WonHeart facilitators Joelyn Lutz and Patrick Mahan improvised a rhythmic minor jam as Battles Elementary School third and fourth graders filed into the school’s cafeteria on a recent Friday afternoon. Even before they found places to sit, some kids were tapping their feet or bobbing their knees in rhythm with the bluesy beat.
Though Lutz and Mahan would spend a good deal of the hour-long assembly speaking, the program began and ended with music, much of which asked the students to sing along. The program offered kids context and techniques for thinking about and dealing with bullying, frustrating emotions, and communication, and the songs performed by the WonHeart duo were designed to drive those concepts and methods home.
“I know for me, a song can take me back to a feeling, and if these kids hear about these nonviolent communication tools in this music, they will remember that feeling,” Lutz said. “What we’re trying to do here is plant that idea in them early.”
Lutz is the founding executive director of WonHeart, an organization of volunteers that works to foster community through connection and compassion. Creativity is a valuable tool in Lutz’s arsenal, especially when it has the power to render hundreds of young children silent and attentive, carefully listening to what comes next.
The program, which ended with the song “Start A Change Reaction,” serves as a supplement to the school’s ongoing dialogue with the kids about what is expected of them when on campus, explained Battles Principal Carlee Gruver.
“There is a nice energy when all the kids are at an assembly learning together,” Gruver said. “It helps us have a common and ongoing conversation about being friendly and the values we have for students in the school.”
Battles Elementary’s ongoing conversation includes a creed based on the letters in their mascot’s name, “The Path of the Bear,” as it’s called. The daily affirmation was present on the back of many blue and red T-shirts worn by dozens of the students at the assembly, who called out answers, raised hands to volunteer, and sang along.
The assembly was organized after Lutz performed for a single classroom on campus, which was met with enthusiasm from the students and teacher, Gruver explained.
“We try to do things to address friendship and those types of things every year, to prevent bullying and things like that, so we have a safer school,” she said. “Students often connect to music, and active participation is something we are really focusing on with the students, so they get active and excited about participating here at the school.”
Some songs helped instill self-esteem and respect towards others, like “I Am …,” which included affirmations first sung by Mahan and repeated by Lutz and the students. Others taught techniques to overcome outbursts of negative emotion, like “Stop Breathe Choose Differently.” Songs like “Peacemaker” invited the kids to become agents of change on their campus and in their community.
The kids laughed and sang together, even as they filed out of the cafeteria and into the schoolyard.
“All the arts, and music in particular, are where feelings reside,” Lutz said. “And that’s why we’re here, we’re talking about feelings here; we want the kids to talk about their feelings here and give them the language to do that.”
Lutz educates more than children through WonHeart—though she especially enjoys it. She uses it to reach out to anyone looking to build skills in conflict resolution and community building. She is leading a two-day workshop in Santa Maria on April 25 and 26 that teaches the basics of the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) and can set attendees on the path to be a certified AVP facilitator. The workshop is donate-what-you-can to attend, she explained, and no one will be turned away.
In her spirit of generosity, just before the assembly let out, Lutz announced that each of the Battles Elementary teachers would receive a CD with all of the songs performed that day, so students could listen to it and remember the tunes. The room rippled with chatter and notable exclamations of “yes,” “cool,” and “all right!”
Contact Arts Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 23-30, 2015.