After-school music lessons give fifth-grader Brandon a sense of focus and accomplishment. Cleveland's Promise. CLEVELAND, Ohio – School is done for the day at Almira Elementary, and Brandon is sitting in a chair outside Mr. Paul March’s music room, preparing to practice playing the trumpet.
Two reporters from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer have spent the past two school years embedded at Almira Elementary School on Cleveland’s West side, documenting the many challenges of teaching kids whose lives are complicated by poverty and the creative ways Cleveland educators overcome them. “That’s what the after-school program is really nice for,” music teacher Mr. March later says of Brandon’s commitment to his lessons. “For kids who have a hard time focusing, either because of their own habits in the classroom or because of the other distractions going on around them, when they come at the end of the day, it’s their time to relax and just focus on one thing.”
Almira’s after-school guitar program was already in place when Mr. March joined the staff, so leading the program was a good fit.