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Document Type

Article in Response to Controversy

Abstract

We are always, always being swept along in a moment of becoming. Let us for once hold such a moment, brimming again with precious fragile life. (Dragland, 2008)

My husband teaches science in a junior high school (grades 8-10) and, every year, he co-directs a musical with his students. In a school of ninety students, sixty eager teenagers sign up for auditions. He and the English teacher assign roles for three casts because, as he insists, “anyone who shows up should be allowed to participate.” This practice of communal inclusion stems from his own experience of early disappointment in grade nine when he was cut from the Junior Boy’s basketball team during fall try-outs. (Four decades later, the memory still rankles.) “We’re doing West Side Story this year,” he announces, as yet undaunted by this year’s task of marshalling pubescent youths into stardom. “The three Marias look promising…”

Genre/Form

articles

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

High school students; School music--Instruction and study; Musicals--Juvenile; Art--Study and teaching

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

Type

Text

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