Seriously, folks. It seems like the school is just getting cheaper and cheaper in their lazy attempts to have a "program" of any sort. Parents get off work early, bake dozens of cookies, buy expensive dresses and suits (or in my case $15 dresses and $7 shoes), curl and cut their childrens hair, bundle them up in warm winter gear to get from the car/snowmachine/house to the school all so we can watch the music teachers backside while our kids SIT quietly, file up to the front, sing ONE song (in ENGLISH only) and then file back to their seats.
Really?
When I was growing up, you know back when "extra duty contracts were done by Volunteers after school and by kids who were interested in glittering trees and reindeer headbands. I remember Phyllis Booth and I sung, "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" while our classmates behind us sang the chorus. Then we went on to sing at LEAST two more songs, always singing "Jingle Bell Rock" (thanks Mrs. Peacock!) and always singing at least ONE song in Inupiaq.
There were blow up saxophones (Mrs. Williams) and Neon sunglasses and Fat Santa's and Eskimo dancing.
Oh well, at least with the extra time I got to finish the slippers I've been working on.
And I guess at least my baby got to wear her "pageant dress" as she calls it.
Merry Christmas, next year, we're doing the Nutcracker Ballet at the school, I don't care if I have to choreograph it, paint the backgrounds, and force kids to dance it. We're doing it.
11 comments:
Did you make that dress? She looks GORGEOUS!
Go Maija, Go! :) Great idea.
-Paula
Look at all those beautiful children dressed up for the program! If I lived there I would totally help you next year - that's such a shame that the program was one song!! I'm a teacher in a special ed high shcool in Chicago, and today we had our holiday assembly. We had two songs by some of the staff, one group of students that did jingle bells in sign language, another group of students that recited a poem they wrote, 2 small groups of students who sang a song with their teachers, and then our choir sang 4 songs! We have a large spanish speaking population in our school so one of the small groups sang a song in spanish. If the teachers at a school of 310 students with special needs can put on a program like the one we had today, surely the teachers at your daughters school could have done better than they did. You'll put them to shame next year, I'm sure of it!
Yeah, that does seem kind of sad for a school program. I wonder what happened there?
I'm tired of after school programs simply because we're having such TERRIBLE problems with parent behavior during programs. The last school program we had, the parents were nuts. Like, swinging from the rafters and shrieking while using a bull horn kind of nuts (at a DARE graduation, of all things!). You couldn't hear a thing. A teacher asked the crowd to please hold their applause and a parent yelled out "I can cheer for my kid if I want! You can't tell me what to do!" Then the POLICE came on the stage and asked people to calm down, and they were still wild.
It's very discouraging. How can we expect kids to show respect for others and have good behavior, when their parents act like lunatics?
The dress and the slippers are gorgeous!
She certainly looks like the next Miss Alaska to me! She's gorgeous Maija! Tonight we are doing a song at my son's Cub Scout Pack Meeting. We are doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42_vCV2_gf0
My son's school does nothing for Christmas. There is no program at my son's school at all. 1 song is better than nothing...and the school has a Christmas tree in the front hallway, and a full time designated music teacher, and a full time designated strings teacher (my son plays violin). There's no reason they couldn't do something.
Funny you should say Sabrina, she decided she WAS the next Miss Teen Alaska after our little cousin (who's not so little anymore) won the Miss Teen Alaska title last weekend.
She has been prancing around saying, "I'm like Denali, I'm Miss Teen Alaska!" And she saved the newspaper so she could remind herself of that!
Sadly, I didn't make the dress, I bought it at JC Penny and the shoes are from Target!
I'm not kidding, I'm doing the Nutcracker next year if I have to take a month off of work to do it.
Awesome dress!!
My kids sang songs in Yup'ik several times this week!! Even made the Daily News and KTUU.
Good luck next year ;)
Love the slippers, too!!
The kids are gorgeous!!! I live in Idaho and the Christmas programs are getting shorter and shorter here too. And they songs thy do sing...3 this year..I have never heard. Good luck with the Nutcracker!! Love that ballet
I was just saying the other night that the elementary school here might have the "last great Christmas Program" standing! The lower grade elementary (PreK-2nd) did the BEST Christmas program i've seen in YEARS! Complete with props, costumes, and DANCING! One class even tap danced. It was so good! And to close it all out the entire school sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in Yu'pik and English. Including my little gussuk and just to prove to me that he knew all the words in Yu'Pik he sang it all the way home and has sung it every day since!
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