The Evolution of The Butterfly Scholars

My students know me as Ms. Chrys. For the past 21 years I have been a teacher in the New York City public school system teaching everything from Kindergarten music to middle school Humanities to 12th grade college prep. Through all those years I have been focused and dedicated to motivating and elevating the children I teach to discover and nurture their artistic and creative talents.

When I started Butterfly Scholars, it was a small lunchtime discussion group. These were the students that just needed someone to talk to and preferred to sing and dance instead of go to recess. From that small group we began The Butterfly Dancers and performed for the school community in monthly showcases. As the Butterfly Scholars grew, I documented our rehearsals, performances and student testimonials to create my own YouTube channel.

But performance is not the only goal in motivating our youth. We must educate our children on social issues and allow them to form and express their own opinions with confidence. We must read more, learn more, research more and be more aware of what is happening in our society so that our children can make informed decisions for themselves and ultimately their futures. Then we must allow them to time and space to use their creativity to transform their ideas into ART.

Unfortunately, what happened instead was a common occurrence in education where the performing arts are put aside for the intense preparation of standardized testing. And since I felt essentially trapped in my profession, forced to teach content that was turning my students off to the intrinsic love of learning, I took every opportunity, every lunch, every prep period, every afterschool hour, every weekend to celebrate and nurture the creative talents of my students.

I founded Chrysalis Camera Summer Academy to teach students in the Bronx how to perform & record their artistry and each other using digital media. Each summer our numbers grew and our activities increased but I still felt in my heart that more students needed this opportunity. When the COVID-19 quarantine forced us all into remote learning I decided to seize the opportunity to revisit my original goal of having a safe space for students to express their ideas about the world around them and interpret their opinions through performing & media arts.

The original Butterfly Scholars are the children of Chrysalix - Ryan, Jasmine and El' Shango. They each now have roles in the cast and crew of the KIDS WANT TO KNOW SHOW.

We have expanded the Butterfly Scholars community to all students all around the world now that our youth media is part of the "KIDS WANT TO KNOW SHOW".