Every year, Kent School challenges its eighth-grade students with something bold: a full-scale musical performance.
It is a time honored tradition dating to the School’s inception. Sitting it out is not an option. So, while the likely goal for most middle school students is fit in, blend, maybe fly below the radar to avoid discomfort, every student in the class has an onstage, speaking and/or singing role in this annual performance.
Finding Courage Through Challenge
As educators, we try to encourage our students to take risks even when they really do not want to. Taking risks might make them look silly in front of friends. Risks most certainly will make them feel uncomfortable, the very feeling they are trying to avoid. So how do you help a middle school student lean into that feeling of discomfort? You cast them in a musical.
Kent School Musicals are so much more than a rite of passage at Kent School. They are an exercise in nudging a middle school student out of their comfort zone. After weeks, sometimes months of rehearsals, there they are: onstage, ready to perform in front of a live audience. Taking to the stage sometimes involves a silly costume, singing a solo or dancing. Sometimes it involves all three. They do it though and by the time the last performance rolls around, what do you know, they are comfortable. They are courageous. They have taken the risk and it has paid off. The audience cheers and laughs and fully supports them.
The Lasting Impact of Courage on Stage
Sometimes, the Eighth Grade Musical unlocks a love of musical theater in one of our students. and it is a joy for our teachers to see them perform in high school or college. For some, this will be their first and last performance in a musical. Either way the COURAGE on display is palpable.
In the future these students will be asked to step up and perform in some way. They may have to be the ‘presenter’ for a group project in high school or college. Some may have to defend a capstone project or dissertation. In the working world, strong, confident presentations can seal a deal. If they are lucky, they may be asked to officiate at a close friend’s wedding. They will know how to prepare and be confident in the spotlight. The muscle memory of being in the Eighth Grade musical will kick in. And they will be a hit and that is the point!
