MCPS Elementary school variety shows....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here who directed variety shows for 10 years. The show will not be entertaining if cuts and changes aren't made to the original tryouts. We cut the acts that are inappropriate lyrics or music, or kids that are not prepared and just stand there and wiggle. I think it's good for the kids to learn that you need to be prepared!

Totally agree with you on making changes, and also making cuts if the kids have obviously come unprepared but that is not the situation in this instance. At this school many and multiple acts are cut and most of them are kids who have prepared well for their auditions. There seems to be a premium placed on limiting the length of the show, while allowing individual acts to take as much time as they need, and therefore many kids are cut. And some kids make it in year after year while others get to participate once or not at all.

PP, how long do you want the show to be?? My daughter was in her school's talent show and it was close to two hours long. Every act had a time limit and it went on forever. Yes, it is great to be inclusive but...seriously, how long do you want to sit there for your kid's three minutes on stage? Not everyone gets picked for everything. Some people get picked for lots of things. That's not mean, it's just reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here who directed variety shows for 10 years. The show will not be entertaining if cuts and changes aren't made to the original tryouts. We cut the acts that are inappropriate lyrics or music, or kids that are not prepared and just stand there and wiggle. I think it's good for the kids to learn that you need to be prepared!

Totally agree with you on making changes, and also making cuts if the kids have obviously come unprepared but that is not the situation in this instance. At this school many and multiple acts are cut and most of them are kids who have prepared well for their auditions. There seems to be a premium placed on limiting the length of the show, while allowing individual acts to take as much time as they need, and therefore many kids are cut. And some kids make it in year after year while others get to participate once or not at all.

PP, how long do you want the show to be?? My daughter was in her school's talent show and it was close to two hours long. Every act had a time limit and it went on forever. Yes, it is great to be inclusive but...seriously, how long do you want to sit there for your kid's three minutes on stage? Not everyone gets picked for everything. Some people get picked for lots of things. That's not mean, it's just reality.

I am not the PP, but I want the show to be an hour. If there are more acts than that in the show, then the solution is not to cut kids; the solution is to have two shows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here who directed variety shows for 10 years. The show will not be entertaining if cuts and changes aren't made to the original tryouts. We cut the acts that are inappropriate lyrics or music, or kids that are not prepared and just stand there and wiggle. I think it's good for the kids to learn that you need to be prepared!

Totally agree with you on making changes, and also making cuts if the kids have obviously come unprepared but that is not the situation in this instance. At this school many and multiple acts are cut and most of them are kids who have prepared well for their auditions. There seems to be a premium placed on limiting the length of the show, while allowing individual acts to take as much time as they need, and therefore many kids are cut. And some kids make it in year after year while others get to participate once or not at all.

PP, how long do you want the show to be?? My daughter was in her school's talent show and it was close to two hours long. Every act had a time limit and it went on forever. Yes, it is great to be inclusive but...seriously, how long do you want to sit there for your kid's three minutes on stage? Not everyone gets picked for everything. Some people get picked for lots of things. That's not mean, it's just reality.

I am not the PP, but I want the show to be an hour. If there are more acts than that in the show, then the solution is not to cut kids; the solution is to have two shows.

And how many one hour shows do you expect the teachers at your child's school to put together??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here who directed variety shows for 10 years. The show will not be entertaining if cuts and changes aren't made to the original tryouts. We cut the acts that are inappropriate lyrics or music, or kids that are not prepared and just stand there and wiggle. I think it's good for the kids to learn that you need to be prepared!

Totally agree with you on making changes, and also making cuts if the kids have obviously come unprepared but that is not the situation in this instance. At this school many and multiple acts are cut and most of them are kids who have prepared well for their auditions. There seems to be a premium placed on limiting the length of the show, while allowing individual acts to take as much time as they need, and therefore many kids are cut. And some kids make it in year after year while others get to participate once or not at all.

PP, how long do you want the show to be?? My daughter was in her school's talent show and it was close to two hours long. Every act had a time limit and it went on forever. Yes, it is great to be inclusive but...seriously, how long do you want to sit there for your kid's three minutes on stage? Not everyone gets picked for everything. Some people get picked for lots of things. That's not mean, it's just reality.

