If students at Pike County High School don’t prepare themselves for the future, then they’re not taking advantage of the opportunities available to them.

Wayne Duckworth, PCHS choral director, said he has never seen a faculty and staff that work any harder to prepare students for their futures than those at PCHS.

Duckworth was the program guest of Rotarian Gentry Hassett at the Wednesday meeting of the Brundidge Rotary Club.

He said he continues to be amazed by the dedication and commitment of everyone at Pike County High School: faculty, staff and students alike.

“I am so proud to be a part of a school like that. It is an honor,” he said.

Duckworth was the program guest of Rotarian Gentry Hassett at the Wednesday meeting of the Brundidge Rotary Club. He spoke to the Rotarians about the choral program at the PCHS.

Duckworth said PCHS offers a variety of classes that prepare students who are on different career paths.

“And, not just academics,” he said. “We offer classes that are needed for students to be successful in other areas,” he said. “The performing arts is one of those areas and that area is expanding. We are in the process of opening a Fine Arts Academy at PCHS. We already have a Fine Arts Building with an auditorium to house the academy. It is exciting to see the arts moving in this direction.”

PCHS offers a cross-curriculum which is designed to cross one subject area with the other.

“In our music program, the students study vocal music and each one selects an artist and learns about that artist’s life and music and gives an oral presentation,” Duckworth said. “Then, I assign each student an artist to learn about and then make a presentation. That’s cross curriculum.”

Duckwork said cross curriculum is an exciting way to teach and to learn. His great excitement is that music is being incorporated into other courses of study.

“Our upcoming production of ‘That’s Entertainment’ will be a salute to the entertainment industry,” Duckworth said. “For the performance, band students will be involved, drama students, art students and our choral group and gospel singers.”

Duckworth said a venture into the arts could be live changing for some students as it was for him.

“When I was growing up, we were poor but I didn’t know it,” he said. “When I had the opportunity, I signed up for band but my mother told me we didn’t have money to buy an instrument. She suggested that I might take choir. That one suggestion changed my life.”

Even if participating in the arts is not a life changing experience, Duckworth said the quality of life for the students who participate will be greatly enhanced.