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Hundreds of students shuffled into an auditorium at Stevenson Elementary School on Friday morning and peered onto a stage where a huge sign read “You Are Not Alone.” Moments later, hundreds of voices filled the space, shouting “we belong” in unison.
These were students from both Theuerkauf and Stevenson elementary schools participating in a joint assembly featuring the Alphabet Rockers, a Grammy winning children’s music group. From the importance of curiosity and inclusivity to the dangers of sharing private information online, students learned about various topics through song and dance.
Gianni, a fourth grade student from Theuerkauf, had the opportunity to get on stage and dance with the musical group, which he said was the best part of the event. During the assembly, he learned that “when you’re being respectful, you get to have fun.”
Making it a joint assembly was more cost effective, but was also an effort to “build bridges” across the two schools, which have adjacent campuses, and to bring students together to create a sense of community, said Priya Liau, a Theuerkauf parent and PTA volunteer coordinator who helped organize the Jan. 9 event.
“We live in such an individualistic society [where] we are often behind our screens, unintentionally,” Liau said. “Assemblies like this take us off of our screens. They put us in a space where we get to see live music, see real humans and we just get to move our bodies and be silly with our community.”
Liau noted that she’s been a fan of the Alphabet Rockers’ work since even before she had children. Getting to have the group perform for the students felt like a great opportunity “to celebrate community and culture,” Liau said.
The Alphabet Rockers were founded in 2007 by Kaitlin McGaw and Tommy Shepherd, who started off teaching kids about shapes and letters through hip-hop. Soon enough, however, young students started sharing stories about bullying and mistreatment, prompting the pair to shift their focus to “sparking change,” Shepherd told the Voice.
“We really believe that every song that we create is an offering for shifting all our behaviors,” McGaw said. “We’re all here to basically protect the planet and the people and all beings.”
McGaw, Shepherd and choreographer Samara Atkins said that they want students to walk out of assemblies like last week’s feeling seen, loved, heard, connected and a little more confident.
“[The event] shows us that at the end of the day, music, connection, community [and] working on our students’ social emotional well being, is the beginning of really opening the door to making them 21st century students ready to take in all different forms of knowledge,” Liau said.