I am not the PP, but I want the show to be an hour. If there are more acts than that in the show, then the solution is not to cut kids; the solution is to have two shows.

My very large elementary used to have 2 shows and they still needed to cut kids. When there are 800+ kids at an elementary...

My daughter really wanted to do the show. She practiced her act with her friend religiously. She tried out, they didn't make it. Was she disappointed? Sure! Was getting rejected a good learning experience for her? You bet it was!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I am not the PP, but I want the show to be an hour. If there are more acts than that in the show, then the solution is not to cut kids; the solution is to have two shows.

My very large elementary used to have 2 shows and they still needed to cut kids. When there are 800+ kids at an elementary...

My daughter really wanted to do the show. She practiced her act with her friend religiously. She tried out, they didn't make it. Was she disappointed? Sure! Was getting rejected a good learning experience for her? You bet it was!

Then you have three shows. Or you have two shows that are each an hour and a half. The parents will just have to suffer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I am not the PP, but I want the show to be an hour. If there are more acts than that in the show, then the solution is not to cut kids; the solution is to have two shows.

My very large elementary used to have 2 shows and they still needed to cut kids. When there are 800+ kids at an elementary...

My daughter really wanted to do the show. She practiced her act with her friend religiously. She tried out, they didn't make it. Was she disappointed? Sure! Was getting rejected a good learning experience for her? You bet it was!

Performing in the talent show would presumably also have been a good learning experience for her, but it's your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I am not the PP, but I want the show to be an hour. If there are more acts than that in the show, then the solution is not to cut kids; the solution is to have two shows.

My very large elementary used to have 2 shows and they still needed to cut kids. When there are 800+ kids at an elementary...

My daughter really wanted to do the show. She practiced her act with her friend religiously. She tried out, they didn't make it. Was she disappointed? Sure! Was getting rejected a good learning experience for her? You bet it was!

Performing in the talent show would presumably also have been a good learning experience for her, but it's your kid.

Oh lord, you are seriously what is wrong with this generation of kids who can not handle failure and go off and commit suicide or mass shootings in college. I bet you also think kids deserve trophies for everything too. No one wants to see kids with no talent goofing off on-stage. No teacher and volunteer workers want to put in hours and hours of time just so every precious snowflake who wants to get up on stage and do practically nothing, can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I am not the PP, but I want the show to be an hour. If there are more acts than that in the show, then the solution is not to cut kids; the solution is to have two shows.

My very large elementary used to have 2 shows and they still needed to cut kids. When there are 800+ kids at an elementary...

My daughter really wanted to do the show. She practiced her act with her friend religiously. She tried out, they didn't make it. Was she disappointed? Sure! Was getting rejected a good learning experience for her? You bet it was!

Then you have three shows. Or you have two shows that are each an hour and a half. The parents will just have to suffer.

Says the person who probably NEVER volunteers to run these shows. At our school they are PTA volunteers because the teachers said no-no! a long time ago. Why you ask? Parents like you were hunting them down trying to find out why Larla's screeching of Let It Go, didn't make the cut. Last year, we had 159 acts try-out. If we didn't cut any of them, it would have been 8 hours of acts, not including breaks in-between acts or breaks of any kind. If you want to come and run 5 shows in one week lasting 2-2.5hrs each, come on over!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Says the person who probably NEVER volunteers to run these shows. At our school they are PTA volunteers because the teachers said no-no! a long time ago. Why you ask? Parents like you were hunting them down trying to find out why Larla's screeching of Let It Go, didn't make the cut. Last year, we had 159 acts try-out. If we didn't cut any of them, it would have been 8 hours of acts, not including breaks in-between acts or breaks of any kind. If you want to come and run 5 shows in one week lasting 2-2.5hrs each, come on over!!

If there are no volunteers, then of course there should not be a show. In fact, I'm fine with there not being a show. I have experience with two MCPS elementary schools, neither of which puts on a variety show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Oh lord, you are seriously what is wrong with this generation of kids who can not handle failure and go off and commit suicide or mass shootings in college. I bet you also think kids deserve trophies for everything too. No one wants to see kids with no talent goofing off on-stage. No teacher and volunteer workers want to put in hours and hours of time just so every precious snowflake who wants to get up on stage and do practically nothing, can.

