Hope & Struggle

Last week, our grade 8 students put on an extraordinary performance.  In many ways, it did not feel like a performance at all; it felt like a sacred moment in time.  The students had researched a hero or heroine using Joseph Campbell's criteria in Hero of a Thousand Faces and had to defend their choice.  They then researched their hero/heroine's words, put together a speech, and collaborated in a symposium where they put the script together.  In addition to the dramatic component, the students also created life-size sketches of their hero/heroine.

The ability of these grade 8 students to embody the powerful words of people like Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Dian Fossey, Tommy Douglas,  and James Orbinski (who was in the audience), was truly inspirational and moving.  Staged in conversation with one another in themed vignettes, the struggle for justice in terms of women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, racial equality, environmental and economic equality was brought into the present moment through the voices of both the ancestors of these struggles, as well as the present-day predecessors picking up the torch.

Blending curriculum expectations across the disciplines of visual and dramatic arts, English, history and geograpy, the students were living the power and promise of a relevant, engaging, and meaningful education.  Conceived and led by an exceptional educator (Lynn Heath), the students were challenged with high expectations and rose to exceed them all.

Hope and struggle - sometimes they seem polarized and yet, what we witnessed through this unforgettable evening is that they exist in relationship to one another. Hope fuels struggle's promise and gives it meaning, while struggle makes the promise of hope a reality.  The truth of this was evident in the tears of the audience - in recognition of both the past struggles to strive for a better world, and the witnessing of this young generation embodying new hope for the future.