A Good Day For Josh

Today we traveled the 27 miles down to Josh's new school.  He got to see his room, look around, meet with the principals, and hear some great news.  And I got to do it all with him!!!

His principals basically told him that they wanted him to do anything that he wanted with these kids (Grades 4-7).  He can just do drum ensembles, choirs, dancing, ANYTHING.  He is jumping into a music class which was not  structured or set up to involve the kids.  So the administration's goal is: Get the kids involved.  They have even offered Josh an extra two hours after school (paid) to start extra music programs which can be available to all of the underprivileged kids FOR FREE.  They said that last year 86% of the entire school showed up all year.  Not kidding.

So we were excited to see Josh's room.  But... it was a mess.  There is literally few usable items because most of the (cheap) instruments are so old and banged up that they will probably need to be thrown out.  We took some pictures so that we will have 'before' and 'after' pictures later.  Here is what we saw today:

The room!!!!

Yes, it is a mess.

A small view of the closet.  I have no idea why there are so many plants.

This is a mess.

Yes, folks, that is an autoharp.  He has many of them and we are not sure why.

On the VERY bright side, his principal basically told him that they will pay for WHATEVER Josh wants.  They want him to start an African Drum ensemble.  Josh said, "That would be AMAZING, but honestly, it would be incredibly expensive to purchase ALL of the instruments this year for that many students."  Do you know what they said?  "Okay.  How about if we buy all of those and give you a couple thousand dollars extra?"   Uhhhhh.... needless to say, I am so jealous proud of him and excited for his year to start!