Over the years, the hundreds of eager young ones would arrive in my 6th grade Drama class at age ten or eleven, and many times I'd get to teach & direct them almost every year until they graduated at seventeen or eighteen. I wrote a dozen plays for them. We put on TWELFTH NIGHT and ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD and Oscar Wilde comedies. We did full-scale productions of DAMES AT SEA and ONCE ON THIS ISLAND and HAIR. Over the years I mounted two dozen versions of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM with the 7th graders, and it was always fresh and new, seeing the young actors go from "What the heck are these people saying?" to laugh-out-loud portrayals of every character. Costumes and choreography. And music! My darling husband composed beautiful original music for the Shakespeare songs in the comedies. Dozens of productions we all could be proud of.
And more! Over the years I ended up creating more original curricula for more new courses than any other teacher in the school's history. Public Speaking, Digital Filmmaking, Acting Through the Centuries, and Drama classes for every age. Every class was new, adapted to the circumstances of that very group at that very time. Now that is innovative teaching.
When the Centennial Year of 2007 came along, my dear pal the Dance teacher and I, along with a few dozen enthusiastic parent and alumnae volunteers, conceived of and pulled off a humongous party, complete with a circular parade celebrating the decades of the school's existence, each grade level coming up with their own routines. It was an orgy of self-congratulation and we had a wonderful time. Thousands showed up.
As I did every summer, I'd read plays and musicals to pick the best possible next play and musical for the students who were currently in the high school and what they'd done before. With all the narcissism I knew we'd be swimming in that autumn, I picked a great Greek comedy, Aristophanes' Lysistrata. Because the play is a classic Greek comedy, it's bawdy.
On the front page of every copy of the script (I'd chosen Ellen McLaughlin's hilarious and witty adaptation), I included a note stating the obvious, namely, that we would adapt the colorful language to fit community standards. Having my high school students participate in this process of sorting out what is and is not suitable is an important part of the learning process. This apparently was the start of my downfall. Our Red Queen was of the opinion that a four-letter word should always be blacked out in advance. When the Head objected, I offered to withdraw the play and do something else. But no, that might make her look like a prude. Hmm.
A couple of my fair weather friends wanted to be sure I knew how it was my fault, as I should have know about the Head's...shall we say, 19th century sense of propriety? The corker was in a meeting with the school's PR person, the Head, and me. When I mentioned the banner that I always hung along the street-side fence announcing the upcoming play or musical, I was told that no banner would advertise Lysistrata. And why, pray tell? Head said ....and this is for real.... that she would not permit a banner because "it would attract rapists to the school."
Lysistrata is an anti-war play that celebrates women, banding together to help end war. The virtues included in this post's title are the very 5C's that my beloved former school presumably uses as its guiding principles. These virtues are the lifeblood of Lysistrata.
[Dear reader, if you're still with me, please believe me that this blog will go to much happier places. I just needed to get this story out there.]
In closing, I wish to share the sad realization that not one individual who participated in my expulsion ever, for one moment, showed a glimmer of any of these virtues. Educators, whether they will or not, teach primarily by example. I fear that the life lessons they chose to impart four years ago have instilled only fear and cynicism.
I stand by my actions. I stand by my students.
NB see "Controversy" http://www.thefullwiki.org/Castilleja_School and whereisbear.org
Let me also cite The Wall Street Journal, noting that said Head completely fabricated both the number of performances attended by a factor of three and made up ridiculous themes that we hadn't ever even considered. But then, it's all about her now, isn't it?
"I like to believe that administrators feel parents' pain. Mindful that last year's awards ceremony ran almost as long as a Wagner opera, the head of one school clipped her remarks to little more than "Welcome" and cut the chorale's two-song contribution. "And now, the music teacher isn't speaking to me," she said ruefully.
"This is very sensitive turf," noted Joan Lonergan, the head of the Castilleja School, a private girls academy in Palo Alto, Calif. "We are trying to make the performances we have more significant and less frequent. I think parents appreciate that."
Parents who view themselves as a captive audience may appreciate the perspective furnished by Ms. Lonergan. In her first 11 years at Castilleja, she calculates that she saw 33 productions of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." There was an interpretation based on "Gilligan's Island" and a version inspired by "The Jetsons." "There were many years I really enjoyed it," Ms. Lonergan said gamely. "But I'm really delighted the girls have expanded their repertoire."
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB118067034125021214