2008-09 in Review

Now, while it's still fresh in our minds, let's talk about some of the great things that happened in our schools in the past school year.

I had a 5th grader this year, so the culminating project for the class was an appropriately big one: they wrote and performed an opera. The topic of their expedition (yearly focus) was children's rights, and this was the basis for the theme of the opera. The teacher used a program (maybe I can get a link for it from her later) in which the class formed a production company with departments (performers, writers, sets, costumes, makeup, lights, etc). The kids applied for jobs and each was "hired" for at least two, in different departments.

I still can't quite believe it; the kids wrote the story, the dialogue (I guess it was a hybrid opera/musical, because not everything was sung), the music, and the lyrics. I think almost all of the performers had at least some short solos, many were longer. The teacher had two artists-in-residence: an opera singer who coached the performers and a composer who coached the student composers. The teacher herself coached the writing (story, dialogue, lyrics.) And they didn't really get started until February...

I'll spare you the rave review and just mention two things that made an impression on me. First, the story was serious, relevant, and thought-provoking. Especially compared to "The Marriage of Figaro." Second, the looks on the kids faces at the end of their first performance - and it was all the kids, not just the half that were performers - I think they all had the sense of pulling off something that had at one time seemed impossible.