Author: Maelgwyn Hallatu ('22)
Photo Courtesy of Maelgwyn Hallatu
On a day seven years ago, the BAIS elementary lined up in the center of the downstairs hallway. Each of us eagerly waited as we were directed out to the blue awning to be picked up by our parents. Every day was another day consisting of solving simple math problems, singing songs about grammar, and reading those zany children's books in the corner of the classroom while tucked into pillows (How much simpler those times were).
The hallway abruptly fell into a silence as the school’s director walked into the front of the line of children. We all looked at one another, each of us collectively catching the reminder of what day of the week it happened to be. Then, all the kids took a deep, synchronized breath, turning the hallway into a choir room as the unmistakable melody swept through the corridor like a tidal wave:
♪♫ “IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIt’s Friday… It’s Fridaaaaay….” ♫♪
Those who have spent some of their years at BAIS downstairs can recall at least part of this tradition. But to those uninformed, such is what the elementary body would do every Friday afternoon after school.
It’s remarkable how BAIS students and faculty still reference and sing such a phenomenon today, especially considering all the change they’ve been through. After all, it was the efforts of the same people that kept it going all these years. If none of us remember this song, it would be strange to write a whole article about it, wouldn’t it? Yet here I am.
Before I delve into more of its implications, let’s explore how the Friday song ever came to be. All the evidence of the arrival of the song to BAIS points at the arrival of the single person: Mr. Karl Nielsen, who became the new director of the school in fall 2014. However, contrary to what some students may know, the song didn’t originate from him. Mr. Nielsen brought the song over from one of his previous locations, Numonohi Christian Academy in Goroka, Papua New Guinea. Back in 2009, he picked it up from some high school dorm kids who wrote and sang a similar melody. Mrs. Kristen Nielsen says, “They belted it out on Friday afternoons on their way back to their dorms from school, and that is where Mr. Nielsen heard it for the first time.”
Three years later, the Nielsen family moved to South Korea and attended International Christian School - Uijeongbu. There, Mr. Nielsen adapted the song a bit and used it to entertain his math classes. Eventually, they would perform the song in front of the school’s whole fifth floor. The effort taken to engage the BAIS elementary during Friday afternoons, however, wasn’t completely on Mr. Nielsen’s shoulders. Another important player in the song’s implementation was the 5th-grade teacher at the time, Ms. Peggy Alex. Now Mrs. Pearson (Congratulations!), she reportedly popularized the song, first among her fifth graders. Mrs. Erin Squiers, an elementary teacher who knew Mrs. Pearson, noted Mrs. Pearson’s enthusiastic attitude.
“She loved to sing. She always had a smile on her face and was humming or singing a song as she walked through the campus. One year she even helped LaMertha with the first drama musical.”
As someone who was in Mrs. Pearson’s fifth grade class, I’ll always remember some of her other classics we’d always sing in class, such as the “Mission Impossible Lunch Prayer,” and the “Hit the Dot Song,” one we would sing along to while she would calibrate the Mimio device. When I contacted her, Mrs. Pearson told the BAIS Times about her favorite parts of working at BAIS.
“The school felt like a big family-a family that I still miss today! Some of my favorite memories of BAIS are the swim meets at IISSAC, 5th grade lock-ins, and the pranks that Ms. Arrington and I would play on the 5th graders.”
I’ll admit, some of those pranks caught us pretty off guard.
Additionally, Mrs. Pearson shared how she helped spread the Friday Song at BAIS.
“During the 2014-2015 school year, Mr. Nielsen came to my class and asked if he could teach us the Friday song that he had started at his previous school in South Korea. I think he knew that I (along with my current class) had enough enthusiasm to not only learn the song but to spread the song throughout the school.” As foretold, the song would grow popular among the elementary students, reaching even some high schoolers at the time. By then, it was clear that the Friday song was here to stay. The tradition of singing it in the hallway every Friday afternoon would live on, even after Mrs. Pearson moved back to the States, that is, until late 2020.
Upon administering the mandatory distance-learning protocols due to the COVID pandemic, many of BAIS’s normal processes came to an abrupt halt. However, the faculty weren’t just going to let such a long-held tradition stop, so they got creative. Mrs. Squiers told the BAIS Times, “During COVID-19 we used a few new tunes and ways to share the Friday song.” Ms. Clarissa Ribbens adds that, “ Sometimes someone would get the idea to make a video of the staff doing the song and we would show it to the kids. I did it a few times, but Mrs. Loewen really stepped it up and made the really fun special edition songs!” Even many of the newer staff, including Mr. Cantrall and Ms. Martin, opted to join in.
Thanks to Rachel Nielsen, a former BAIS student, there’s even hope that the song will spark a new light in OIS, the school the Nielsens are currently stationed in, where it may start from the second grade class.
Needless to say, the Friday Song became and remained a recognized symbol at BAIS among all the staff and many of the students. Although it’s much harder to set up a line of children in the hallway less than a meter apart from each other, teachers and students mention it all the time. Recently, Mr. Amudhan Ramappa urged the tired seniors to sing it together one class.
It’s inspiring to see one thing go so far across the world and influence so many people. It’s a part of history now. However, I also think that the Friday song reveals something potentially much greater in us.
Photo Courtesy of Maelgwyn Hallatu
The story of the Friday song demonstrates how a small act could move across seas and impact so many people. We often forget how much power each of us have to leave an influence in our communities, especially due to recent events. I believe that in order to make this community truly our own, we must contribute parts of ourselves to it, just like Mrs. Pearson did with her passion of singing at BAIS and Mr. Nielsen with his love of fun abroad. Since every one of us was created uniquely, imagine how much livelier our community could be if all of our talents were put on display.
I encourage everyone that as they approach their last few years, they begin to think of ways to turn the BAIS community into an even more fun, creative, and welcoming place. Get involved, be passionate about something and show it, have some enthusiasm. It’s not too early or late to get started.
So I want to end this off by stimulating a thought. What could be your Friday song?
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