Virginia Cordero made it, breathlessly, in time for daughter Xena’s holiday concert. Mom’s busy working up a new trick. So’s Xena.
And the two are learning from each other.
Virginia and Xena’s family is one of three the Independent is following this school year to look at the involvement of parents in their children’s education.
Xena attends the parochial St. Martin de Porres Academy (SMPA). The school moved this year to New Haven’s Hill neighborhood; its holiday concert took place in the auditorium back at the school’s old home, at St. Ann’s Parish school in Hamden.
It was time to look forward to a little well-deserved relaxation in the upcoming vacation for the energetic Cordero family, . For the first marking period Xena was at her understated, graceful, stellar best: She made honors list, had perfect attendance, was pursuing her four after-school club activities, including helping at a community shelter/ And at this concert she was about to play clarinet in the intermediate school band.
Her nephew Malik was among the more than 100 proud relatives and friends crowding the auditorim to hear “Jolly Old St. Nick,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and other seasonal favorites.
Virginia rushed in with Malik; she’s been busy with a new job. She left her late-shift waitress job to work full time in the family fence company of her two sons. She has seen that business blossom from fences into larger contracting jobs.
So now, “I’m learning to put up sheetrock from my boys,” she said. “I was outside all day today working. It’s wonderful to be learning. The other day I learned to take windows out, to melt the paint completely off, to repaint them, and to put them back in. Restoration work. My mind is so much clearer working on one thing than when I was waitressing, and the business is growing, and this will be something I’ll have to leave my children.”
The band tuned up. Xena got ready in the clarinet section. Meanwhile, Virginia Cordero spoke of how she is continually learning not just from her sons but from her daughter as well. “I am always surprised by how much she knows. The facts and the interests that girl has at her command are amazing. She came home the other day and told me, for example, about the four distinct dialects of Spanish. I speak Spanish, and I didn’t know that.”
Xena’s English teacher, Danielle Swift, who was applauding in the audience with fellow SMPA teacher Andrea Kalimon, said Xena had a new interest, too.
“She’s writing the most beautiful poetry,” Swift said. “We did some reading of poetry in class recently, but writing it, that came all from Xena. A lot of the poems are about friendship. I can’t do justice to them if I paraphrase, but she wrote one about how angels are really like great friends with each other. And people have wings like angels, she wrote, only they’re invisible. When your wings aren’t working, down come your angel friends to repair your wings and pick you up.”
Maybe Xena got the wing-repair angle from the hours she spends on weekends helping out in the fencing/contracting business with her mom and brothers.
While Xena is in intermediate band, there’s also a beginners’ band at SMPA and a smaller advanced band. Everyone takes music at SMPA. Twenty-seven kids performed three years ago, when the school first opened; tonight nearly all 80 students would. SMPA kids all take four years of instrumental music before they enter high school.
Principal Mary Surowiecki (pictured catching up on the holiday elf shoe contract SMPA is placing with the Cordero business) said this was a deliberate curriculum choice.
“Music is incredibly important in the lives of our kids,” she said. There are four reasons for that. “First, there are lots research studies pointing to a direct relationship between music study and greater proficiency in other academic areas. Second, being in a band creates a sense of teamwork. Third, following those notes is an exercise in focus that serves the kids well in all subjects. Fourth, being in a band is a little like being on an athletic team. The leader is like a coach, takes an interest in the kids’ lives in a special way.
“That’s certainly true of our music director band teacher Catherine Peters [pictured]. We hope that when these kids graduate our small middle school and get into a big, sometimes impersonal high school, they might, with four years of instrumental music under their belts, gravitate to the band, where they will have a smaller world within the larger high school. It will make a big school seem littler to them, so we see music here in addition to everything else as an investment in the kids’ future success.”
And what was the news at the new building? “Well,” answered Surowiecki, “one of our parents, a board member, knew we needed lockers. His country club up in Wallingford, the Farms Country Club, was getting new lockers. So guess where the old lockers are going, all one hundred of them!
“That’s right. They told me first that the lockers would be installed during the break. Yesterday I found out they’re being installed tomorrow. Whew! But we’ll work around it. We’re very grateful. Especially for the older kids who are needing to get organized to apply for high school. Now every kid will not only have a locker, but a locker big enough to put their golf clubs in!”
We will not be surprised that when we check in with Xena next year after the holidays, she may have taken that activity up as well.
Xena and her colleagues among the reeds played “Yuletide Carols” in a sprightly fashion. To this reporter the “Yankee Doodle” solo, done slow and gnarly on the tuba, was the sleeper hit of SMPA’s holiday concert.
For previous installments in the Independent’s series on parental involvement in local schools, click on:
Brandon Aims For The Blue Shirt
Night-Shift Waitress Hangs Up Apron
Dad Meets The Teachers. All Of ‘Em
Ms. Lopez Moves Brandon’s Seat
Night-Shift Waitress Gets Xena To Class On Time
Fifth-Graders Get “Amistadized”
Board of Ed To Parents: Get Involved!
Task Force Hones Plan for Kids
The New St. Martin DePorres Comes Home
Good-Bye Recess. Hello Take 10.
