ABSTRACT
The author continues debating the theme that the arts should be perceived as an essential part of the school curriculum. However, whereas Robinson emphasized drama’s ‘contextualist’ function, arguing that drama should be valued for its contribution to personal and social education, O’Neill suggests that, while this function is important, at least as a survival strategy, it must not be allowed to subvert the prime ‘essentialist’ function of drama. Here the act of drama is valued as a unique mode of learning to know about human behaviour and its consequences. It is the quality of the enactment, then, that must be considered in planning, teaching, and evaluating drama. This chapter, together with Robinson’s, deals with issues at the heart of the debate within drama concerning its intrinsic value as an educational activity and its contribution to learning generally. In this sense the two form a necessary preface to the issues raised in the following sections.
