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Both entertainment and education have been integrals parts of the human

experience since the beginnings of time. Many scholars insist that the two

institutions often serve jointly, with entertainers and entertainment

serving as a main source of education. There is little argument, then,

that in addition to generally appealing to the masses, entertainers have

regularly fulfilled the role of a teacher to typically unsuspecting

audiences. Entertainers have served as educators throughout history, from

the origins of oral narratives through the Middle Ages.

The earliest forms of unwritten communication were essentially

used to spread knowledge from one source to another. Religious disciplines

were the first information passed from person to person through

entertainment. In the third century B.C., Buddhist monks tried to win

converts outside India through the use of theater and song (Burdick 97).

They taught the precepts of Siddhartha and Buddha in such theatrical epics

as Ramayana and Mahabharata, setting exacting rules for theater

performance in the process (Burdick 99). Similarly, Irish monks

established singing schools, which taught uniform use of music throughout

the church (Young 31). Through chants which were all the same, they spread

identical teachings. Christian psalms and hymns in Apostolic times



were sung to spread the knowledge and faith of Christianity. In fact,

Christianity was promoted from the start by music. Churches were for long

the only centers of learning, with monks teaching all lessons through

music (Young 39). Through the use of sacred music, monks and clergy

successfully spread the teachings of their religions in a practical

manner.

Entertainers used the theater as a place to tell the stories of

the day, both fictional and topical. The African oral tradition was rich

in folk tales, myths, riddles, and proverbs, serving a religious, social,

and economic...