no child not dancing

5/24/2018 No Child Not Dancing

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NO CHILDNOT DANCING


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17M O N T A N A Q U A R T E R L Y

An 80-year-old tradition keeps the music playingand the feet moving in Bynumand just might

better prepare kids for their social lives

BY ALAN KESSELHEIM

PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS LEE

Students in Bynum start each day with dance,

a nod to longtime teacher Ira Perkins, who

said that no matter what was going on in the

childrens lives, a half-hour of dancing would

shake off all of the bad.


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First thing in the morning. All 20 students at the

Bynum school, just north of Choteau, gather in the old

Methodist Church, now serving as the gymnasium,

next to the two-story school building. Supervising

teacher, Susan Luinstra, cues up an ancient 78 vinyl record on

the equally ancient phonograph, and scratchy music from the

1930s fills the restless spaceSally Goodin, Waltz With

Me Darling, You Are My Sunshine.

Shoes off, the kids pair up. Seventh-grade boys with third-

grade girls, farm kids and kids from town. If there arent enough

boys to go around, girls join up. There is no awkward energy.

They hold hands casually. Then they break into the polka, the

schottische, a waltz. The room warms up. The students, from

first grade to eighth, glide and slide and hop and twirl around

the small space. There is laughter. A sixth-grader asks Luinstra

to dance and spins her in a giddy waltz.

Outside, the high plains swell toward the sunrise, the lonelycottonwood ribbon of Muddy Creek winds downhill, and the

Rocky Mountain Front looms in the western sky like a tidal wave

of rock about to crest. For the first hour of the school day, most

every school day, music is the lesson plan, as it has been since

the 1930s.

You never know what kind of morning kids are having,

Luinstra says. But whatever youre dealing with, after youve

danced for a while, its all gone.

Next to the front door of the school building a black plaque

reads, In Memory of Mr. (Ira) Perkins, 1933 to 1986. In the

corners of the plaque, the symbols of traditional school themes,

Bynum-stylea trumpet, a book, a couple dancing, and a

paddle. It is his legacy, and his inspiration, that has carried on

for generations at this tiny, off-the-radar rural school. It offers a

model that schools everywhere might take note of.

Perkins came to Bynum from west of Lewistown in the midst

of the Great Depression. At that time, Bynum was a bustling

town. The railroad ended there. There were three churches,

grocery and hardware stores, hotels and homes. Settlers came

and went. People used Bynum as a jumping off point and servicecenter. Community dances were common and well-attended.

Early in his time at the school, Perkins noticed a social

phenomenon. When he went to the community hall dances, he

A sign at the entrance to the Bynum School honors Ira Perkins, a teacher at the school for more than 50 years who insisted every child learn a musical

instrument and learn to dance. That tradition carries on today.


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watched as young people who knew how to

dance engaged with older people, comfort-

able in the social atmosphere, having fun.

He also saw the kids who didnt know how

to dance. They were the ones out back

smoking cigarettes, estranged from the

community energy.

He thought about that for a time, then

he took action. Perkins established a

school mandate, much like the current

spate of No Child Left Behind edicts.

In Perkins case, it was a single-schoolinitiative, and, at first glance, it had noth-

ing to do with the 3 Rs or keeping pace

with global educational standards. Every

student at the Bynum School would dance,

Perkins vowed. Every student would also

play an instrument and sing.

Turns out that Perkins brainstorm

had that magical quality of a simple idea

with profound, long-lasting effects. Andit stuck, in large measure, because of the

ferocity of Perkins commitment.

Perkins personally waxed the wood

dance floor to a slippery, sometimes

hazardous, shine. He rounded up instru-

ments, solicited donations, convinced the

school board, directed the band, entered

students in local singing contests. Kids

at bigger schools scoffed at the overallsof the Bynum country bumpkins, until

they heard them perform. The fancy

outfits sported by other schools paled in

the face of Bynums four-part harmony.

Perkins, equal doses inspirational leader

and dictator, demanded perfection and

enforced discipline.

Luinstra first started teaching at

Bynum in 1974 and overlapped with

Perkins for five of her years there.

Mr. Perkins came from a poor back-

ground, Luinstra says. He was very

sensitive about treating everyone equally.

At the same time, he wasnt the easi-

est personality to get along with, she

continues. He could be pretty cantanker-

ous, but we always managed.

I didnt know how to dance when I

came, she says. Ira treated me just like

one of the kids. You take Susan and teach


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her to dance, he told one of the students. Talk about humbling!

For more than 50 years, Perkins musical tradition grew

and flourished. The town of Bynum collapsed once the railroad

pushed on. People moved houses away, businesses closed. Today

there are a handful of residents, a post office, a bar, a dinosaur

museum. The school remains the largest structure and most

vibrant feature of the community.

We had as few as four students in 2004, Luinstra says. I

was scared that year. In the 90s we had as many as 53. One

year we had 12 girls and two boys.

We are family here, Luinstra emphasizes. When I go to

other schools it makes me sad to see how uncomfortable some

kids are in their own skins, and how awkward it is between

sexes. If there were assessments for respect and cooperation and

empathy, our kids would be off the charts.I still get people coming by who graduated 20 years ago and

say that the most important things they learned were at Bynum

School. Many of our students come from ranches miles away, or

because their needs arent met at the bigger schools, or because

parents want them exposed to this musical tradition. Quite a few

of those former students are still playing instruments, dancing,

joining local bands.

