I've seen enough mediocre school assemblies, especially ones where kids get accolades for doing things they should just be doing anyway without receiving buckets of praise, or they just basically stand and wag their fingers and shake their heads while a song plays in the background for three minutes. Now more than ever, I really appreciate when a school can put on a good show. Today, I got to see a synchronized dance assembly where these kids wore beautiful homemade bird costumes, each dance with a group of kids dressed like a different bird. To transition at the end of each segment, the children would run into a circle and then the next group of different colored birds would join the circle as the previous group exited seamlessly and took a different spot on stage. It ended with all of the kids doing something similar to the hora, in that they were set up in large two counter-rotating circles, dancing to Ben Lee's "We're All in This Together". It was pretty awesome, and I think even a group of adults could not pull it off any better than these kids did.
I always have a better feeling at the end of the day leaving a school that clearly cares about fostering the arts in their students. It seems like a no-brainer to me that the students' behavior is more positively affected at all times throughout the day, compared to schools that have more of a focus on discipline (positive and negative) or academics.
It's probably no coincidence that I have had such a positive experience with the kids at this school the two times I've been there. Some places just have their stuff together, and a good environment produces happy and smart kids, without having to pressure them too much.
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