Today we start our 10-day trip to Southern California to show Stepping On Up to elementary school students at seven schools.  We are excited to be on the road and spending time with the kids.  We are looking forward to seeing how the programs are received in the real world.  We have received a number of awards, but the real proof of the worth of the shows is in the classroom.We spent the day at New River Elementary in Norwalk, CA (near Anaheim). Michael did the sort of assembly that only he can do: moving, inspiring and enlightening. We showed a lesson from Stepping On Up: Dealing With Bullies. The video sparked lively discussions and taught the students how to identify different types of bullying and effective ways to stop it. Later on, several students told the group their own stories about being bullied: a Chinese girl who is made fun of because she is not Christian (“your god is fat and ugly”): a boy with vision problems who wears heavy glasses and a sweet and gentle boy who began to cry when he told of the teasing he suffers every day. It took a great deal of courage for these children to speak up as they did and their example is a very powerful and direct way to stop bullying and teach kindness, caring and inclusion. Their pain is avoidable and all members of the school community saw firsthand the effects of bullying. We were very pleased that Stepping On Up worked so well and performed just we hoped it would.

Kid Wisdom of the Day
How to stop bullying?
We need to fix and heal our hearts.

A great start to the trip!