Waiting for the bell to ring as they sat in the Learning Commons, most of the students scrolled on their phones, ready for the start of whatever random FLEX session they’d been assigned to for the day. Though they were prepared for the study period to proceed as usual—listening to announcements, being lectured on how they should remember to actually sign up for a FLEX session, pretending to be productive, and simply existing through the 40-minute period—their expectations would soon be proven wrong.
It became clear that the period would be far from the normal monotonous routine as robotics teacher Will Miner called for students’ attention from the front of the room, his eagerness apparent.
“If you’re here it’s because you didn’t sign up for a FLEX. But don’t worry, you’re in for a show.”
And in for a show they were. Over the next half hour, Miner and a few students from his second period class took their audience on a nautical voyage of discovery, diving deep into what he describes as one of the worst maritime disasters to occur on United States territory: the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was commissioned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1957, and it would be the largest freight on the Great Lakes during the time. It typically carried taconite, which is an iron ore used for blast furnaces. On November 9, 1975 the ship was in Lake Superior, with 29 crew members aboard. Late in the day gale winds were predicted, so the crew made the choice to change routes to a more northern one. This choice would lead to their demise as they headed into the brunt of the storm. The next day, on November 10 around 7:00 pm, the ship met its end as it sank due to the storms.
Gordon Lightfoot, an American singer and songwriter, wanted to bring light to the maritime disaster and honor the 29 crew members who lost their lives. Lightfoot published a song in 1976 titled “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Miner’s pre-show presentation puts an emphasis on this song because of how much pride Lightfoot found in it.
The students in Will Miner’s 2nd period class decided they wanted to bring light to this disaster at Davie High, so they prepared for their performance. Cody White, the teacher’s assistant for the class, was the director, and the students in the class were the performers. As Miner reminded the FLEX many times, “It’s all about the students.” The weeks leading up to the performance, the students were encouraged to research the Fitzgerald, and they took that knowledge to put on the performance of a lifetime. Using materials found around the school—wooden boards, a classroom fan, and a few inventive sound effects—they prepared to transform the Learning Commons into the stormy waters of Lake Superior.
“We really just prepared by diving straight in and then cutting out parts that didn’t work,” White said. “It was really just a matter of finding out how we could get the story across and still be fun with it.”
As the lights dimmed in the Learning Commons, it was time for their hard work to pay off. Jakob Tanner started the performance as he narrated Lightfoot’s song. Soon, Connor Jones joined the stage as The Edmund Fitzgerald itself, which was soon hit by the gales of November (played by Junior Rodriguez-Adame). The homemade moving parts of the performance left the laughter echoing through the audience. As the fan blew the wind onto The Edmund Fitzgerald, the shock of the accident hit the students watching the performance as Jones suddenly snapped the wooden boat in half.
As the performance came to its conclusion, the students in FLEX were even more perplexed than when they started. Thoughts of shipwrecks, storms, and the haunting tune of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” lingered in the air as an apprehensive applause filled the Learning Commons. What started as an ordinary, mundane flex session ended as an expression of students’ creativity and passion for history. Students in the audience started to find an interest in The Edmund Fitzgerald, completing the FLEX’s mission of bringing light to the maritime disaster. As flex came to an end with the ringing of the bell, Miner left his performers with one last thought: “Gordon Lightfoot would be proud of you all.”
