Students at R.O. Hardin School spent Friday morning laughing and
learning valuable life lessons. Pantomime performer and
professional speaker Cary Trivanovich visited the school, cracking
kids up with his hilarious, soundless impersonation skills, and
talking to them about being an outsider when he was in school.
Students at R.O. Hardin School spent Friday morning laughing and learning valuable life lessons. Pantomime performer and professional speaker Cary Trivanovich visited the school, cracking kids up with his hilarious, soundless impersonation skills, and talking to them about being an outsider when he was in school.
“When I was your age I was poor,” he said. “I came to school dirty and I would hide after school so that kids couldn’t find me to pick on me.”
Trivanovich, who has performed at more than 3,000 schools nationwide, uses his story of becoming a successful performer as inspiration and motivation for students to overcome bullying and stay focused on their goals in life.
Fourth-grade Teacher Susan Bessette said assemblies that help build character in the kids are extremely important.
“We have so much intimidation verbally and physically going around with little cliques and the popular crowd, that it’s really great for someone like him to get across the idea that no matter what you’re interested in or what you strive to be, you should do it because you can,” she said. “I try to stress this important lesson in my classroom every single day.”
Principal Linda Smith said character building is something the parents and staff try to emphasize year-round.
“We really try to work on respect here and teaching the students how to respect each other because that’s so important,” she said.
Second-grader Ben Chase enjoyed watching Travanovich balance a dollar on his nose and mime a doctor doing a hilarious surgery, but he said the performance’s underlying message of being kind to others sunk in.
“He was teaching us not to be mean to each other and that’s important,” he said.
The R.O. Hardin Parents Club, which funded the assembly, has good reason to want to make children aware of bullying and teach respect. Every seven minutes a child is bullied, and this month alone, one out of every four kids will be bullied by another youth, according to the American Justice Department. The same study showed 8 percent of students miss at least one day of school per month because they fear a bully.
“It’s important for the students to realize they can get along and respect each other,” Smith said. “We really stress that here and I think it shows.”
