CRAWFORDSVILLE, IN — As editor of the College's magazine, it's my job to chronicle the " teachable moments" our students and faculty experience. This has been a windfall year for such moments, as Wabash students have engaged issues from bio-terrorism to racism and embraced cultures from Chiapas, Mexico to Rome, Italy. But the teachable moment I remember most fondly occurred at Hoover School in Crawfordsville.
Principal Sheridan Hadley had invited Wamidan, the College's African music and dance ensemble, to perform at the Hoover gym. She'd watched the group's winter concert and thought Wamidan director James Makubuya and his students could immerse her students in African culture in a way they'd never experienced before.
As a member of the group, I was anxious to see how our students would perform, not only as musicians, but also as teachers. None had evinced any interest in working with school kids before. I was nervous enough about their ability to teach that I prepared some visual aids and directions for them to work from.
I shouldn't have worried. The attention of the Hoover kids energized the Wabash students, and they introduced them to the instruments, music, dance, and the culture of East Africa in a way we all enjoyed. There was only one problem: the program was too brief to include every kid who wanted to see it.
One of our students tackled that problem. As the performers headed to the Hoover cafeteria for lunch, Joe Warfel, a sophomore Spanish/mathematics major with a thirst for learning like few students I've known, noticed the disappointed looks on the kids arriving late. With slight prompting by Hoover music teacher Carolyn Airey, he demonstrated the instruments to the kids, who seemed anxious to try them out.
When some of us returned to see what had happened to Joe, we joined him on various instruments to play an African folksong. I told Joe I was glad that he had stayed behind to work with these kids. Then I suggested he get some lunch, and I led him toward the cafeteria.
But he didn't follow.
So I returned to the gym, and there was Joe with another group of kids. Now he was teaching them African drumming. As I watched his thirst for learning transformed into a passion for teaching, I recalled how Joe had once been told he couldn't be a musician—how he'd struggled to learn to play this music at first. He's come a long way in two years. As he worked patiently with one of the Hoover kids who was undoubtedly thinking I can't do this, Joe's voice and actions were countering with a firm, "Yes, you can."
It's unlikely that Joe will ever be a music teacher, but he'll always be an advocate for playing music—a witness to the joy, understanding, and good friends it can bring to our lives, and to the essential role it plays in the lives of children. That will be a gift to any community he lives in: a gift from Wabash and Crawfordsville, for he learned to play music at Wabash, but he learned to be an advocate at Hoover School.
Music is becoming a place of rich interaction between the Wabash and Crawfordsville communities. Just this year, in addition to their performances, performers from the College's Visiting Artist Series put on workshops open to the public. Most recently, the Kayaga of Africa demonstrated their music and dance at Crawfordsville High and continued the workshop for more than 60 folks back at the College.
Glee Club members, in addition to their national tour and local concerts, sang at Second Presbyterian Church and in Covington, and Professor Judd Danby's jazz quartet are regular performers at the Lew Wallace Inn.
Wabash students work with local middle and high school bands, while a dedicated cadre of Crawfordsville musicians do yeomen's work supporting Wabash students in various instrumental ensembles.
And this year eight dancers from Hoover, Tuttle, and Southmont schools have learned African dance at Wabash and bring a new and exciting dimension to the Wamidan ensemble concerts. They'll perform for the last time at Wabash this semester on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Salter Hall, along with the swinging sounds of Wabash Jazz Band.
We hope you'll join us for this Wabash/Crawfordsville "teachable moment"—just one of many more to come.
Steve Charles is editor of Wabash Magazine and director of publications at Wabash College.