Performance Day

So my class performed their musical yesterday for parents and the grades one, two, three and four in our school. The Principal and Vice Principal were there too, by invitation. So were Spills and her Daddy and the camcorder-that-died-right-before-the-show-started-so-Mommy-couldn't-have-a-record-of-her-kids'-great-
performance-for-posterity.

It was a fabulous show. It was my kids' highest point in a year in which I have tried every way I could think of to convince them that they have worth and potential. They are not accustomed to successes, and hardly knew what to do with themselves when the applause started. After the show, all the kids in the audience had questions for them, and my students were blushingly delighted to answer everything. And my principal said to me privately, "I do not know how you got that out of them." I do: they started to think that they could actually do it. The rest was (relatively) simple.

And Spills fell utterly in love with the lot of them. I believe she now thinks her calling lies upon the stage. She was particularly proud of the fact that her plastic vegetables and her Dora tablecloth were part of the props.

After the show was over, her Daddy went back to work, and she came to my classroom to partake in the cast party. She and I had walked to the grocery store the night before to buy goodies, and she proudly took the floor to hand them out.

"Everyone. Listen. I have treats for you. And they are...." (with a flourish, reaching into the bag) "Gummy Nemo candies!!!"

Yes, she had felt my young adolescents would particularly appreciate gummy candies in the shape of characters from Finding Nemo. And never underestimate the power of a four and a half year old to charm the bluster and cool right off a twelve-year-old kid. My entire class expressed great delight over their gummy candies. And they really, really liked the ice cream bars when they appeared.

Then Spills presented them with a difficult choice. "I brought you MOVIES. You can watch either THIS--" which was Finding Nemo-- "or THIS--" which was a collection of Mickey Mouse cartoons.

They almost unanimously selected Finding Nemo, in honour of the gummy candies. Spills was ushered with ceremony to a seat beside one of my nicest boys, and he proceeded to have a most in-depth discussion with her about what was going on. And I sat at the back and looked at my little collection of souls and thought that, once in awhile, everything seems to converge the way that it should.