Theatre Arts curriculum and instruction are provided to students as a means for developing creativity and expressive awareness. Through arts education, students gain powerful tools for learning artistic modes of problem-solving, which bring an array of expressive, analytical, and developmental skills to every human situation.
The Arts serve to heighten our rich culture while encouraging self-realization and developing self-discipline. The Arts play an essential part in the educational program of every student. The Arts require serious study. They cannot be learned through random or casual experiences. The Arts require regular, systematic programs of sequential study leading to clearly specified outcomes. They require a curriculum. The Arts have content consisting of skills, knowledge, and understanding. The Fine Arts are offered as part of the total education of students in Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS). They address all three of the basic domains of learning: cognitive (intellectual learning), psycho-motor (physical coordination), and affective (expressing and feeling emotion).
Experiences in the Arts provide a conceptual understanding of the basic properties of music, theatre, and visual art. In addition to extensive creative and re-creative opportunities that develop a functional understanding of the arts, there should also be experiences in listening, viewing, and structural analysis. This would lead to an understanding of historical and cultural development, resulting in aesthetic appreciation.
Our purpose is to foster attitudes, understanding, skills, and enjoyment so each individual’s artistic potential may be developed. In developing their potential, students will realize that lifelong participation in the Arts is a valuable part of a life fully lived.
Although the Missoula County Public Schools’ Theatre Arts curriculum was developed to assure that students meet the Montana Standards for the Arts at the appropriate grade levels, MCPS Theatre Arts learning targets were written based on the National Standards for the Arts, which specifically address K-12 Theatre Arts education.
