Visit Bob DeWeese in his North Kitsap Options classroom at Gordon Elementary School, and you might think you’re in the presence of a professional dramatist. Inside the portable classroom housing his fifth- and sixth-grade class, a stage fills one end. The room is a jumble of props and costumes, and when DeWeese stands up to speak, his ability to command attention seems natural and inspired. It’s easy to imagine him as an actor with a calling to teach, and to believe that’s what brought him an alternative public school program like Options.

But the path he followed was a bit more indirect. DeWeese didn’t start out planning to teach elementary school.

“In the early ‘70s, I was a graduate student at the University of Texas, working on a Ph.D. in American Studies, and I knew I’d never get a job teaching in my field,” he recalled. “There were not many colleges with American Studies programs.”

During that time, DeWeese and his wife, Kris, were avid readers of the Alternative Booksellers Weekly, which listed more than 100 pages of books people were looking for.

“You ruined your eyes reading it,” he said, “but you got a good sense of what people were after, what was hard to find, and maybe what was worth picking up.”

In 1974, DeWeese decided to bail out on the Ph.D. Instead, he and Kris went into the book business. They ended up in Port Townsend. “We fell in love with it at first sight,” he said. They started buying and selling used books out of a tiny space downtown, paying $60 monthly rent, and in 1979, moved across the street to the location where their bookstore, Melville and Company, would remain for 22 years. Over time, the place became a Port Townsend fixture, known for its books and role as a hub of regional and global activism.

In the late 1970s, when his kids were enrolled in OPEPO, the Port Townsend alternative public school program, DeWeese started to sense he might have more than a passing interest in working with kids.

“The then-director of that program, Jim Jackson, noticed it first,” he recalled. “He used to say ‘I’ve noticed you like this a lot more than most parents do.’ ”

That was around 1983. But it was another 10 years before DeWeese decided to get a kindergarten through eighth-grade teaching certificate. By then, he knew he wanted to learn to be an alternative kind of teacher. In 1993, he signed on for an intensive 10-month teacher-training program through Pacific Oaks School in Seattle, one of the earliest alternative programs in the Northwest. He has fond memories of the people he learned with, and from, during that time.

“It was an incredible group of people,” he said. “Many of them had had other careers and they kicked us into the classroom before we ever had a single class.”

As a student teacher, DeWeese worked with Sidney Gill-Ericson at Latona School in Seattle, teaching fourth-grade. “She was very knowledgeable, and eager to share. She helped me understand how a teacher could inform and not be a dictator,” he said.

A year later, the Options program in North Kitsap was starting to expand, and in 1994, DeWeese found himself working there. “It was funny,” he noted, “Because in 1991, when they were starting, they came to OPEPO and I showed them around. Four years later, I was working in their program.”

He immersed himself in teaching, and within five years, was close to burning out. Things were not happening the way he’d planned. Then another teacher suggested he try drama. “I am the shyest person,” he said. “I told them, ‘I can’t do it.’ The response was, ‘If I can do it, anybody can. Forget about costumes. Use a tiny portion of the script.’ I thought, ‘What the heck, let’s try this.’ I was at the end of my rope. So we tried it. I loved it. They loved it. It was the best way of integrating whatever we were doing.”

What makes drama such a powerful teaching tool? “Making connections,” he said. “The overriding important thing that needs to happen for education to be real for a kid is there have to be connections. Connections between emotions and ideas. Connections to other people, and connections to parts of themselves they didn’t have earlier.”

On and off the stage, students in DeWeese’s classroom are making these kinds of connections. What does he see as the most powerful long-term outcome from learning this way? “Options is a family,” he said. “Here, everyone learns to trust in their ability to learn. Trust building gives kids a tremendous advantage in life, in the sense of developing their sense of wonder and engagement. To work with kids, and watch that happen is a great feeling.”

The North Kitsap Options junior high students (J-HOP) will perform William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” directed by Bob DeWeese, May 19-21 in the Kingston Community Center. The public is welcome to attend. Performances take place at 7 p.m. nightly. Donations are requested at the door to benefit Options. Refreshments will be available.

What is the North Kitsap Options Program?

The mission of the Options program is to provide North Kitsap School District students with a community-based education that fosters the development of self-directed, life-long learners. Options does this through significant family involvement, interdependent multi-age learning groups, and curricula that are responsive to students needs and interests.

The elementary school Options program serves students in first through sixth grades, and the junior high Options program serves students in grades seventh through ninth. The Options program is located at Richard Gordon Elementary School in Kingston; admission into the program is by application.

Options Program Registration is open now for the 2006-2007 school year. Prospective families interested in Options are encouraged to visit classrooms prior to applying. For more information, visit www.nkoptions.org or contact the Options Parent Desk at (360) 394-6758.