Friday, November 26, 2010

Brief Break

I took a brief brake from blogging this past week.  It started last Thursday when the kids had International Day at school.  I was taking some photos and was very tired and got in a pretty bad mood.

The entire elementary school had an assembly on International Day.  The Chevron Theater was packed with standing room only as there were a lot of parents there as well.  Aleena performed a Thai dance with a group of about sixteen or so boys and girls.  One of the Thai mom's, Kuhn Thik organized the dance.  The children practiced every Friday after Aleena's jazz dance class.  Of course, at ages five through seven, they were really cute dancing in their traditional Thai outfits.  After watching a few of there practices, I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but they actually did a great job.

During assembly they also played a video of students explaining what "free to be" (the theme of the week) meant to them.  Jacob's class selected him to represent them, so he had his moment on the screen in front of everyone. He had his hands behind his head and did a nice job delivering his spiel.  The part I remember was the end when he said it meant that "no one can boss you around".

I think the kids favorite part of the assembly was where they announce each of the countries who are represented at the ES.  The ISB ES student body comes from fifty-nine different countries.  The largest contingent was probably the U.S. followed closely by Thailand.

Its pretty neat that the kids go to school with other kids from every continent save Antarctica.   I'm not sure how many of the kids that I went to elementary school with were born outside of Campbell County Kentucky.  I'm not sure how much of it all they will remember, particularly Aleena, but I hope the experience helps to shape them.  Not only do I think it can help them appreciate other cultures, but also their own cultures.

No comments: