Doreen, my niece, is going to a small nursery school down the road from my house called The Potter's Hand. They put on a pageant of international costumes, where students each got dressed up in outfits from various countries (with identifying sashes, as a help). First, there was a parade through town... and past my house as per usual.
Next, each of the students got up at the town pavilion and did a little talk about their country. Doreen, being half-African, naturally was assigned to Kenya. I think that Doreen is always going to wind up being assigned "Africa" at school whenever geographically varied assignments are handed out. Her teachers probably figure it is their responsibility to teach Doreen to take pride in her heritage and be assigned to study it whenever possible. I think she does take pride. Also, I think that the Filipinos are thrilled to have somebody who is, racially, a little different from the standard-but-narrow ancestral span that makes up the entirety of the Filipino people.
Finally, the kids put on a little dance routine about happiness and understanding and worldwide cooperation that I'm sure you've seen kindergartners perform a dozen times before: The teachers stand in front mouthing and eventually singing the words to the song and adding the choreographic visual cues, while a various collection of little faces, from the empty-eyed, to the earnest, to the distracted, mumble/shout/mouth the words to the song, all looking forward to doing something that involves more running, jumping, and laughing.
Hello Jil,
ReplyDeleteVery nice pictures of preformance. BTW, not sure if you know but this month , October, is Filipino-American History Month. It is not very celebrated and mostly overlooked but I hope someday it will become more widespread as the Filipino history in America even pre-dates the Jamestown settlement.