Then they shouldn't go to an elementary-school variety show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I am not the PP, but I want the show to be an hour. If there are more acts than that in the show, then the solution is not to cut kids; the solution is to have two shows.

My very large elementary used to have 2 shows and they still needed to cut kids. When there are 800+ kids at an elementary...

My daughter really wanted to do the show. She practiced her act with her friend religiously. She tried out, they didn't make it. Was she disappointed? Sure! Was getting rejected a good learning experience for her? You bet it was!

Performing in the talent show would presumably also have been a good learning experience for her, but it's your kid.
Oh please. I am the poster who thought getting rejected from the talent was an okay learning experience for her daughter.

My daughter had plenty of other chances to perform in front of people. She did an acting camp last summer where she was able to perform in a final performance. She played in a recital. I have no doubt the talent show will be her only opportunity to perform in front of people.

If you are so concerned about your snowflake not getting a chance to perform, find other venues for her to perform!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Says the person who probably NEVER volunteers to run these shows. At our school they are PTA volunteers because the teachers said no-no! a long time ago. Why you ask? Parents like you were hunting them down trying to find out why Larla's screeching of Let It Go, didn't make the cut. Last year, we had 159 acts try-out. If we didn't cut any of them, it would have been 8 hours of acts, not including breaks in-between acts or breaks of any kind. If you want to come and run 5 shows in one week lasting 2-2.5hrs each, come on over!!

If there are no volunteers, then of course there should not be a show. In fact, I'm fine with there not being a show. I have experience with two MCPS elementary schools, neither of which puts on a variety show.

So you are on here bitching about wanting your child and all the other hundreds a chance and no one should get cut, yet you go to a school that doesn't even offer it??? Ugh, go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Says the person who probably NEVER volunteers to run these shows. At our school they are PTA volunteers because the teachers said no-no! a long time ago. Why you ask? Parents like you were hunting them down trying to find out why Larla's screeching of Let It Go, didn't make the cut. Last year, we had 159 acts try-out. If we didn't cut any of them, it would have been 8 hours of acts, not including breaks in-between acts or breaks of any kind. If you want to come and run 5 shows in one week lasting 2-2.5hrs each, come on over!!

If there are no volunteers, then of course there should not be a show. In fact, I'm fine with there not being a show. I have experience with two MCPS elementary schools, neither of which puts on a variety show.

So you are on here bitching about wanting your child and all the other hundreds a chance and no one should get cut, yet you go to a school that doesn't even offer it??? Ugh, go away.

There are multiple posters on this thread.

[Anonymous]

This will sound mean and not in the spirit of the season but I recently saw a High School play where one of the leads (a senior) was belting out songs in a way that should have been seriously embarassing to her but instead, she presumably thought she sounded good, and again presumably because since she was in 3rd grade people have been applauding her at talent shows, variety shows, what have you, rather than offering constructive criticism. Most of the kids at these "talent" shows are not talented, and it would not hurt most of them to be nudged towards working harder before they were accepted into a show, or before they were willing to go on stage and perform. My guess is that the HS student I saw perform recently could have been much better if she had been told that she needed to be better, but alas, one too many "good jobs" might have gotten to her. (reference to the excellent movie Whiplash, no need to go to those extremes, but there is a point to the push in that movie.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This will sound mean and not in the spirit of the season but I recently saw a High School play where one of the leads (a senior) was belting out songs in a way that should have been seriously embarassing to her but instead, she presumably thought she sounded good, and again presumably because since she was in 3rd grade people have been applauding her at talent shows, variety shows, what have you, rather than offering constructive criticism. Most of the kids at these "talent" shows are not talented, and it would not hurt most of them to be nudged towards working harder before they were accepted into a show, or before they were willing to go on stage and perform. My guess is that the HS student I saw perform recently could have been much better if she had been told that she needed to be better, but alas, one too many "good jobs" might have gotten to her. (reference to the excellent movie Whiplash, no need to go to those extremes, but there is a point to the push in that movie.)

A HS musical is not the same as an ES variety show. Yes, the person in charge should've done a better job at finding a better lead who could sing, but that's not the same thing as a Ker doing a *variety* show, not a *talent* show.