In short, it is the power by which we make real our ideals.
The strongest moral influence of the dramatic instinct comes in adolescence, when it shows itself in the form of aping the manners and copying the ideals of one’s personal hero. O’Shea gives much attention to this. He calls us to notice the fact that “children of all ages normally choose for their companions those of a dynamic nature, who are able ‘to do things.’ Persons of a static tendency, though ‘good’ and ‘respectable,’ are not commonly emulated by the young. In any community it will probably be found that men of action, whatever this may be—men who accomplish things—become dominant in the impersonations of the young.”
Cooley, discussing this particular point, illustrates it in an effective way. Speaking of the child’s love of action, he says that “his father sitting at his desk probably seems an inert and unattractive phenomenon, but the man who can make shavings or dig a deep hole is a hero; and the seemingly perverse admiration which children at a later age show for circus men and for the pirates and desperadoes they read about is to be explained in a similar manner. What they want is evident power. The scholar may possibly be as worthy of admiration as the acrobat or the policeman; but the boy of ten will seldom see the matter in that light.”
Now all this is dramatic. It indicates the strong tendency to copy those who are most easily copied, namely, those whose ideals and actions lend themselves, because of their vigor and theatric picturesqueness, to outward impersonation. The parent is performing the highest moral service to his children who can furnish them heroic dramatic examples, if possible by his own activities and career, or by entering heartily with them into dramatic play of such a character as to create the illusion of adventure, or by exposing them to wholesome persons of an age a little greater than their own who are either spectacular in act or dramatic in play.
III. Summary
During childhood, boys and girls pass through three periods in the evolution of the dramatic instinct. Little children imitate people and animals in real situations, endeavoring to mirror the world as they understand it. Beginning at about the third year, they commence to create a play-self living in a play-world, and this power of making illusions, as the expression of the hunger to realize life to its fullest extent, lasts as long as people live.
From six to nine children are eagerly becoming acquainted with the world outside the home. The dramatic impulse is then expressed in the imitation of every occupation and custom known to them. The developing tendency to construct aids the dramatic play.
Parallel with this, perhaps at about the tenth year, comes the period when they begin to take pleasure in impersonating dramatic ideas to an audience. This expression of the instinct tends to fade away after adolescence.
The dramatic instinct is of great educational value. It helps the child to realize his world and organize his thinking. He remembers best what he has learned dramatically. It enlarges his experiences and enables him to put himself, both by knowledge and sympathy, in the other man’s place. It is an important factor in mastering literature and history and in becoming familiar with the spirit of other races. It is extremely useful in developing resourcefulness, and the capacity for meeting novel situations. It carries interest and enthusiasm into all school subjects and helps shape the child’s ideals for the future.
The dramatic instinct has a great moral value. It gives a wholesome outlet to a child’s energies; it develops unselfishness; it creates a sympathetic imagination; and it gives a child the opportunity to understand moral issues by having imitative experiences of them.