It's 7:30 on a crisp, fall Long Island morning as Andreas Papalaskaris and Melissa Postora arrive at Barton elementary school an hour and a half before classes begin. They head for the music room to juggle.
Drums, stacks of tambourines, xylophones on stands, stilts and bins of balls, beanbags, juggling rings and scarves border the walls of the green cinder block schoolroom. Teacher Karen Deeter is helping a child manipulate three balls while her partner, Chuck Maler, watches a fifth grader spinning a plate on a pole.
Maler and Deeter's Center Ring curriculum has evolved over the past fifteen years. They merged ideas, energy, resources, and their art and music students based upon a belief that a children's participative interdisciplinary program is important. What has grown from their vision is a blend of visual and theater arts, music, movement, and circus arts in a process-oriented approach to learning. Each spring Center Ring culminates in a performance that is as unique as each group of fourth and fifth graders. The diagnostic and therapeutic effects of Center Ring activities for children with perception and reading difficulties is an added bonus.
The Barton arts program is unique. Yet it's one among many excellent programs that gives us reason to be optimistic about our public schools. Ernest Boyer, former U.S. commissioner of education and current president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, addressed the national PTA last year on the future of public education. Citing the recent report filed by the National Commission on Excellence in Education declaring that "the nation is at risk," Boyer replied. "The truth is that our schools were never quite as bad as the hyperbole would suggest. Indeed, after we [the Carnegie Foundation] completed our study of high schools, I became convinced that the nation's schools from coast to coast deserve not just F's but A's as well."
Andrew Mills, head of the music division of the New York State Department of Education, ranks Barton's arts program at the top of the class.
Ever since the Russians launched Sputnik, extending the space race to education, American researchers have been scrutinizing our public education system from all angles. After looking at teaching methods, parent and community involvement, and subject areas, the general conclusion has been that while effective curriculum, adequate space, and manageable class size are important, the guidance of a masterful teacher is essential. In his speech to the PTA, Ernest Boyer said, "We will have excellence only as we attract and hold outstanding teachers."
Juggling and spinning plates
After fifteen minutes of juggling, Andreas, Melissa, and the other thirty-five Barton fourth- and fifth-graders who meet for Center Ring cluster around Maler as he hops on a unicycle, explaining how like and a bicycle it moves. A fifth-grader, who started pedaling on one wheel last fall, loops across the room. Melissa balances against the block wall and maneuvers forward a few inches.
Andreas was the first fourth-grader to master the spinning plate. Eric Sorensen learned to juggle balls and progressed to clubs, borrowing a set
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