Night of the Arts:

Thursday, September 18, 2008


Last night was the school's "night of the arts". The school performed a musical called "Nobody" - the theme was the harmful effect of bullying.
Zai's class sang three songs & he had a wonderful time - he must get that performing gene from his father - LOL!

I was however very disappointed in one thing (& no it wasn't the dreadful pictures I ended up taking - that was due to 'someone' playing with the camera before the show ). This school is a central school - that means it goes from kinder to year 12. The bulk of the musical was performed by the high school drama students (who did a great job). This meant that the musical really was of a theme more suitable for that age & not the early primary. One particular scene I found especially unacceptable - they were offering drugs to the main character - he did refuse them, but it was quite open & graphic about what they were doing - (even showing an "addict" coming & buying some). To me this was inappropriate for kinder students to be watching. If this was on TV it would have had a PG rating - I do not allow my children to watch PG- they are too immature for it.
So now thanks to the musical another little bit of our children's innocence has been taken & I am actually very angry about this.
I think parents should have been contacted & made aware of the content before the show & then given the option of allowing our children to participate or not. Is that unreasonable?
I now get the "privilege" of writing to the principal about how we felt (parenting is fun hey!!)

Anyway here is Zai's class (yes this is his whole class) performing !

10 comments:

Frizzy said...

Wow! In a school with such varying ages I am shocked they hadn't thought of this first. I understand your concern completely though in today's society many people seem to over look such things. The bad stuff IE premarital sex, drugs, addictions, shows on body image, inappropriate advertizements for men and women's encounters are everywhere and seems to be the norm rather than the opposite. I don't want to go back to the stone age but a happy medium would be nice. Heck, even what they call the Family channel in the US has all of the above topics and displays. I don't want my children to be ignorant to all of these temptations but I don't want them thrown in their face so much that it's NORMAL and OK.

Cheryl Lage said...

Yipes! That would have freaked me out a bit, too! (Oh I'd be writing a letter! ;) ) I've repeatedly turned off TV for TV-7 (even though our kids are 7) but it just seems to precociously "mature" for them at this stage. Innocence while we can....

You sweetie looks PRECIOUS...looks like a fun performance. :)

Anonymous said...

I agree, that wasn't appropriate. There are some things that they just don't need to see at Zai's age. I agree with Cheryl...I would write what my husband refers to as a "strongly worded letter."

Zai looks just adorable though. And who was that "someone" who was playing with the camera. Not one of the twins! No...surely not.

SF said...

Hmmmmm, definately not acceptable. Things happen at saraya's school too which I find frustrating- even the watching of certain movies which we would never let her watch at home. They must watch 2 or 3 movies every term, maybe more! Why do they need to do this= we're not sending her to school to watch dvd's............ :(
Her school is also a p - 12 school, so we have some of the same issues. I dislike that the little ones are in the same grounds as the big kids during lunch and morning tea. Times like these I'd rather have her home!! A letter sounds like a good idea- maybe you could write it anonomously if you feel more comfortable doing that?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I reckon that performing gene comes from his dad...
Parenting can be a bit trying at times!!!!
lots of love xxxxx

Mummy McTavish said...

Zai looks like he's having a great time. It's a pitty they have made such a silly decision to allow that content that probably wrecked the night for all the lower school parents :( write that letter!

Terri said...

WOW! It amazes me that it was done at school. I say YES, by all means, your have EVERY right to write that letter. So sorry you are being put in this situation.

Deanna said...

OH WOW!!!
Not sure that was the right thing of the school to do...seems a bit harsh for the little ones.
I would probably address it with the school....

He looks like he had fun though!!!

Sorry they were exposed to this :(

megs @ whadusay said...

Good for you! I so hate confrontation, so I'm not a big fan of this part of parenting, BUT if we don't stand up for our kids and their innocence who will?

I salute you! :)

Kylie said...

Oh no! Sounds very inappropriate. Did you have any 'tricky' parent questions from Zai? I wonder how the teacher explained this part of the show to the children? Also have you had any feedback from the principal?

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