Portsmouth students get a ‘Window to the World’

This is a program that started about 12 years ago, to bring to the students a different window to the world beyond Portsmouth.”

João P. Arruda, Portsmouth Middle School principal

PORTSMOUTH — In the center of Portsmouth Middle School’s gym Thursday night, Dominican master drummer Robertico Arias was banging out rhythms from his native land as crowd of onlookers clapped along.

In a corner near the entrance, Alcidion Andrade, who hails from the island of St. Michael in the Açores, demonstrated his basket-weaving technique.

Earlier, the school band performed a rousing version of “Malagueña” while the chorus and jazz band also highlighted numbers from other countries.

Irish step dancers from Clann Lir Academy showed off their footwork on reels and slip jigs.

Right outside, “The Malasada Crew” was busy frying up more than 300 of the sweet Portuguese doughnuts.

And in two resource rooms in the center of the school, eighth-graders showed off their class projects on countries such as Costa Rice, Argentina, Puerto Rico and others, while serving up tasty food from all around the globe.

Welcome to the culminating event of “A Window to the World,” Portsmouth Middle School’s annual program that exposes eighth-grade students to different cultures through art, food, music and more.

The class has been working on an interdisciplinary project for the past six weeks that incorporates the Portuguese and Spanish curriculums with English/language arts, science, math and social studies, according to João P. Arruda, school principal.

The research-based project enables students to become familiar with the language and culture of many countries whose society speaks Portuguese and/or Spanish, he said. With the help of their teachers, students have been exploring such topics as gastronomy, arts, government, scientific innovations and challenges facing their selected country. 

“This is a program that started about 12 years ago, to bring to the students a different window to the world beyond Portsmouth so they can experience different cultures,” Mr. Arruda said. 

“We created an exposition with artisans who came directly from the Azores, so they can feel part of the culture. We also have musicians and dancers from Puerto Rico and also Ireland, so they can come together with different cultures and understand what is taking place in the rest of the world.”

Mr. Arruda, who introduced all the musicians, artisans and vendors, said he was thrilled by the multicultural display.

“It makes me feel great — especially after you have a malasada,” he said.