Riverside hosts CD Release Concert

Peter Searby, the center’s director, said the students loved the musical so much they wanted to release an album.  “Kids and professional musicians will come together to perform,” he said. “We want other people to love it and for other schools and theater groups to love it and perform it. We want to create artistic works that other people can perform.”

Music is just one of six programs offered at the Riverside Center for Education. The students, most of whom are homeschooled boys ages 8 to 14, can take classes in theater or filmmaking or participate in the ranger program, which offers outdoor adventures, or the maker program, which focuses on working with hands to create a project.

The center also offers a tutorial program, which focuses primarily on language arts, including literature, poetry and creative writing. However, those subjects aren’t taught the way traditional schools teach them.

“We want to inspire imagination through creative projects,” Searby said. “One way of teaching storytelling is through creative media. It’s a pedagogy of ‘doing.’ We’re always working on a project that has a tangible end goal that’s something to be proud of. We want to awaken a sense of wonder through the creative arts.”

Most of the programs are offered on weekdays, which is why the majority of students are homeschooled. The classes take place at Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook and the Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton. Searby, who taught in a traditional school for 13 years before creating Riverside, said he’d like to offer more programs traditional students can attend. He said while girls can attend the programs, the center caters more to boys.

Students come from throughout the suburbs, including Berwyn, Brookfield, Downers Grove, Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, La Grange, Lombard, Villa Park, Westmont and Wheaton.

J.J. Hernon, 11, loves being involved with Riverside. The La Grange Park resident, who is homeschooled and enrolled in Riverside’s theater and tutorial programs, said he enjoys the projects, like writing stories and putting on plays.

“I don’t think kids in traditional schools get to do what we get to do, like radio shows and variety shows,” he said. “I’m beginning to love acting and creative writing a lot more.”

J.J.’s mother, Monta Hernon, said it’s very important to her that her sons continue their involvement with Riverside because learning becomes “cool” to them.

“They’re having an enjoyable adventure,” said Hernon, whose 9-year-old son also attends Riverside. “They want to do things that most boys might not want to do. Incorporating adventure is creating in them a love of history, classical literature and poetry that I don’t think would be attainable to them in another way.”

Searby believes kids are inspired to learn when their imaginations are stimulated. He said when he was a child, he often felt stifled in school.

“I didn’t have a sense that I was doing anything and never felt like I was engaged,” he said. “If you find the right creative project – which in my realm is arts, theater and poetry – and get them so fired up, they love learning.”

J.J. didn’t sing on the “Bound for Glory” CD, but he will participate in the upcoming concert by performing with the chorus.

“I was in the musical last year, and that was fun,” he said. “It’s cool that Riverside put out a CD so now everybody can listen to the amazing music. It’s very catchy.”

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