Promoting peace and pride at Buck School

While art has always been a way for people to express themselves, students at the William L. Buck School learned recently just how useful and powerful art can be where you least expect it.

In a cultural arts program hosted by the school’s PTA on Jan. 18 and 20, author and artist Joyce Raimondo met with students in grades 3-6 to show them positive ways to channel their feelings. Raimondo described it as an anti-bullying program that teaches children to express themselves creatively.

The program began as students got to look at famous works of art. In her slideshow, Raimondo showed pieces by van Gogh, Picasso and others. The children then made their own works of art.

In teams, students made posters focusing on several positive messages, including love, peace, respect, express yourself, determination, smile, patience and teamwork. In the cafeteria, children cut shapes and words out of construction paper, then glued those on to the posterboard.

Fifth-grader Nathalie Melo worked on the “peace” poster. She and her teammates made hearts and peace signs, and used lots of colors.

Nathalie learned that she should be proud of who she is, and should never hide her true self from others just to make them happy. “It’s important to be yourself,” she said. “You don’t have to be anyone else.”

PTA members said they hope that students learned a lot from the program. Toni Ebert-Holder said that the PTA, under the leadership of President Kim Wheeler, does a lot of fundraising to bring cultural arts programs into the school.

The fact that last week’s program also had an anti-bullying message was a plus, Ebert-Holder noted. “Bullying really has to be taken out of schools, 100 percent,” she said. “However they can get the message, if they can get the message through art, it’s good.”

Principal Mark Onorato said he hopes that students understand how to handle a situation when bullying is involved. He added that while bullying is not problem in the school, he doesn’t want it to become one, either. “We definitely always want to be proactive,” he said.

Raimondo has visited the school in past years for cultural arts programs, including animals in art and recycling in art. She noted that last week’s presentation had the strongest message of them all for students. “I hope that they get the idea that any feeling can be expressed productively through art,” she said.