artist-in-residence

The entire school --pre-school through grade six, and staff (and some parents, too)--- spent almost seven days working with Marilyn and Sekou Sylla this past December. We attended 'master' classes and learned about the musical instruments, the dances and the culture of Western Africa. In spending a week focusing on creating, rehearsing and performing a series of dances and drumming pieces we took time away from our typical schedule. In fact, we had to squeeze our academic work around the artistic work -- a distinct alteration of the usual school paradigm. The value of this type of event is not easily apparent under the current analysis of a school and its programs. How can we place a value on this kind of experience? At this elementary school we believe that we need to provide a depth and diversity of programming that touches every child and create an atmosphere where the experience (whether it is drumming or snow fort building or devising a solution to a challenging mathematics problem) itself has value and meaning in our learning environment.