Stout Middle School students.

DEARBORN — Stout Middle School hosted its first musical production in 15 years on Tuesday, April 21, triggering a much needed musical program comeback in the Dearborn Public Schools.

“School House Rock, Live! Jr.”, led by stage director Rashid Baydoun and musical director Jim Walters, included a cast and crew of 40 students from sixth through eighth grade. The one hour musical was performed live before parents, children and faculty. 

Based on “Schoolhouse Rock”, the popular educational animated shorts aired during Saturday morning programming in the 70’s and 80’s, the show featured 10 musical numbers involving choreography, a choir, costumes and props. Students sung and danced through familiar tunes such as “Unpack your Adjectives”, I’m Just a Bill” and “Conjunction Junction.” 

At the start of the play, Baydoun and Walters took the stage to share their excitement about the musical program returning to Stout Middle School after a long absence. Baydoun, a Dearborn Public Schools employee, told The Arab American News the main objective behind the play was to revive the creative arts at the public schools.

“Middle Schools in our district and across the state have drastically cut theater musical programs,” Baydoun said. “We all know the arts are typically the first things to go when it comes to budgeting. We wanted to revive our program here and now Stout Middle School is actually the only Middle School in the district that pulled off a major musical production.” 

Getting the project off the ground was difficult at first. Baydoun and Walters had no budget to work with for the play, but instead had to rely on contributions. With donations, they were able to pay off royalties for using the script of the play; and they were able to purchase costumes, props and set pieces.   

While those involved in the project pulled off the production effortlessly from beginning to end, Baydoun told The Arab American News that it required months of practice and patience from both students and parents. 

Open auditions were held in early February and students rehearsed several times a week leading up to the date of the performance. During the last week of rehearsals, students would rehearse from 3-7:30 p.m.

Baydoun said the majority of the students cast in the play were already involved in other extracurricular activities. Because of the grueling after school commitment, a schedule had to be worked out with other teachers at Stout.

“We had to juggle around the sports and the other things that were going on at the school,” Baydoun said. “Most of our students were in track and volleyball, so we had to find a way to meet a schedule. The last week was hectic because what we did was we struck a deal with the coaches. At 5 p.m., I was running with the students who were also doing track, but that’s balance.”

Baydoun said that directing the play has also taught him a lot about the performance abilities of his students. He noted that creative arts further accelerates students in other core subjects and hopes the district places an emphasis on them in the future.

“These are all very bright students,” Baydoun said. “It just so happened that the smart students were the ones that can sing, carry a pitch and dance. It just goes to show that the studies don’t lie. When you involve music in your education, you are more likely to succeed in your core subjects like math and science. That definitely holds true.”

Baydoun, who was a student in the Dearborn Public Schools during his early education, recalled how the district offered more creative arts and musical programs back then. However, those programs faced drastic cuts over time, due to budgeting issues. 

Nofila Haidar, the vice president of the PTA at Becker Elementary School, attended the musical with her two daughters.

“I took my kids with me on purpose and after we left they asked why don’t they have this at their school,” Haidar said. “The way it was put together was beautiful. The plan now for our PTA is to put on a show next year. The last time we had anything like that was 15 years ago and it’s really sad that it would take that long to put on a play.”

Haidar noted that the district is more focused on standardized testing, which could place pressure on students. She feels that incorporating creativity into a child’s education will help mold them to become model students.

“I feel like creativity has been stripped away from learning,” Haidar said. “We are so focused on testing and putting these kids under pressure all the time. It takes away the joy of being with their friends and having fun. School should be fun and creativity should be there. Art class and music class should be the highlight of their day. Why isn’t this important anymore? Some parents think that only math and science is important, but what they don’t realize is that triggering students’ creativity will help them in all areas.”