Director's Message 3/25/03

     In March, DoDDS Pacific participates in two observances that are also celebrated in schools throughout our Nation. March is designated as Music In Our Schools Month, sponsored by the National Association for Music Education, and Youth Art Month, sponsored by The Council for Art Education.

     In the spring, we prepare for two Pacific-wide activities. The first is the audition and selection for high school student musicians that will culminate in the 2003 DoDDS Pacific Honor Music Festival. Over 150 students and their teachers participate in this annual event. As part of the audition, instrumental and vocal audiotapes are submitted to independent adjudicators. This year, the 8th U.S. Army Band will judge the instrumentalists, and music educators who do not have students auditioning will judge the vocalists. Festival participants will showcase their talents in a combined choral and band concert for community members at the host installation. The Far East Music Festival gives individual students from schools throughout the Pacific the unique opportunity to meet each other and work together for the first time to accomplish one unified performance.

     DoDDS Pacific also sponsors the publication of SUN, a journal of self-expression and a national award-winning publication. This year’s publication, SUN 29, will be similar to past publications, and will showcase student and staff art, creative writing, music, and photography. Literary and visual art editorial panels, comprised of language arts and visual art teachers, meet and select the works that are to be published in SUN 29. Over 1800 individual pieces have been submitted for critique by the panels.

     The arts are one of the most important manifestations of our multicultural heritage. The arts teach students about unique aspects of their relationships with other human beings and with the world around them, in their own and other cultures. The arts open additional avenues of success for students and opens approaches to learning that can be applied in other contexts. Studying visual and performing arts extends opportunities for personal creativity, develops skills in diverse problem solving, and perpetuates the joy of self expression.

     While DoDDS Pacific sponsors two major activities in the arts in the spring of the year, our schools and districts conduct performances and exhibits throughout the year at all grade levels within our military and host nation communities. Recently, the DoDDS Japan District participated in “Artscape,” the largest art exhibit encompassing DoD and international schools in the Tokyo area, attended by thousands and widely covered by all media. For over a decade, student art work from DoD Pacific schools has been showcased as part of the wall décor on all resident floors of the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

     Goal 1, Outcome B, of the Community Strategic Plan provides that all students will have access to varied and challenging learning opportunities. We are very proud of the creative works of our students, and encourage all students who are interested to take advantage of the exceptional opportunities in DoDDS Pacific to explore the arts.

Nancy C. Bresell
Director, DoDDS Pacific