The light: An educational pageant

A charmingly nostalgic pageant, first performed at a 1920 teachers’ convention, opens with a dialogue between a city official and a personified figure of Education. The city‑man, burdened by a tangled budget, debates which projects to cut, only to discover that the school appropriation is the most viable sacrifice. When Education steps forward, lamp in hand, the scene shifts from fiscal frustration to a luminous call for the value of learning.

The work unfolds in a series of “glimmers,” each a brief vignette that explores a facet of schooling—experience, tradition, invention, discipline, and democracy—while recommending mood‑setting music from dirges to patriotic marches. Designed for school assemblies or civic gatherings, the pageant blends drama, music, and allegory to spark conversation about how education lights the path toward a more thoughtful community. Listeners will hear an inventive blend of theatrical storytelling and civic reflection that remains relevant for anyone who believes learning can illuminate public life.