Meyer's Briggs for Schools

Schools have personalities.  Sometimes it is tradition or academics or athletics or music.  Colleges are keenly aware of their personalities and capture the personality in short paragraphs and photographs for their brochures.  In Lincoln the high schools all have open enrollment and the schools have reputations for different skills.  The schools attract students interested in those activities and the school personality is preserved.  Sometimes a strong teaching personality can attract students to an activity that they might not be interested in otherwise.

The Middle School that my kids went to/go to is known for its vocal music program and it is due to the vocal music teacher.  There are many things about it that make this unique.  For starters, vocal music is voluntary.  Rehearsals are at 7am and after school.  Every one of my three kids has asked to be in chorus and got up to go to 7am rehearsals and did after school rehearsals and even practiced at home.  Each of them have chosen to be in not one chorus group, but two.  Anna and Mary were in both regular choir and Girl's Choir.  Anna was additionally in swing choir.  Frank is in regular choir and Man Choir.  (I'll get to Man Choir in a minute, that's what I am really writing about.)  My children are not unique, either.  The choirs at the school are bursting with children who all want to be there.  They could hardly get the 8th graders off the stage last night at their final concert as they took over the mic to thank their chorus teacher and present him with presents that included a disco ball and a duct tape aardvark (the school mascot is an aardvark).  They closed the two hour chorus concert to an absolutely packed house.  It was literally standing room only and there was an overflow crowd in the hallway watching the concert on a monitor.  The teacher appreciates and encourages them.  He holds them to high musical standards and behavior standards.  He just communicates his expectations and it happens or you're out.  And no one wants to be out.  He communicates well with parents and talks with athletic coaches to organize after school rehearsals around other school activities if possible.  He balances traditional choral music with fun international songs and pop songs.  Last night included songs from The Jackson 5, traditional religious hymns, Abba, and "Whatever Happened to Saturday Night" which is a song from the "Rocky Horror Picture Show."  I could tell that the kids were just over the top happy with the borderline appropriateness of the song.  And then they brought out bongos and did a cool African song.

Girls out number the boys by quite a lot in choir even with the large number of boys.  To compensate, the teacher always had girl choirs where the girls could work on arrangements just for them.  The boys complained years ago and Man Choir began.  The teacher has taken the Men and made choir something special.  They have Man Choir Traditions and Secret Ceremonies.  They change the words in warm ups for Man Choir and include inside jokes about aardvarks.   The boys take Man Choir very seriously and they have a lot of fun singing together.  Frank is adamant that he wear a suit (they all do).  They have become mini celebrities to the point that the school system frequently requests that Man Choir perform at events.  Man Choir is performing at a retirement party next week for a district wide administrator who is reportedly a fan.

Middle School is an awkward age.  I am glad that the kids have all had a supportive environment to perform on a stage in front of an audience and sing.  It show cases them physically and vocally - sometimes awkwardly, as Middle School is.  And they enjoy it.  I would note that none of my kids (so far) have gotten involved in chorus in high school  "It's not the same as it was in Middle School," Anna once complained.