Mad Hot Ballroom

In the state of Indiana, the next two weeks are dedicated to making sure our children are being taught to take standardized tests. Some schools only take one week to take the ISTEP, but as a newly crowned Blue Ribbon School in which 28% of the student body has an identified need, we typically take about 2 weeks to take the test.

My schedule is a mess and the kids who are testing are burnt. When I planned my curriculum, I forgot about ISTEP and have quickly realized that teaching students about the order of the mass probably isn't within their attention spans this week.

To get the kids excited about the Folk Dance Club and appease their tired brains, I have been showing them "Mad Hot Ballroom." It is a fabulous documentary that follows 3 New York City Public Schools as they learn American Standard Ballroom Dancing and have an opportunity to compete in a city-wide competition. The three school are very different from each other and (spoiler alert) the "underdogs" win. :)

I have a delightful group of 12 5th graders (a complete fluke in scheduling, but I'll take it) who are totally excited about the movie. I was catching up some kids who were behind as to what is happening and started talking about what is means to live in poverty. One of the girls got real upset and told me she didn't want to know that some children don't get 3 meals a day. I mentioned to her that lots of kids in our school live in poverty, but that I think it is so cool that most people don't even know this because they love each other like a family. She then got really upset with me because now she knows that some of her friends probably live in poverty.

Sometimes I forget that people don't want to know that there are people in this world that are suffering. Kids that don't have a "free" education and get free breakfasts and lunches.

This breaks my heart. It is when we turn a blind eye to the suffering of others that we begin to forgot how to feel. And what is living without feeling?

peace.