The day after the election, my students wanted to talk. They wanted to tell me how they were feeling and what they were thinking. I listened. Then I encouraged them to write their thoughts in a letter to America. Below are excerpts from their writing. I am hopeful as I think about the future of our country when I hear these eight year olds speak their truth and begin to discover their music inside. They matter. And they want the world to know it.

“We have to speak up and show who we are.”
–Kelvin

“We should have kids vote, like 6 year olds, seven year olds, eight, nine and ten year olds.”
–Mezaih

“We want people to not want so much power.”
–Enrique

“America needs to know who we are and what we are capable of.”
–Iyannah and Mark

“Everybody needs to have freedom.”
–Alexa

“We are all unique and that’s okay.”
–Belinda

“We have voices.”
–Evelyn

 

 

Back in September, Take Off the Mask Kids Opera Company was invited to present its original opera on The Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. We knew then that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity and that we must work hard and persevere to deliver our collective message to a broader audience.

After the opera, Jasmine Momyer eloquently shared from the stage her final words as production manager.

“When we are confronting our barriers… It will hurt. It will take time. It will require confidence. It will require love. We will need to make healthy decisions for ourselves. We will need to keep our minds fresh and clean and our hearts pure. It will require sacrifice. We will need to push our bodies to the limit. There will be temptations to give up. But I promise, when we reach our goal, it will be WORTH IT!! Confront your barriers.”

In these final days of school, we can say that we indeed have confronted our barriers, we have reached our goals, we have learned many life lessons and we are now ready to teach others what we have experienced.

The opera on June 8, 2016 was streamed live for the world to see. We share it with you now.

After a particularly difficult session in art class one day, where class behavior failed to meet the company’s expected protocol, I asked a question. What seemed to be a simple question, led to introspective thought about the future. “How many of you think you will have children when you grow up?” Almost every hand in the circle went up. A second question followed. “When your children go to school, do you want them to behave as you did today in art class?” The faces said it all. The company responded with a resounding NO. This launched a discussion about what we see in ourselves and what we want for our own children.

When we help children see outside of themselves, they recognize that they indeed affect others in a profound way. They realize that they, themselves, are the role models for future generations.

Our individual and collective barriers oftentimes get tangled up in enormous knots which seem impossible to overcome and disentangle. But we must remember that if we collaborate, if we communicate effectively and if we trust in one another, we can break free of the knots that bind us and hold us back.

Watch as company members and parents work through a human representation of this powerful metaphor.

As we prepare these last days before our original opera production of Strike ‘n Spare, we are thinking carefully about what we want to convey to the public. What do we REALLY want our audience to know and think about after the opera?  What message must we deliver and what do we want people to know about us as a company and as individuals?

Our hallway exhibition will showcase the process of the opera throughout the year so that everyone will understand our purpose and mission along the way. It shows the academic accomplishments and the life lessons acquired on the journey.

When asked what they have learned in this process, company members generated a collective list and then wrote about their own personal, powerful lessons.  What each student shares and is carrying with him into life beyond third grade should make us think profoundly about what is important in educating our children.

FROM MEDIOCRITY TO EXCELLENCE

The Need for Quality Work in School

What is great quality? Why do we see so little of it around us in our world? In school, at home, at work, poor quality surrounds us. At times, the concept of excellence seems foreign. In order to produce quality work, we must first know quality work. Where are our examples in life? In this age of instant gratification, we want to “get it done” quickly and move on to the next thing. Why do something well when we can get by with “good enough”? This mentality is transferred to our kids in their work environment. School curriculum also encourages us to move hastily through a laundry list of objectives and content in a relatively short period of time. Nothing of depth that is worthwhile and meaningful is achieved with this way of thinking. Teaching with quality, learning about quality and living with quality can only come from being immersed in a culture of expectations that guide us toward excellence. The true reward comes from knowing what it feels like to work through a difficult task or assignment and present a quality product that is well received, appreciated and respected by others.

Our set designers inspired a lesson on quality work as they were discussing set elements for our opera and how best to create them. They made two cubes, one of poor quality and one of great quality. Our volunteers then asked, “Which cube would you like to represent the work we are doing?” Not one selected the scrunched up, poorly constructed, lopsided cube. They were clear about which they wanted to represent them.

Now, we transfer this understanding to our daily work in the classroom.

What IS quality work?