Showing up at school already able to read is like showing up at the undertaker's already embalmed: people start worrying about being put out of their jobs.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
So long as there is one pretty girl left on the stage, the professional undertakers may hold up their burial of the theater.
Sometimes people come out of school right now and they immediately want a job doing something. And there's nothing wrong with just listening and learning and watching.
The only thing that everyone needs to look out for is keeping the students reading through high school and thereafter.
When I went to school, I was already reading and writing. In fact, I was offended that the other kids couldn't.
Children find prescriptive reading lists daunting, and they are a dangerous thing to have in schools.
My elementary school teachers were big on pushing kids to read. If you read a certain amount of books, they would provide you with incentives, sort of like what we are doing with the WrestleMania Reading Challenge.
It worries me that undergrads and high school students are forced into books they aren't ready for, like Faulkner's, and then they are afraid of putting their toes in the water again.
If there's anything more mortifying than being famous at 14, it's being washed up right after.
The first time I thought I should be an actor was in school. I thought, 'At least this is something for which I won't have to study.' But I've realised that an actor needs to be constantly unsure about what he's doing and about what's going on around him. The moment you think you've nailed it, you're dead.
I tell students they will know they are getting somewhere when a scene is so painful they can just barely bring themselves to write about it. A writer has to draw blood.