All of us are aware that young people today are facing challenges far greater than the ones we ourselves faced growing up. Now more than ever, the music, television, and film industries are busy parenting their young consumers at an alarming rate and with a fierce intensity. The products of these industries are, for the most part, stripped of any magic or true inspiration so essential to childhood, often giving young people access to far more information than they are able to process. In addition, recent news events have deeply shaken our children, leaving many of them vulnerable and uncertain about the future. After School educators can balance what is happening by finding ways to slow children down and help them process all that they are exposed to each day. Carol Macy discusses her experiences working as a workshop leader and theater director in public schools and in her own after school program for young people. Based on her own twenty five years of experience she considers theater exercises and the dramatization of stories and poetry to be vital to the education of young people. Macy believes that after school programs can make a major contribution to the education of the "whole" child. This article shares what she has come to know both through her graduate research, and in her practice.