Confetti Park

Tag: teachers

  • Students at Arden Cahill Academy share their love of Louisiana culture

    Students at Arden Cahill Academy share their love of Louisiana culture

    Arden Cahill in the spotlight!

    In this episode of Confetti Park, we meet some of the teachers and students at Arden Cahill Academy in Gretna, Louisiana, and hear some of the original poems and essays created by students in the seventh and eighth grades under teachers Nick and Rick Mithun.

    Nick Mithun teaches French, while Rick Mithun teaches history. They are the grandsons of Arden Cahill, the woman who founded the school in 1968 along with her husband, Harry. Currently there are four generations of Cahill family members involved at the school—the youngest just enrolled in the infant center.

    Education rooted in the arts

    Arden Cahill envisioned an early childhood education center rooted in the arts, and rooted in Louisiana French culture,  in a country-like atmosphere. The legacy of her dream is fulfilled today in a twelve-acre campus shaded with oak and cypress trees along Bayou Fatma in Gretna. At the back of campus, there is a country farmyard with animals that children interact with daily, and an equestrian arena with horseback riding lessons. Music, art, and theater classes are core parts of the curriculum, and all children learn French.

    Confetti Park’s Katy Hobgood Ray interviewed Nick and Rick Mithun and some of their students, and gathered their poems about life in Louisiana. Listen

    Thank you to all the teachers and students at Arden Cahill for sharing your great work on Confetti Park! To learn more about this wonderful school in Gretna, Louisiana, and its deep focus on French culture and the arts, visit ardencahillcademy.com

  • Music Memory from Carole Gauthier Lancon

    Music Memory from Carole Gauthier Lancon

    Carole Gauthier Lancon
    Carole Gauthier Lancon

    Carole Gauthier Lancon is an artist, long-time arts educator and art therapist who lives in a small village called Parks, Louisiana on the banks of Bayou Teche.  Originally from St. Martinville, Carole grew up in a family where art and art making were an everyday part of life.

    She also had a musical childhood, and shares some wonderful and vivid memories of her piano teacher, Mrs. Evelyn.

    Evenly was an interesting woman and quite a character—she was a performer with an all-girls orchestra in the 1940s and was known as “Evelyn and her magic violin.”

    Carole says, “She was just one awesome little bitty old lady who helped me out during a time when I was pre-teen. I’d walk down the street to her house every Thursday afternoon, sit down at the piano and she would accompany me on her cello. She always made me feel very special.


    “I remember one particular afternoon…. Little girls love to be bullies….On the way down the street to her house, all of my friends were playing in the front yard with another classmate, and when they saw me coming down the street, they ran and hid in the backyard. So, I had to pass in front of the house, knowing they were back there.

    When I got to Miss Evelyn’s I broke down and started crying, and she comforted me. She was more than a piano teacher. She was a really fine lady.”

    Thank you, Carole, for sharing your sweet memory and for introducing us to “Evelyn and her magic violin!” What a terrific story.