In dance, there is opportunity for social growth. Students are encouraged to co-operate with classmates, to share, to learn to follow directions given by the teacher, to make friends and to wait patiently for their turn. Students in groups must work together with each other and with the teacher/choreographer to create, perfect and perform the dance routine.
Dance students also learn social skills by working on solos, duets, trios and small and large groups. All of these competitive opportunities teach students the value of healthy competition within their own studio as well as with other studios. Participation in competition also allows students to learn how to be humble winners and gracious in defeat.
Social skills include such attributes or qualities such as learning to work as a team (which was discussed earlier). Other skills such motivation, effort, initiative, caring and focus are all qualities that can be learned. But they don’t just happen by accident! Either a child will learn by example or experience or they will learn these attributes because they are being taught intentionally. A great resource for teaching positive attributes is the book MegaSkills:
Building Our Children’s Character and Achievement for School and Life written by Dr. Dorothy Rich.
MegaSkills are the inner engines of learning. They are the super-basics: the beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that determine achievement in school and in life. Dr. Dorothy Rich, founder and president of the Home and School Institute, identified eleven MegaSkills based on school report cards, personnel records, and interviews with educators and employers.
Dr. Rich noted:
“Our children have to know more and have to be able to learn more…and we have it in our power to help them…especially when we work together. Today, there is research that says: Families are important educators of their children. Not too many years ago, parents were told, ‘Hands off, you don’t know how to do it.’ No longer. Schools are recognizing that not even the best school can do the job alone. Today, across the nation, there is readiness for educational teamwork as never before.”
The eleven MegaSkills are:
- Confidence: feeling able to do it
- Motivation: wanting to do it
- Effort: being willing to work hard
- Responsibility: doing what’s right
- Initiative: moving into action
- Perseverance: completing what you start
- Caring: showing concern for others
- Teamwork: working with others
- Common Sense: using good judgment
- Problem Solving: putting what you know and what you can do into action
- Focus: concentrating with a goal in mind
These are the success attributes that children needed to maximize their potential. Taken together, these success attributes constitute vital academic and character education increasingly being sought by families, schools, and employers across the nation today.
The root of all desired attributes in the development of a successful person is having a Positive Mental Attitude. As part of our Mission for the studio, the staff and faculty at Epic Dance Complex strive to have a culture of positivity at the studio. The following quote attributed to Charles Rozell Swindoll, a Christian minister, is an excellent philosophy for life:
A T T I T U D E
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is plan on the one thing we have. And that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is
10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you….
We are in charge of our attitudes!
And to think that your child can work on developing these success skills as part of their dance education!
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Come back Tuesday for our last blog from our 10 Reasons Your Child Should Be In Dance.
