In some public schools, even spelling contests are considered archaic, because they might make the losers feel inferior. But her students understood. But then she told us she wants certain kinds of voices, high voices, low voices, middle voices. Colleagues told her that about two- thirds of the children she picked had notorious behavior problems. It doesn't help, Miss Gr ssner says, that teachers strain to control nearly 2,000 children with whistles and megaphones.
Students play in the school parking lot during good weather and sit in the auditorium during bad.
Music is their chance to unwind, and Miss Gr ssner, a jazz singer by night, makes it as physical as possible, choreographing Motown-style movements with every song. Miss Gr ssner hopes to give direction to at least a few lives, and she has taken two of the most talented boys in her chorus, Vincent Maldonado and Jamie Flores, under her wing. The two boys could hardly be more different. Vincent is being raised by his ailing mother, and feels both pampered and unfairly burdened as the only boy among three sisters. The prospect of going to Finland has curbed his usual tendency to lose his temper and come to school late, Miss Gr ssner said.