Yep, starting on Monday, the 4th and 5th graders at Spruce Hill Christian School will begin learning ballroom dancing from two professional dance instructors for a combined gym class on Monday afternoons. This is the first time our school has done something like this! Laura (4th grade teacher) and I broke the news to students yesterday, to mixed reactions. 4th grade was super excited about the opportunity and cheered. My class, however, couldn't believe the school would subject them to such torture. I explained how thousands of 4th and 5th grade kids in New York City have completed the program and enjoyed it, but that sales pitch was unsuccessful: "But we're not like those kids! We're different!"
Fortunately, Laura had rented Mad Hot Ballroom, a documentary on the dance program in the New York City schools. We watched it together, and the students' concerns shifted to "do we HAVE to do this??" to "who will be my partner?" I saw that as a good sign. After talking one-on-one with some of the major voices of dissension, students agreed to give it a try. The movie helped a considerable amount; here's a preview:
Personally, I'm pretty excited about this opportunity. We'll be learning the cha-cha, salsa, tango, and swing! The schools who have done this before describe how behavior issues within the class decrease, boys start treating girls with more respect and dignity, and how kids love it! My students really enjoy dancing, but their definition of dancing is mostly hip hop. I hope this helps them expand their world view a bit, as well as help them mature into fine gentlemen and ladies!
2 comments:
Ow. That is adorable. Yah, some schools now teach ballroom dancing to students. Before, they were only teaching high school and college students. But now even kids have ballroom dancing classes. That's one of the reasons why some kids are now joining ballroom dancing competitions across the globe.
I bet the girls loved the news more than the boys did. But somehow, when I brought my sons along to open dance parks last summer, they were delighted with the exercise!
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