I had quite the experience today .  I might be smiling about this one for the next week!  I spent the better part of the day in a town that was vaguely reminiscent of my hometown - Salem, NY!   I actually had two very good reasons to go there!

I was asked months ag by Mrs. Lourie, the Salem Elementary principal if I would come out and help write a song about the perils of bullying. That was a no brainer.  Coincidentally I was also asked by a few listeners if I would create a "Your Town Thursday" song about the same place!

Wow!  What a great thought.  Why not go there, write the song with the kids, and since I was there already,  get all of the facts about the town from THEM?  Plus I could take my camera and grab some shots on the way home to make both  blogs  more visually interesting?

Man - it worked like a charm.  Some kids from the junior high school gave me pages and pages of stuff to work with, and now I have loads of pictures of both the town and also snapshots of the classroom experience, thanks to the school guidance counselor, Mrs. Kratzert.   Goes to show you - you can learn something new every day!

 

This class was beyond prepared, and WAY beyond awesome!  They had the song and a "rough draft" of lyrics before I even got there.  The song they chose to parody was "It Happens", by Sugarland.  What a brilliant idea to begin with.  I wish I had the student's name who came up with that one!

richie shirt salem

I could blab on and on here, but the proof is in the finished product, so I'm going to let you hear for yourself the fantastic lyrics that they came up with in less than an hour!  (Oh, and by the way, their singing was great too!)    Here are the well crafted lyrics so you can sing along! (song to follow)

It Shouldn't Happen

parody by Salem Elementary 6th Graders

song (c) 2010 Bobby Pinson, Jennifer Nettles, Kristian Bush. All Rights Reserved

Bullying is not cool

it happens in our school

ain't no need to be a bystander

Lets work hard to stop it

all the kids will profit

Don't respond in anger

Tell an adult right away

Don't let let it ruin your day

We're from Salem and we stand for all !

Ain't no rhyme or reason

happens every season

in the cafeteria or the school bus

Here in Salem we don't like it

We hope everyone will stop it

the irrefutable, indisputable fact is...

It shouldn't happen!

(Don't be a bully!!)

mp3 version (right click and save!)

 

What an absolute blast this was, but I hope the message was not lost here.   Bullying is a growing epidemic in this country and we need to keep hammering home the message in any way we can that it is wrong and must be stopped.  We only hope you can spread the word and join the movement to do so!   For more information about bullying, you can contact the  Academy For Character Education at the Sage Colleges, of which I am a proud committee member.   You can also hear other bullying songs that we've created over the past year by visiting previous blogs

And last but not least, I want to thank Principal Jane Lourie, Mike Stalter and Brian Talmadge, the 6th grade teachers, and also  Beverly Kratzert, the school counselor, photo snapper,audio technician and Statue of Liberty impersonator!   Special shout out to Hannaford Supermarkets for sponsoring the program as well.   I hope you will support Hannaford as much as they support education!

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