Freshmen square dance at local elementary schools
A group of freshmen will be traveling to two different elementary schools today to teach kids the basics of square dancing and to celebrate Kansas Day.
Towards the end of second quarter in Freshman P.E., all freshmen who aren’t in health participate in a square dancing unit. At the end of the unit all square dancing groups participate in a “square off.” The team judged to be the best earns candy and other prizes and, for the first time this year, a chance to show off their skills at local elementary schools Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt.
“We had winning groups in every hour and we just pulled some of the best people out of every hour… and we’re going to take them to the elementary schools,” said Robert Harper, freshmen boys P.E. teacher who will be leading the trip.
In previous years, only Harper and Susan Melgares, freshmen girls P.E. teacher, have taught square dancing at the elementary schools, and they only went to Woodrow Wilson. This year they wanted to reach more elementary students, which is why they are also visiting T.R., as well as to give high school students the opportunity to interact with younger students.
If seven’s going that way and one’s going the other way, like dominos the whole group falls apart. — Robert Harper, freshmen boys P.E. teacher
“[The students are] actually going to be doing the teaching… We want older kids to work with the younger kids… I think that’s kind of missing today,” Harper said. “… kids will learn from kids way faster than they will learn from us, way faster, I figured that out many years ago. The mentoring, and the relationship, it’s just not there any more.”
One setback is a lack of volunteers. According to Harper, originally they had enough volunteers but as the day came closer they started dropping out. Harper thinks peer pressure played a role in the lack of volunteers.
“[Here’s] what happened… for some reason, kids do not want other kids to see them having fun. If they try to have fun… and somebody laughs, they quit, they shut down,” Harper said. “[When] people see square dancing…they don’t see eight people, working as a group, together, to get a task accomplished,” Harper said. “If seven’s going that way and one’s going the other way, like dominos the whole group falls apart. Other sports I like, because you have to work together of course, but square dancing is really easy because you have got to work together and stay on the same page. It’s fun too.”