I think I have a cure for anyone who harshly judges teachers and “kids these days.” The cure is inexpensive and refreshing. And in your local schools. At least it works for me.
Every time I go to a performance at a school, from kindergarten programs to senior plays, I come away with a renewed respect for kids and their teachers. Unfortunately, I usually only get around to going when a child I know is in the performance. That is too bad because they are public and they are most often amazing. Last weekend included.
My husband and I went to see a young friend participate in a middle school musical called Seussical Jr. and it was delightful on every level. Here are some of the “levels” of appreciation I felt.
Building Community:
The auditorium was buzzing with anticipation and connection. The performance brought forth numerous skills and talents from directing, choreographing, operating technology, singing, accompanying, creating sets and costuming to all of the singing, dancing, and speaking of the cast. Just managing sixty or so excited middle schoolers is a collective act of love and dedication! It united us all around our children. It awakened us to their talents.
Entertainment:
We are a culture who loves to be entertained. It offers us a distraction and a chance to expand our horizons beyond the mundane. Local school performances are wonderful entertainment while supporting our kids’ talents and hard work. With the aid of current technology and highly trained staff, performances get more impressive all the time.
This particular show used the gifts of Dr. Seuss, or Theodor Seuss Geisel to be exact. What a writer he was. He could spin a colorful and fanciful story with rhyming words in a poetry form that most everyone enjoys. Poetry has value all its own, but many of us do not enjoy it because it IS designed to help us think outside the lines. Still, poetry that we can understand opens the gates of our imagination and enhances our awareness of simple truths we easily forget as we hurry through our days.
Story:
Most performances center around at least a loosely woven theme or story. Stories are good for all ages! Of course there usually is a protagonist and antagonist to satisfy our attraction to conflict (between good and evil) and desire for good to triumph. And of course, absurdity tickles our funny bone and attacks our assumptions. The other beauty of stories is that we grow into great stories. We hear them differently at various stages of life.
Horton the Hero:
The main character in this musical was Horton, the elephant. I love elephants. I also love the whimsical way Dr. Seuss stories present deep truths. So I was all ears. Speaking of ears, Horton’s first virtue the kids sang about was his ability to use his big ears to hear the tiny people of Whoville who wanted to save their planet, the size of a speck of dust. Horton heard them and tenderly put them in a clover to save them.
No one else could hear their pleas for help. Although accused of being “crazy,” Horton could hear them and felt responsible to save them since, “A person’s a person no matter how small.” What child does not want to hear that? In fact, what adult can miss any one of several messages in that refrain? Such is the nature of truths tucked into story.
Life happens to Horton in spite of his good intentions. Can you relate? But this gave opportunities for other conflicts (and truths) to emerge. Parenting problems, for example. A little Who (Jo-Jo) gets in trouble for “The Thinks You [she] Can Think” and her parents get a call from the school. They do not know how to discipline her properly and complain desperately that they had no parenting manual to tell them what to do.
Then Horton develops problems of his own. To make a long story short, he ends up agreeing to give a female bird a break from sitting on her egg. She was terribly upset and disappointed by how boring it is to sit endlessly on an egg when the world she once knew is passing by. Pulled between hearing her cries and the cries of Whoville he gives in and agrees to egg sit just for a couple of hours which turned into several seasons. She never returns to the nest. Discouraged, and cold he still keeps his commitment to the egg, all while worrying about the little Whos as he had been taken away from them. Horton truly was a model for compassion and faithfulness against all odds.
Happy Ending:
Of course things came out well. The bird (Gertrude) that had a crush on Horton eventually won him over when she brought him the stolen clover where the Whos lived. He was attracted to her virtues where she had been trying to attract him with her good looks (tail feathers) that she paid a lot of money for. Also, the little Whos figured out a way to “be heard.” Horton and Gertude committed to parenting baby elephant/bird together. What an absurd tale! But absurdity plays a big role in expanding our imaginations. It creates a great example for the phrase, “oh, the thinks we think!”
Feeling “alone in the universe” was the theme for lengthy egg sitting. Of course, this is another parenting reality on many occasions! I am sure many in the audience could relate to feeling alone.
Life is not easy. Love is a commitment and is not always a warm and fuzzy feeling. While we like being entertained, we also celebrate hard work, commitment, sacrifice, faithfulness, and compassion. We saw it all in this musical story.
Thank you Dr. Seuss. Thank you to the writer of Seussical, Jr. and thank you Williamson Middle School for all you did to make it happen. Thank you for your compassion and faithfulness. From the germ of the idea to the final cast party and photos on the website, you created a memory the kids and their parents will have forever.
Thank you for the simple truths we were reminded of and for the fun we had in the process.
One final word; this happens in schools across our country. We would do well to thank and honor our teachers. They truly do change the world one student and one sacrifice at a time.