By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO — Terry Miller is a teacher at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in the Paradise Hills neighborhood of San Diego. I first met Terry when she was the drama teacher at Pershing Middle School and I was a grad student at SDSU. She allowed me to workshop an artistic residency in creative drama with one of her classes.
We’ve kept in touch and I’ve gotten to know Terry through her famously theatrical Passover seders which include Pesadich adaptations of Broadway show tunes. (There’s no seder like our seder…) We spoke briefly after the opening of her middle schoolers’ production of Schoolhouse Rock Live.
EGT: I remember your being the drama teacher at Pershing Middle School. How long were you there?
TM: I was at Pershing for seventeen years.
EGT: These are kids and they’ve got big dreams. They all think that they’re going to be the next Bruno Mars or Beyoncé and play the Superbowl one day. The fact of the matter is that for 99.9% of them, that’s not going to happen. So what do you think they get out of this? Not to dash their dreams, but that’s just reality.
TM: I think they get a lot out of this. They get collaboration. They get coöperation. They get focus and discipline. They understand that people are depending on them and they have to empower themselves and be responsible because nobody else is going to do their part.
EGT: So what happened at Pershing? Why aren’t you there anymore?
TM: I loved Pershing. I had a full theater program and Pershing with a wonderfully supportive principal. But that principal went on to other things and a new principal came who did not value that. Although she claimed that she was interested in the arts, she did not want to expend the energy or the money to keep it going. One of the first things she did was eradicate the drama program.
EGT: Now you’re totally preaching to the choir here, but what would you say to a skeptic, someone who wants to focus on the three R’s? These kids are in school to learn reading, writing and arithmetic.
TM: Well, the first thing I would say is, “Come see Schoolhouse Rock because I can’t think of a better integration of arts and academics. Secondly, I can’t think of a better way to crystalize reading and subtext, expression and vocabulary than reading a script and presenting it so that it’s understandable to an audience.”
EGT: I told you before that the We the People song got me through high school civics. We had to write down the four principles laid out in the preamble. So, before the test, we sang that song together. As I was writing my answer, I had it in my head and I noticed some feet lightly tapping.
TM: That’s wonderful. That’s another argument for this kind of activity.
EGT: I’m sure you’ve had former students come back to say hello. So what have they said? What have they gone on to?
TM: Well, some of them have gone on to professional lives. I had the pleasure of seeing one of my former students in West Side Story in Coronado as one of the Sharks. Others have gone on to professions where they’ve taken on leadership roles.
I had one student who came back to me as a senior in high school who apologized for the way he acted in eighth grade. He understood now what I was trying to do because he was the leader of his ROTC unit. He was able to call out the commands, be assertive and command the respect of the others. He said that was a direct result of his experience in my drama class.
EGT: That is excellent. Now I know you’ve had some difficult students in the past. You brought my wife in to work with some particularly difficult students. Have you seen any other transformations?
TM: Yes, I think that when they participate in drama they learn that what they learn here can be applied to any classroom and to any life situation. And I think they start to get a more positive feeling about life in general, about waking up in the morning and coming to school and having a purpose.
EGT: I’m sure you have a million stories, but any in particular where you really saw someone grow, someone who didn’t even know what they were doing in drama. I remember a guidance counselor who said, “I need the Terry Miller magic.”
TM: At Pershing, I had very large casts. I cast everyone who wanted to be in it. I found a part for every child.
EGT: I remember the Darlings having six children in Peter Pan.
TM: And the von Trapps had twenty … and Tevye had eleven daughters. It was fun. I would probably get arrested by the licensing people for changing the script, but it did give the students an opportunity to have a good self image about themselves.
I’ve had kids with cerebral palsy and special education kids and Down syndrome kids learn dance steps and lyrics to songs. Kids with Asperger’s became leaders in the show. Although they couldn’t look you in the eye in regular life, they could learn a part and memorize not only their lines, but everyone else’s lines as well.
I had one student -who has Asperger’s- who’s in college now and wants to be a doctor. As a result of his experience, he’s able to focus more. Also, it was therapeutic because Asperger’s is a very isolating kind of existence. But he was able to break out of that and even has a girlfriend now. I’m very proud of that.
I had another student who had cerebral palsy. And when he went to San Diego State, he did a double major in religion and theatre, which he never would have done had he not participated in my program. Those who know theatre history know that theatre had its origins in religion. He plans on taking that and using it for whatever podium he preaches from and to use theatre as a way of teaching.
And there are others who just improve their self-image.
EGT: Any parting thoughts?
TM: I would say to make sure that a child participates in some art form. One thing that I was very proud of in Schoolhouse Rock –and I don’t know if you noticed this- all of the slides, except for a few vintage ones, were done by students in art classes. And the choreography, much of it was done by high school students who were mentoring these middle school students. Besides the music teacher, the band was made up of tenth graders. So I’m very proud of that piece of the show.
I would encourage every parent to make sure that their child has an arts experience because they learn more from that than they will ever learn from a straight academic classroom.
After our interview, as Terry was walking me across campus, a student approached Terry to tell her how was amazing and inspiring she was and offered her help in any future endeavors. What more could any teacher ask for?
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Tauber is a freelance writer who focuses on the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)