NU-TEACH Students Discuss Urban Teaching with No Child Actress  Fifty beginning teachers from SESP’s NU-TEACH alternate certification program had plenty to discuss with actress Nilaja Sun after her performance of No Child at Lookingglass Theatre on November 1. The career changers resonated with the experience Sun portrayed — of being an idealistic novice teacher in a tough urban school. NU-TEACH is an innovative program for highly qualified career changers who train to enter teaching — including former scientists, engineers, lawyers and bankers. Many who attended Sun’s one-woman show are in their first year of teaching in Chicago schools. After the performance, they had a question-and-answer session with Sun, who based the show on her own experiences as a teaching artist in a New York City high school.  In addition to attending the show and post-performance discussion, the NU-TEACH participants also took part in a pre-show workshop about drama in the classroom. Lookingglass Theatre members coached them in theatre games and dramatic techniques they could apply to teaching academic subjects. One of the participants, Dorne Eastwood, described it as “a wonderfully engaging lesson.”NU-TEACH director Sylvia Smith-DeMuth arranged the three-part event for her students and alumni. When she first saw No Child, she was impressed with its authentic emotion spotlighting the highs and lows of teaching. She says, “The play confronts many of the most difficult and challenging issues facing urban school teachers at all grade levels in a dramatically powerful way.”  “We are left to grapple with causes and possible remedies for the problems caused by poverty, social inequality, cultural differences and identification, and low expectations,” she notes. “I expect that teachers of the NU-TEACH program will continue to question the status quo and find ways to provide the best possible education to their students in spite of these pervasive problems.”NU-TEACH students and graduates appreciated the experience. “The theatrical production was a powerful, thought-provoking text about our educational system, our classrooms, our instructional delivery, and most importantly, our students,” says Eastwood, a former financial analyst who now teaches middle school mathematics. “What insights did I take away from the evening? Said simply, everyone has a role to play in the education of our children.”  At the same time as students admired the power of Sun’s solo performance playing 17 characters, some worry that the play will create mistaken impressions of urban education or perpetuate stereotypes. Peter Goff, a NU-TEACH graduate who taught chemistry at Farragut Career Academy in Chicago for four years, says, “My worry is that this performance will propagate an already entrenched popular myth: that the fault of urban education lies with the teachers and if teachers would just care more, work harder and apply relevant curriculum with a dash of common sense, then student success and the realization of self-worth is just around the corner.” Goff believes the play fosters the divisive myth of the heroic “lone wolf” teacher battling an apathetic system in contrast to the more helpful notion of the need for cooperation. “Legitimate improvement of the system will come from teachers (and parents, students, and administrators) working together, making a plethora of small gains over the long haul,” he notes.  The School of Education and Social Policy offer the NU-TEACH alternative certification program in collaboration with Inner-City Teaching Corps and Chicago Public Schools. Students begin with a summer of coursework and internship. Then while taking courses at SESP and working under the guidance of a master teacher, NU-TEACH students are immersed in teaching for a full year at a Chicago public or parochial school. At the end of one year, these teacher candidates receive certification to teach in Chicago. During the one-woman show called No Child, playing at Chicago’s Lookkingglass through November 18, Sun says that only an 18-minute bus ride separates New York’s richest school from its poorest. NU-TEACH students felt even closer to the kind of classroom Sun portrays. Caption: NU-TEACH students and alumni enjoy a discussion with actress Nilaja Sun (left in top photo) after her performance of No Child and a workshop on drama in the classroom. NU-TEACH is SESP's alternative certification program, directed by Sylvia Smith-DeMuth (bottom photo). by Marilyn Sherman Updated November 12, 2007  E-mail this story
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