The Child Who Went Forth to Learn What School Was

The show follows a young teacher at the beginning of her career and her students from the first day of school to grade 4.
The Child Who Went Forth to Learn What School Was is a musical performance in which the instruments are extensions of the characters, helping them express themselves, learn and create harmonies together.
The text is based on stories, characters and observations provided by a group of mothers and their daughters, primary school pupils in Zalău. The resemblances to reality are intentional, and the songs and caricatures of adults are meant to distance us from methods and attitudes that children learn to resign themselves to because we adults don’t question them often enough.
The teacher’s transformation into a “witch” is based on the observations of a little girl who marvels at how, for the few weeks that the class was supervised by a constantly disgruntled and angry lady, the children themselves actually became “bad kids.”The “traffic light” is a real method used by some teachers to keep discipline in the classroom and the traffic light aria and anthem are inspired by the analogy made by a mother-daughter pair between rules and colours: if rules and discipline become too important, we end up living with only “3 colours I know in the world”. The image of FeBePlus-obsessed parents originates in the comments of mothers about the pressure they feel they have to put on their children for grades and academic achievement that will guarantee them the freedom to choose one day in the future (one mother’s expression was “we parents are becoming like grade hunters”).
“Why do we go to school?” is one of those questions that children get the answer to at a very young age, before they can even formulate it. For their sake and for the sake of the society we are preparing them for, we have to ask the question again and again, until we don’t know any longer. And we are ready to find out.
While for other children, things seem clear, Andrei doesn’t understand why does he need to come to school. Mrs. Teacher accepts and encourages questions, she is confident that the answers will emerge.
Alarmed that the Mrs. Teacher’s methods do not guarantee success, the parents mobilize and report her. The Sinister Minister, who has dealt with novice teachers and their methods before, decides that more discipline is needed. So the teacher is given a tool to help her maintain order: distance glasses, which help her to see things more simply, to eliminate mistakes, questions and doubts through sanctions.
In the eyes of the children, Mrs. Teacher’s transformation is like an evil spell, turning them too from curious, lively children into silly, cowardly little soldiers.
Parents are convinced that children’s discontent and stress are a good sign – school “needs to feel bad in order to be good for you”, the ultimate goal is the FB („Very Good”) score, the guarantee of happiness and success.
Seeing his classmates as puzzled and scared as he is, Andrei starts a riot in the classroom. The children join in. To their surprise and relief, the teacher is not the enemy.

Trailer available here: https://youtu.be/h3iUY67MwWQ

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