the things I had just explored with six of my senses. Drama had helped me to see my surroundings in a different light, in fact without seeing at all. What I had established previously as an ugly building with an overgrown lawn became a refuge for Mother Nature in the middle of an urban apartment complex. Drama had truly broken my preconceived notions to show something beautiful. Drama is a very strong force in my life; it has determined the course of my development as a child. It is unfortunate however, that drama has not always existed in the way we know it as today. Agreed, throughout history there has always been some form of dramatic expression, but drama as an educational tool is a fairly recent development. In the early 1950s, a man named Peter Slade wrote a book entitled Child Drama. The world was changing; people's perceptions were changing. Children were finally seen as people who needed to be nurtured, directed, guided. Unfortunately, there were still some groups who felt that the traditional outlook (drama with an audience) was the way to go. Slade was advocating drama for personal development. He stated that he sees "formal theatre as a final stage in a child's development"(Bolton 22). Many traditionalists extrapolated from this statement that he was anti-theatre. He was not anti-theatre, he merely felt that not all activities had to be performed; some were for self-exploration only. He wanted to turn away from the formalised styles designed to make all children sound like 'little adults' and turn back to the natural direction that chil...
