N.C. ESSAY - PAGE 3
Inlook.
by Kathleen Fitzgerald
APPROXIMATE ENROLLMENT FIGURES
DEPARTMENT
1st SEMESTER
2nd SEMESTER
MUSIC
210
208
DANCE
142
143
DRAMA
102
80
DESIGN
&
PRODUCTION
46
45
VISUAL ARTS
25
25
WRITING
9
7
TOTAL
534
508 •
Note:*This total includes 21 studentsadmitted'second semester.
While these figxires are approximate, they do indicate that this year,
as in previous years, there is a drop in the enrollment between
semesters. A number of students leave because they have come to the
realization that they cannot realistically embrace a career in the arts
for the rest of their lives but a significant number find that this school
is simply not conducive for the development of their particular talents.
What goes wrong? What is it in the school’s environment that can so
sour a student’s outlook that he is compelled to leave?
It could be the frustration and discouragement that result from the
discovery that school is not what he expected, or was led to believe, it
would be. There are various reasons for this frustration.
The school should be out of the makeshift, embryonic stage, but it
isn’t and the catalogues and brochures exaggerate the courses and
facilities which will be available. The recent (tension in the Drama
Department and dissatisfaction with the academic ciuriculum’s
content and quality are evidence of this. For the most part, students
become dissatisfied with their individual departments, with the lack of
opportunities to perform, with what they consider inadequate training
or with a lack of response from their teacher or teachers.
Many students are not prepared for the pressures of the school-
newcomers feel this pressure acutely. They are expected to know how
to organize a forty hour week when they get here. Perhaps if there
were some sort of organization orientation the pressures would be
decreased to a tolerable level.
Younger students are not prepared for the depth of commitment
which is required of them. Our society does not require these com
mitments until they are into their twenties. They are away from their
homes and parents and under the pressure of professional training and
competition without a great deal of guidance or support.
While the Visual Arts Department is something of a breakthrough in
the creative arts there is an overall lack of possibilities for creativity
at the school - for exploring choreographic potential, modem forms of
music or playwriting.
Add to all these the loneliness, boredom, noise, insanity and
haphazard conditions of dormitory life and you will have a pretty
complete picture of the factors which cause a student to decide to go
further than griping - to look elsewhere for training or to leave tiie
arts altogether.
David Wright gave the story
which appears below to the Essay
before he left school. As the
Essay looks inward and con
tinues the process of evolving an
editorial policy, this story seems
to express the problems of ex
pectation, reality and frustration
that everyone faces to some
degree. It is presented as an
allegorical commentary.
Tommy Williams was in the
Essay office to rap about
problems the other day. Under
his leadership, the SCA has begun
to deal with problems of ex
pectation, reality and frustration.
He commented that students and
faculty alike talk about “this
school” as though the buildings
were to blame. It is easy to in-
stutionalize the frustrations, to
search for an organic reason for
everything that goes wrong.
“This school is people,”
Tommy said, “and what we take
away is related to what we bring
to the school when we come.”
The expectations come in
subtle ways: from the catalog,
from a music teacher in high
school who tells us we are great;
from all the friends and relatives
who have insisted that we are
better “than a lot of those people
I see on TV”; from all those teen
age novels we read about schools,
colleges, theater; from our own
dayckeams and from what we
have been told about the school.
The reality and the frustrations
are present^ and explored every
week in the Essay, in the lounges,
around the cafeteria tables, in the
faculty meetings, in the letters
we write home, in administrative
meetings.
Each of us - student, faculty,
administrator - has develop^
our own picture of the ideal
school, and each of us is left to
deal with the reality. We must
seek to find that line between the
ideal and the real which takes us
a step beyond where we find
ourselves.
So it comes back again to the
people....that is not only where
it’s at....but where It’s always
been.
ISN’T IT NlCg-THAT HAROLD’5 G^TTHSTG-
IN SUCH A SCHOOLF
RAP From Israel
Continued From Page 2
20 years should get - by our standards. The children lived in the
children’s house. We saw children before we knew that, and
remember being struck by the freedom of the children and the parents
and by the respect and love I saw from everyone for everyone. The
child goes to the Children’s House at about six weeks, and then his
mother goes there to take care of him. When he’s a little older the
mother is free to work and the husband and wife live without worrying
about their child. The kids come home on a holiday or when they ask to
and sleep in their parent’s house. When they are over 18, they have
quarters of their own. It seems to make for more secure people all
around.
- Warm Reception Everywhere -
Whenever we sang we were received curiously and warmly. We
were invited to eat in the homes of the members of the Kfar Witkin, a
cooperative farm community near Jerusalem. We got off the bus and
were claimed by whoever wanted us. I was claimed by Yachael
Snadar, back in Israel after at least 10 years in America, with 5 of
them spent at UCLA. I enjoyed Noa and Nochon Snadar, his sister-in-
law and brother, and their children and him and they enjoyed me. Not,
I might add, because I was black, for my hair or my skin, but for me. I
had a ball!
This is Doctor Loomsman. He
is a nice man. He says I have
mental problems. He says my
stomach is dumping out acid
because my head is screwed up.
Maybe the acid is causing me to
have bad trips. N0...I don’t think
it’s that kind of acid. Why does
my stomach care if my head has
problems? Because they all work
together and my head was too
screwed up to tell me it was
screwed up so my stomach had to
do it. Thank Heavens my
stomach had sense enough to teU
me about my head problems. But
who told me about my stomach
problems? I guess my head did.
Now we have just discovered
what is known as a vicious circle.
Why don’t we just drop Oie whole
thing right here. Okay? Okay.
This is this school. Now does
this look like the kind of place
that would screw up a kid’s head.
Of course it doesn’t. Then how did
it manage to screw up my head?
My motoer thinks it’s because
they don’t have a barber shop. I
don’t think so. This school was
supposed to make me into an
actor. Why have I spent a
semester here and never acted.
Do you teach a man to lay bricks
by not letting him lay bricks? Oh,
don’t be silly David. Laying
bricks and acting are two entirely
different things. (There I go
talking to myself. That’s part of
my mental problem, I guess.)
This school does not think I know
how to act yet. My teacher told
them so.
This
you?
is his boot. Would it fit
This school and this acting
teacher have made me very
discontent. They made me miss
my girlfriend even more because
they are not nice like she is. This
is my girlfriend. Her name is
Kay. She is very nice. I love her.
She doesn’t think my mental
problems are caused by long
hair. I want to leave this school to
be closer to her and because it
hasn’t taught me how to act. It
hasn’t even taught me how to lay
bricks.
a a
a D
Well, now, this is my draft
board advisor. He is advising me
to stay in school or I wiU be
drafted...into the Army even.
This is the Army.
This is my head. Does it look like
it has problems? My mother
thinks it’s because there is too
much hair . But you and I know
that there is no real medical logic
to that, don’t we. Don’t we? Of
course we do. Now what kind of
problems exist in this hairy
head? Well, first, let’s examine
the evidence. (I threw that in for
a laugh, so how about one?) It all
started when I first came to this
school.
I
This is my teacher. His name is
Doctor Jaguar. He is not the
same kind of doctor as Dr.
Loomsman. Doctor Jaguar is an
acting doctor. He was supposed
to doctor my acting. At least he
gave my stomach a chance to act
(up). He taught me Karate. Now
I am a better actor. If I everdo a
James Bond flick I’ll be all set.
9^ 9^ A ^
°V"
Now do you see why I have
mental problems?
Napoleon (David) Wright