Yazmin Bogden, a fourth grader from a farm near Choteau,

is a case in point. She transferred to Bynum from a neighbor-ing school district after having difficulty. She wears a purple

coat and matching glasses, has an air of confidence and poise

about her.

My favorite dances are the 1-2 and then the waltz, she says.

Music and dance are the best things we do, Luinstra adds.

I dont have the data, but I know it in my bones. The arts bring

the whole child together. Dance and music exercise different

parts of the brain, make connections work better. Students are

comfortable with each other here as a direct result.Luinstra and primary grades teacher Abby Armstrong

combine to prepare Bynum students for high school and beyond.

Their classrooms are a mix of old and new. The Palmer method

alphabet is displayed on the wall, but there are also computer

terminals and iPads. Old encyclopedia sets and wall maps

combine with YouTube videos in lesson plans. Guitars, fiddles,

brass instruments are always close to hand. Fiddles were

donated by a music store in Great Falls. Trumpets were handed

down from former students.

We go hard until lunch, Luinstra says, then we have a

chat break. We talk about local news, or something I heard on

NPR. If somethings going well, we can let it go on. If things

arent going well, we can always push the desks back and do a

little dancing or sing something to get back on track.

It isnt that we dont have problems, Luinstra emphasizes.

We struggle with budgets, with personality conflicts, the same as

any school. There are years when the music program fades, and

others when it is really strong. Quite a few of our students come

because they have had social challenges or learning difficulties in

The arts bring the whole child together. Dance and music exercise

different parts of the brain, make connections work better. Students

are comfortable with each other here as a direct result.

The 20 students at Bynum School get a regular dose of dancing in theschool gym. If no live music is available, they dance to vinyl records dating

as far back as the 1930s.


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Susan Luinstra began

teaching at Bynum

School in 1974 and

was heavily influenced

by Ira Perkins. Until Iretire, hell always be

on my shoulder,

she says.


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different schools. Here they get individual attention, and they get

the social acceptance that naturally comes when you interact the

way we do. After you polka with someone in the morning, its a lot

harder to be mean to them on the playground.

Bailey Deshner, now in seventh grade, has attended Bynum

School since second grade. She is an accomplished fiddle player,

likes the schottische. Her family lives on the outskirts of Bynum.

Her family enrolled her in Bynum specifically because ofthe music and other enrichment programs, Luinstra points out.

Music is at the core of our school. We were so lucky to have

had Ira Perkins, Luinstra continues. But our main goal is to

prepare our kids for their futures. To my knowledge, weve only

had one student from Bynum drop out of high school.

ONEJANUARYDAYIN2014, Rab Cummings, Adam Nordell and

Johanna Davis come to Bynum to conduct a dance workshop. A

busload of students from Choteau arrives after lunch.This Methodist Church was donated to the school,

Cummings tells me. It came with a stipulation that there would

be no public dancing. Fortunately, school officials have negoti-

ated an exemption from that edict.

At first the room is cold. The kids shuffle awkwardly, dont

mingle much. Cummings introduces the music and dances.

These dances have been going on for hundreds of years, he tells

the students. They still exist for the same reasons they always

didto have fun, to learn and teach each other, to make friends.

Nordell (guitar, feet, vocals) and Davis (fiddle, feet, vocals),

the duo who make up Sassafrass Stomp, dial up a tune, their

instruments accompanied by the slap of shoe leather. Cummings

starts to call an ancient dance full of swings and promenades

and dosey-does. At first the kids are shy, embarrassed when

they make mistakes. The students from Choteau take cues from

the Bynum kids.

We travel all around Montana putting on workshops,

Cummings tells me, during a break. Usually, when we show up

at a school like this, its like weve landed from Mars. In Bynum,its just another day with some new dances thrown in.

Slowly the awkward energy melts. The room warms. Teachers

join in. Personalities come out. For this afternoon, everything

else in life recedes.

When its over, the last couple sashays down the lines of

dancers. A boy from Choteau does an exuberant belly slide

finish on the slippery floor.

Cummings and the musicians pack up their gear. The

Choteau kids climb back on the bus and head south. But theBynum dancers wont leave. In fact, it is as if they have been

waiting for this moment. They pull out the old trusty phono-

graph, the box of vinyl, start dropping the needle on records that

have played in Bynum for more than two generations.

Whatever strained energy existed while the other school

visited soon evaporates. Luinstra watches her students do the old

polkas and waltzes.

The first, most important thing is to love the music, she

says. Were winging it a lot of the time, figuring it out as we go.

Its all so old and corny, but there is always this joy. And you

realize none of the rest matters.

22

Seventh-grader

Alden Johnson, right,

shows sixth-grader

Tommy Lesofski a G

chord during guitar

class. Teacher Susan

Luinstra says that

Tommy and his family

are new arrivals to

the community, whileAlden is from a long-

standing farming

family, which might

make it difficult for the

boys to be friends in a

bigger school. When

there are only four

boys in your age group,

you learn to appreciate

each other, she says.

no child not dancing

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