Entertainer rocks Maricopa Elementary School

Third grade students at Maricopa Elementary School had a blast on Wednesday, Jan. 5 – and learned some life lessons – when nationally-known children’s performer Phil Baker spent the day with them.

Baker, who has three CDs out and is a part of the National Endowment for the Arts Touring Program, started the day with a third-grade assembly and then followed up by visiting each of the five third grade classes for an individual session during the course of the day.

His message was simple: character counts.

“I teach the language of character,” Baker said. “We talk about trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. Those six pillars give children a framework for talking about character. If you don’t have words that all the kids in the school recognize and use together to talk about character, it is kind of like they are in a vacuum. It is hard for them to express their feelings or talk about that subject and what it means.

“On the other hand, if you give them examples of respect and have expectations from the teacher and the school, then they begin to use the concepts in their daily routines. Rather than just being negative and telling children, ‘no, don’t do that,’ we can ask the question, ‘what would have been more respectful language to use in this case,” or ‘what would have been a more caring thing to do?’”

The Character Counts curriculum comes from a Los Angles organization of the same name (charactercounts.org). Nationwide, seven to eight million children are involved in the training in schools, YMCAs, Boys and Girls clubs and other venues.

Maricopa Elementary Principal Rachelle Reese brought the Character Counts concept to the school when she took over in September. She had the school redecorated with colorful murals and messages painted on the walls to instill the six pillars in children’s minds, and she starts each school day by sharing a message about character over the PA system.

“It is so important and valuable to the children to get this training,” said Reese. “Mr. Baker is doing a great job reinforcing what we are teaching every day.”

Baker, who puts on more than 100 programs nationwide each year, came to the school for a week, spending one day with each grade.

“In the assembly, I establish rapport with kids first, through music and movement, and then introduce the six pillars through fun activities. After that we do a mini character workshop, which includes a group activity for each pillar. The kids meet in small groups and talk about what these character traits mean to them and then, if they want to, they can come up and share their group’s thoughts and examples from the stage.

“I am here to recognize the great job this school is doing in teaching the six pillars of character,” Baker said. “My hope is that they will go home and talk about what they are learning about character in school and incorporate these pillars into their daily lives.”