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Home My WebLink AboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-12-23, Page 7Jennifer Brown, Grey Central School ere's to a season of sharing great fun with your loved ones. Thanks to all ELDER ENTERPRISES SALES & SERVICE DIAL 262,-6141 HENSALL ONT 1 mile West and 1 Mile South of Hensall Your Authorized Yamaha Full Service Dealer NIVIAIHIA MERRY • .1i10111". . . • Gay and festive times to all in the holidays ahead! Mervvood C. Smith, Ltd . R.R.2 Listowel, Ontario Tel. 291-3810 Store flours: •- Open daily Monday thru Friday 9 a.ni. to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, till 5 p.m. . - • I 11•iro 1.11 2,E isigil i•••0•14,•OL li C. '..; •Ivin ono milg, in' right —Mk0.4..i46..igat' .1, M.C. • SOIL t, a . , .......... •. ... , .........., • WEDDING INVITATIONS THE HURON EXPOSITOR PHONE 527-0240 SEAFORTH 4tikvCDA :0v0:0:0 40:040 X May the wonderful 0 blessings of Christmas in' s• remain with you 10 througnout the New Year • 45 Frank and Kathy - F ..WORKMAN 0 ELECTRIC 6 4:0„, • 0 0: ?GAO •• THE BRUSSELS POST, DECEMBER 3, 1980 — 7 40 ristmas concerts? e • • kids really- looked. forward 'to., In ' a one-room country school, they also had, full control or their day. Now he. says his, class practises at 25 minutes 'to twelve." There''s . justa lot of other people to consider .. in a comma city school," he said. , . ''• Sotnething,..that Was really different too (at the one room school)., was that. Santa al- ,-;ways came. That isn't always possible with the number of kids we have today," he - said. He described- Christmas concerts at :the one room school as "a real experience I don't know if it was as nerve-wracking as the ones are now. It was a totally ` different attitude. Programs in a one room school weren't as elaborate as they are today. "At the same time., I think they learned as much and had a little bit more fun doing it," he said. Parents offered their help with such things as cesium- BY.: AEBBI RAINNPY For many people„ Christ, nius is a time pf netstatt rerneMbering how They used • to go out 'in the -bush and chop down a tree fez...Christ- mas 04,00 decorating the, tr'.ee with whatever home7 made ornaments came easily to NO,. FiltVv.ined in those memories perhaps are those Christmas, concerts at the one-room school, Jim Prior -Who. teaches at the Brussels Public School has memories of both paitie,. ipating as a student and teaching - in a one-room schoei. In prticular -„ he rernem- • • bers the SS #4 down the sixth line' of Morris where he taught• and where Sheila MePherson now liveS.. He describeS the one room sdhool Christmas concerts as "different than what we do today. Today we look for and have difficulty finding Mater; ial suitable for the involve- ment of the whole class:'''. In a one-room school he says you had anYwhere .from '`-15 to 20 pupils were responsible for the ,whole ' program. They usually: deci- ded upon a . variety-type of program and ;the problem , was how to involve Children' in the various releS.. , But he says there was also an advantage because there were file youngsters'fro, in Grade 8 and the yoUngstet's. from Grade so you could provide .4 yeady,madefamiiy of morn and dad and the kick, He described the concerts as, timely with more of a deep immersion Into the concert, "That's 'not to say we don't do a lot of preparation today," Now he said, it's preparing your claSs for a segment,of the whole p'ro- gra.m'Whereas then it was the • whole school involved in the Whole -project. "We would start sometime :in November and as Christ- mas approached, More of the days' time, was dedicated to ' it. PORTABLE STAGE This time was involved in ( rehearsals, getting all the costumes. and decorating the school because the parentS: were coming in. He said the SS44 had a portable platform which sat' off to the side of' the room all, year' long and was: then used for the stage • for the ChriSfmas., concert... Curtains were :put . up on wires. There were also two sep- arate sections' set up on the stage one for •the boys and one for the girls so they could change clothes, so they had to careful that when the boys and girls went off, they went off to their right side of the stage. ,'We would go out and borrow some pine trees from across the road. I can re- member doing that,", he said. "It was a yeally deep immersion project, you really got nit°. it. It was something ittg then and now, although he said that in a one-room school there weren't as many parents to choose from. "It was just like a big family, a totally different atmosphere," he says of the. ,one-roots school, BRUSSELS PUBLIC. PREPARES To prepare for this year's concert at the Brussels Public School, he says his class probably selected their topic about the last week of November, but itwasn' t until about two to two and a half weeks, ago that they started reharsing,. One ,of the most *difficult things in a modern day shcool is finding suitable scripts that will involve large number of the students,‘ But' there are also advan- tages to the modern day school such as 'bettor facili- ties to yvork with, Mr. Prior says l and you can do a lot More with the material, refining it and polishing it and yott're not reSponSible for a long period of the concert time: He says, though,-for those who have, never experienced a Christmas concert in•a, one room school, they really missed something,, Though some might easily dismiss the Christmas con- cert as an impractical part of the school system, Mr. Prior- says he thinks' it has its place. "The organizational aspect of it alone is unreal -- kids': begin to 'see 'the work in- volved and learn how..to pay attention to the little things-- that's what makes or breaks a concert." he said. "Concerts , are funny things. They bring thirps tut in people that' you don't see under normal circumstances, such as a child who's shy and nervous but who gains confidence when given -a tiny part on stage, Mr. Prior said.. "It builds Morale, like y ou wouldn't believe. ha 's an advantage of concerts, pro- bably one of the biggest ones. Kids find out things about themselves they didn't even 'know before," he said. One of the most exciting things he recalls doing at a Christmas conceit about Mary Poppins, a play that involved the whole school which was Written as they went along. "I. think it's one of the best things I've ever been in- volved in and the 'kids remember doing it," he said, although he admitted 'that it did restrict partieipation a bit in ih;*81CTIIS7-TLAKE-OFFS For the variety type of programs at the one-room school he said they did little skitS such as takeoffs on television advertising or an interview with famous athlete and a. little novelty singing and choral numbers, and sometimes inclikled a nativity scene. "It was a real challenge, organizing something • like that so that it worked. toge- theAr,'c'onNlie..rtPlaitorthseaid oti, ntry school 'would take a little over an hour,, where today they aim for about an hour and a half„,but of ,course there was a smaller audience in a more confined space,, "But we packed them in," Mr. Prior said. "When thoSe methcrS and dads cameo the school was and .usually the aunts and uncle's Would conic too. It was really an enjoy- - able experienee." • "We even on occasion had some, guest, appearances,— ' he said. There was a' young people's group made up of the kids that used to go to that school and offered-to put `on a play. "We ntight even 'ask 'somebody local to play the fiddle. It was always good to fill time if we needed a big scene change or something like that," he said. At the one-room school they always had a tree--a natural one of course. Be,- sides the ' ornaments that were bought from a store, a string of 'crepe paper would be hung on the tree from corner to corner. The Christmas tree at the modern day school is an artificial one and "not as personal as when went to school," Mr. Prior said. "You got the - Christmas snIrit by getting involved in the concert. The Christmas spirit - was a little more intense. I think the feeling now is more, "I'm going to get the Christmas concert over with and then I can, look forward to Christmas," he said. • 1 •