While a gaggle of Saturday morning super heroes saved the world one more time, a group of 80 youngsters explored worlds beyond the limits of a 19-inch television screen.
“The idea was, hey, let’s get these kids out from in front of the television and give them something better to do,” said Antoinette Weatherspoon, coordinator of the Waukegan school district’s new Saturday morning enrichment program.
During the six-week session, which concluded Saturday, students could choose to study Egyptian history and culture, take an aerobics class, stretch their imaginations through creative dramatics, study Spanish, biology or photography or hone their computer skills.
Students in grades 3 through 8, from any of the city’s public or private schools, were invited to participate in the program, held at Waukegan High School.
“The kids have had a lot of fun. We think it’s been a great success and, we definitely plan on doing it again,” added Weatherspoon, who teaches 5th grade at Carman Elementary School.
Students in a class called “Instant Theater-Just Add You,” wrote and rehearsed a 10-minute play that they performed for parents and other students on the final day of class.
Titled “2018: The Adventure of the Homework Cyclotron,” the play was entirely the work of the students in the class, noted Michael McStraw, who taught the class along with Marjorie Engesser.
“Our job was mainly to corral their ideas,” McStraw said.
“What’s really been fun is to see the transformation of these kids. They’re so much more outgoing than they were at the beginning,” added Engesser. The students learned the true meaning of improvisation when only three of the eight class members turned up for the final session and performance.
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But Emily Fletcher, 11, Anna Finn, 8, and Julie Hanson, 9, carried on like seasoned troupers. “I’m not nervous. I like theater. I like to talk loud,” Emily declared confidently before the show went on.
In another drama class, students used pantomime to express ideas and solve dramatic problems. “They’ve been learning more about themselves and how they relate to others. They’ve learned to improve the way that they hear things, see things, smell things,” said instructor Wanda Whiteside.
“One of the best parts of the program is that it has given the students the chance to try things they might not have time to do in class,” said Weatherspoon. “I’ll never forget how I felt when one of my students came up to me and thanked me for having the program, because he was bored with getting up on Saturday morning and having nothing to do.”