Tuesday 8 September 2015

When plain hard work (and maybe a bit of talent) pays off.


A has always enjoyed drama. This year though the prepared drama has taken more time and determination than ever had before. You see, the group she has been in has always had a relatively easy ride. And did well - always an A+ when it comes to Eistedfodd time. She and her one partner even scored and A++ in unprepared drama last year . Their groups however are determined by the days when they take drama. And so this year she landed in a new group - with only one of the girls that was in her previous group. The rest of the group was made up of one girl that has been in one of the other good groups and two brand new girls with zero experience.

All along the girls have been prepared to maybe not score as high as their previous years because by grade 4 a bit of drama experience makes a difference. But they have a great teacher and she handed out the roles according to personality and experience. They were well on their way. And then a glitch. One of the new girls did not as expected in her term 2 exams and her mom stopped her drama. Literally less than 7 weeks before the Eistedfodd with the whole piece in place and rehearsed. They were just going to run it through every week and work on unprepared preparation and coaching.

So the result was a whole restructuring of the piece - with one less character. Drama most weeks twice a week and the last month 3 times a week. I was very angry with the mom on the one hand but I do understand her reasons. But drama is a team sport and honestly you do not drop your team.

Friday was Eistedfodd day and despite it all they were amazing and scored an A++. Highest achievement ever! We were so proud of the four of them. Little drama queens.

Once again I am so happy that the lesson of hard work equals reward could be taught. Also the lesson of adapting and accepting the unexpected bad news. And most of all that team work wins. I am wondering what the other mom is thinking when she saw their marks on Facebook?

So now my question - what would you have done if you were the mom of the other girl? (She is no where close to failing but the marks are not what the parents wanted). Would you have dropped the team or would you have continued with what would have been one hour a week and maybe half an hour once a week for a month and caught up the time and work somewhere else? I know it is more an issue of principle possibly. However the principle of teamwork is also one to stick by. Due to the positive outcome I am not angry but it did add a lot of strain on the other girls in a term where we certainly do not need more strain.

15 comments:

  1. For the sake of team, I would not have pulled my child out. There were other ways to "punish" or to remove privileges without disrupting the rest of the team, shame! Glad it turned out well in the end!

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  2. Congratulations! That is a huge achievement!
    I would have let my daughter stay on until the end! I believe in commitment and sticking to it!

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  3. Firstly: Congrats!!! That's awesome

    I would never let a team down. It's wrong. It's not fair to put other kids through so much extra stress and anxiety. There's so many ways to discipline a child. Don't let a team down.

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  4. Why did she pull her out though? To focus on her improving her English mark?

    I probably wouldn't have pulled my child though.

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    1. Marks in general Laura. She did not do great the first term and then they said if she does not improve well the second term they will stop drama. Possibly because she liked drama and they went for the carrot approach

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  5. Yay for A and the other girls in the team. That mom missed a great moment to teach how important it is to honour your commitments.

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  6. First, well done to the team on a great effort!

    I'm the odd (wo) man out because I believe that mom did exactly the right thing. They said if the marks don't improve, they are taking her out so it's important to be consistent and follow through otherwise the child thinks they're just talking in vain. I would have done the same thing.

    As far as the teamwork, this is really not such a major train smash in terms of time to prepare for an Eisteddford piece. 7 weeks is a long time and plenty of time for them to make changes. A week or two before, yes, that is a big deal and I would have said stick it out for the two weeks and then you're stopping drama, but 7 weeks really is a long time. (for those reading, I have years of experience on the stage dancing all kinds of dance)

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  7. Well done to the team for coping and achieving regardless of the curve ball that came their way!!!

    This is a difficult one.....I remember grade 4 as an emotionally difficult year, and it could be that the girl was experiencing to much pressure. I would like to believe that a decision like that was taken together, by both parents and daughter.

    Well done on using this situation to teach a life lesson to your daughter, hopefully the other girl is ready to join in the drama classes next year.

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  8. If you commit you pull through - regardless, especially when other people are involved. That is why I also teach Zoe that "no" is a sentence - rather say no in the beginning that dropping people half way through.

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    1. Wow! that's so good! No is a sentence! I will have to steal that from you :)

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  9. I would not have pulled my child out. Big congratulations for their great score

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  10. I always expected my children to stick to what they start. I believe that the team should have been taken into consideration.

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  11. ja I'm also one of those people that stick things out even if I should have pulled out long ago...
    It's a tough one this situation though. Hard on you and the girls but well done to them for pulling it off.

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So what's on your mind?