘consumers’ of academics and skills.

As such it addresses the need for all of us to create the communities and world we want instead of experiencing both as something that just happens around us.

It is a shame that we unconsciously create school communities where the unspoken curriculum is that it’s ‘every man for himself ‘– that all life is about is acquiring information and skills and then going out into a world that basically is operating the same indifferent way.

In this unconscious curriculum, we prepare our young for the idea that wealth and personal comfort are all that matter and that ultimately you can only look after yourself and perhaps those closest to you.

But the fact of living – despite our curriculums- is that we are not happier the more we possess but with more contact with others, more creative activities and more meaning arising from both.

We are happier when we feel part of something bigger than us. When we see the results of our efforts in the faces of other people and not in our acquisitions.

Creating the Communities We want is an enterprise for all of us.