NORTH PALMETTO POINT, Eleuthera, The Bahamas – At the Emma E. Cooper Primary School, in Palmetto Point, Eleuthera, students and educators alike said that participating in the recent E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival adjudications is a rewarding experience.
“I feel like I am really getting the hang of it and I am going to keep entering until I get as good as I can,” said fourth-grader Simeon Bethel.
He played the drum set for adjudications for the second straight year.
Sixth-grader Clishae Sands, who was in the descant recorder group, said she felt great entering the Festival for a second straight year.
“We tried even harder this year and we got a better score,” she said.
“I felt comfortable performing and not too nervous because I was with my other friends.”
Fifth-grader Bernard Bethel, who played the recorder in a duet, added that it made him understand that he had to practice and work hard to make it to the Festival.
Fellow fifth-grader Shantoya Bethel summed it up best for the other students.
“It was an exciting experience for me, because it was my first time,” she said.
Preschooler Carleah Culmer said she had fun in the competition and they had to practice “all the time” for their choral verse performance.
“It felt good,” she said with a laugh.
School Principal Karen Crean said she was so excited that the students entered the Festival this year and she wished they had more time to enter more performances.
“I was very pleased with our performance today,” she said.
Ms. Crean added that she was extremely overjoyed with the school’s preschoolers who scored a 90 in their performance.
She said that their teacher, Deerika Deal, worked hard with them and it paid off.
“The teacher, she put a lot of time and effort into their performances and the students – you could see the preparedness and excitement,” Ms. Crean said.
Ms. Deal said it was rewarding working with the preschoolers and their performance and score made all the hard work worth it.
“Taking part in cultural expression is important to our children because it makes them more well-rounded individuals and then, as they get older, they are able to put back into the community because they have started from a young age,” she added.
Ms. Crean agreed and said that music and artistic expression is important to the students’ educational development.
“It has a lot to with the overall development of our children, especially for them learning about working together,” Ms. Crean said.
“When the children are getting together to prepare a particular piece, they have to work together.
They have to learn discipline and this sort of preparation is essential for life, something that can … with them into the high school and into adulthood.”
By ERIC ROSE
Bahamas Information Services
