The art of cooperation
Our Lady Star of the Sea and East Catholic build a new harmony in sharing classes
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 26, 2007
Photos by Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Former Our Lady Star of the Sea teacher Pam Barthel, who volunteers to teach art to East Catholic Students, helps first grader Simone Cleaves weave on her paper loom. | Grosse Pointe Woods — Fifth-grader Kristin Murphey loves music class at school so much that when she goes home she sometimes sings with her mom.
Kristin's school doesn't even have a music program. But she attends East Catholic Elementary in Detroit and thanks to some help from Our Lady Star of the Sea Elementary, Kristin can sing her heart out every Thursday morning in a class at the Grosse Pointe Woods school.
"We don't have it at our school, so we come here," Kristin says.
That's precisely the arrangement made between Our Lady Star of the Sea and East Catholic schools. Once a week, students from East Catholic board a bus and head to Our Lady Star of the Sea where they learn art and music from Our Lady Star of Sea's teachers.
"It's wonderful what partnerships can do to enhance the curriculum in our building," says East Catholic principal Gayle Koyton. "It's such a blessing for us because these students are able to gain in those extracurricular areas. Without this, we would be deprived of it."
 The partnership came about through the Together in Faith process, the program used across the Archdiocese of Detroit to figure how to best allocate the local Church's resources. With East Catholic's student population at about 100, each parish in the Renaissance Vicariate agreed to help the school either through a fundraiser or in some other fashion.
Fr. Kenneth Kaucheck, pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea and vicar of the Renaissance Vicariate, says the arrangement is a classic example of Christian charity: realizing your assets and sharing them with others.
"It's a model for active Christian service," Fr. Kaucheck says. "When you have something that someone else doesn't have and you see how you can share what you have, it's a way of living out the Gospel."
East Catholic fifth-grader Joshua Campbell plays a piece on a the piano during music class while teacher Michelle Laboe calls the class's attention to each note he plays. |
Fourth- and fifth-grade students from East Catholic look through their music books during a class at Our Lady Star of the Sea Elementary in Grosse Pointe Woods. Students from East Catholic take music and art classes at Our Lady Star of the Sea each week. | Students at East Catholic take the classes at Our Lady Star of the Sea on each Thursday for a semester. The higher grades go earlier in the year, and the lower grades in the second semester.
For East Catholic, the benefits are clear-cut. Students get music and art programs that the school couldn't provide on its own budget.
But Our Lady Star of the Sea also benefits. First, their students get to witness how the school shares what it has, Fr. Kaucheck says. Also, it's "a good building block in terms of diversity," he adds. While Our Lady Star of the Sea's population is overwhelmingly white, East Catholic students are predominantly black.
If you ask the kids, though, there's no putting a race on the value of learning.
"I like coming here because we get to try new things, to show each other how we do things and share with each other," says East Catholic second-grader Madison Ford. "I've been coming here since last year and I've learned lots of things."
Malik Bouissi, a first-grader at East Catholic, enjoys the art class especially.
"You get to draw and you get to write and you get to make stuff," Malik says.
Of course, there's a point to all they learn in art and music, say Our Lady Star of the Sea's teachers.
"Some of the things they're learning in here makes sense to them with the concepts they're learning in science and the concepts they're learning in math," says art teacher Ann Tignanelli. "Particularly, art goes hand-in-hand with science, because it's problem-solving, as is science."
As for the music class, teacher Michelle Laboe likes to see students use their talents and be encouraged to share their gifts with others. To that end, the classes put on concerts at the end of their semesters. Many students even opt to sing solo or in small groups.
"They learn to match pitch, they learn to be good speakers," Laboe says. "There's a lot of good things that go into learning how to put a program together."
A lot of work goes into the extra classes for the East Catholic students, the teachers add. In fact, volunteers regularly come in to help them with classes and to organize the programs.
Koyton adds that the impact the programs have on student's attitudes is palpable. If students struggle in math or science, the arts programs at Our Lady Star of the Sea allow them to create songs or projects they can be proud of.
"It does so much for them," the East Catholic principal says. "It just builds their self-esteem. It makes them recognize that you can have talent in other areas.… They all know everybody can excel at something."
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