The message from the mime was received loud and clear by Southwestern Middle School students Friday.
The school held a day in celebration of character education which included a motivational speaker/mime and a band.
"We are focusing on character matters and character education throughout the school," said principal Greg Paterniti.
Paterniti said the students have been assigned groups, which then chose an animal to represent them. The groups were made up of a mixture of children from all grade levels, which included the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. They chose to do this, he said, for the benefit of all the children.
"Mixing them together allows, we hope, the older children to help out the younger ones, and to show them that we are all in this together," he said. "We are all one and here to help each other. We are one big support group."
The groups participated in many team-building exercises, which allowed them to learn from each other, he said. Among the activities, they participated in were pairing and sharing exercises, as well as a "time capsule of sorts," he said.
The children wrote about what they expect the school year to be like for them, and what they wanted to learn, he said.
"We then open these at the end of the year to see if their realization has come true," he said.
The groups participated in a contest, answering educational questions involving some of the lessons they have learned from previous years and the winners of the contest were announced at 1:45 p.m. with the group winning slushies from the cafeteria, he said.
"This is probably the most exciting beginning of the school year I've had in my long career," he told the audience of children when he introduced the motivational speaker and mime.
MIME YOUR OWN BUSINESS
The focus point of the day was made by Cary Trivanovich, a "performer, conference speaker, theatre director and humorist," said his website.
Trivanovich performed many mime routines, which kept the children laughing throughout the presentation. He also had a message for the children, which he shared between acts.
"I am totally thrilled that you have this day devoted to character," he said. "I am one of those who believe that not only is classical education important but also character education."
The irony of a mime and motivational speaker was also not lost on Trivanovich.
"Our speaker is a mime?" he asked to much laughter. "Isn't that an oxymoron?"
He shared the story of his own middle school experience, which helped change his life and make him who he is today, he said.
"Would you believe when I was in middle school I was a strange kid?" he asked to much laughter. "I was the kid in my school who had no self-esteem and the bullies found me. I walked alone to school every day, in fear, because I knew what that day would be like. I hated school because it wasn't a place to learn, it was a place to survive."
The "coolest day," he said, was when the popular kids, or "untouchables," as he put it, spoke to him.
"In front of their friends they talked to me like they were my friend," he said.
After goofing around with them, they encouraged him to join the drama class.
"It was because they boosted my self-esteem so much," he said. "I never in a million years thought when I entered middle school that I could get onstage and speak, and now I'm talking to thousands around the country."
He discussed with the children a lesson he had learned; that bullies are people who lack character, and the only way they can make themselves feel like a person is to be mean to other students. And this is not a good way to live.
"I am just so sad to see that in every school I go to in the country," he said. "Everyone wants to be liked, to fit in and to look good in some way, but bullying is not the way to do that."
He suggested that students, however, become significant to other students, and help change the world.
"Those kids who changed my life, they were givers instead of takers in every conversation and their attitude in school," he said. "Think of others first, instead of yourselves. I am so thrilled to be a living example of someone whose life was changed by those kinds of kids."
In doing so, he said, the students will, "become a magnet for friends."
He explained that because of this experience, he wanted to perform, make people laugh and, "maybe touch their lives in some way," he said.
He also imparted to the students the importance of guidance counselors, and how they are there to help.
Trivanovich also gave another presentation at 1:15 p.m. with the topic revolving around excellence and living to potential, said Paterniti. Jackson Rohm then played for the students at 2 p.m., closing the program. The day was made possible by a team of eight teachers who planned the activities since June and was paid for by the Southwestern Education Foundation, said Paterniti.
