As we return to the classroom for the 2024-2025 school year, I want to take this opportunity to remind our members and Arkansas’ communication and theatre teachers how important your work is to the students you serve and the future of the state of Arkansas. 

Without your hard work and commitment to communication and theatre education, the students of Arkansas wouldn’t have opportunities to think critically, interpret their feelings and opinions healthily, express themselves, communicate effectively and engage in their communities.  The unique opportunities our profession is afforded through hours of extra contact with your students open the door for students to grow and learn from each other and for them to have a trusted mentor in you.

As we look at the world around us, it is easy to see that our communities need communication and theatre education now more than ever. Our students face mounting generational and societal pressure locally in their communities and globally through technology. Whether the activity is debate, forensics, acting or public speaking, whether it’s hosting a competition or supporting local educators in a communication and theater classroom, whether it's constructing an argument or discovering a piece of literature, you are providing your community’s students a platform to learn how to positively and professionally formulate their independent feelings and thoughts and how to communicate or express said thoughts to others respectfully. Equipping your students to be confident, independent, intentional communicators is one of the more powerful gifts they will receive in their lifetime. Research shows Arkansas students who have mastered your curriculum’s communication skills (e.g., interpersonal communication, active listening, critical thinking, verbal communication, collaboration, teamwork, etc.) are more employable right out of high school, more successful in college and more likely to advance out of poverty. You positively change lives.

The next time the bell rings, and you are tired or discouraged, remember Arkansas needs you in the classroom, and our students need opportunities to be transformed through participation in your communication, debate, and/or theatre arts classroom.

Thank you again for your work with students and for helping teach the next generation of Arkansas leaders in your classroom and ACTAA. Together, we are working to inspire Arkansas to think, speak and act for a brighter future.

Yours for better discourse,

Zackery A. Tucker, ACTAA President