The performance was delightful and heart-warming to all who were present: some 50-odd residents, a handful of parents and most of the school's faculty. The program was arranged by the school's music teacher, Jo Ann Behr.

Behr has been with the school for three and half years now and has started many programs at the school such as the instrumental music program and the composer program.

"Each year the Wilson School chooses a composer as part of a thematic unit," said Carolyn Borlo, the head of the Wilson School, as she welcomed the residents of Franciscan Oaks to the performance. This is the third year in a row that the school has had such a program be a part of a school-wide music curriculum and the program has been gaining ground as a key part of the school year ever since.

This performance of "Nutcracker Suite" was not just a holiday show done for parents and community members, but also a part of a larger interdisciplinary approach to education, which is central to the program at this school. The Wilson School is a private, independent day school located in Mountain Lakes, serving grades Pre-K through eight. This co-ed school focuses on developing individual student programs to encourage each student to reach his or her personal potential.

The school is divided into a Lower School and an Upper School, both of which incorporate strong thematic and interdisciplinary elements across all the grade levels. As a result, the music program is integrated into the classroom in the form of general music classes once or twice a week, depending on grade level, and instrumental lessons offered from grades K through eight. The composer program has been extremely successful at increasing students level of consideration for music.

"The first year [of the program] we focused on Mozart and just had a recital at the end of the year with 30 pieces. There were piano solos of all different levels. The band performed and the whole school sang "Ah vous dirais-je, Maman" in French," Behr said. The tune of this song is better known as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and although Mozart did not write the piece, he wrote 12 variations on the original French folk-tune.

The entire school also performed a period waltz. In selecting a composer, Behr tries to choose one with a wide range of performable music, so the youngest of children and the oldest will be challenged. Last year the composer was Beethoven.

This strong emphasis on the integration of a subject throughout all of the grades is not found only in the music program but also in the study extends across other subjects. The students' other teachers find ways to integrate the composer into their lesson plans and class activities.

In art, the students helped to build sets for the performances and a study of the composer's life or time period was incorporated into lesson plans within the core subjects. By reinforcing information through a variety of different ways, students are able to gain a broader, more ingrained understanding of a subject. This is evident when students tell Behr long after the spring recital that they heard a piece of music by one these composers on the radio, on television, or in the store while shopping with their parents. Thus proving their retention of what they are learning and how it connects them to the world around them.

The impact that such a highly developed and thoughtful music program has on the kids is clear in other ways as well. They were enthusiastic, attentive and well behaved in the auditorium as many of them waited most patiently to go on stage or sing.

"The students get so much stage experience that they gain an ease of speaking and public performing," Behr said when asked about the benefits of this program to the students. This benefit is evident in the older children especially. Most had an ease about themselves while performing that can only come from such a high level of exposure. In a piece titled "The Russian Dance," performed by the older boys at the school, there was enthusiasm about their performance as they leapt over one another on stage with a kind of daring, and disregard for appearance not often witnessed in most pre-teen boys.

In another scene where all of the rats are sword fighting one another, "The boys helped choreographed this scene themselves," said Behr. This type of independent expression and initiative is reflected back as a part of the school's mission, "To create an environment for success, which will develop an independent, thoughtful and confident learner."

Confident is a good word to describe seventh-grade student, Alyssa Luc, age 13, of Mountain Lakes. Luc was Clara, the lead female of the performance. In addition to being Clara, Luc also did the choreography to several of the pieces including "Waltz of the Flowers." As for her favorite part of the performance, "Getting to be Clara, I've been watching it since I was little, so I was excited."

Alyssa studies tap, jazz, and ballet as well as voice at Gateway to the Arts in Boonton.

Some other local children with lead roles in the performance included Benjamin Wuersch of Mountain Lakes who played Fritz, Clara's younger brother and Frankie Yi of Boonton who was the Rat King. The role of the Nutcracker Prince was played by Adam Franklin.

Despite the level of sophistication of this program, the children always manage to remind one that they are still just that, kids. For all their seriousness, fun was still high on the priority list for the day.