Friday, January 29, 2016

Celebrating healthy choices in a fun way


Glenn Colton came to offer a positive, encouraging, and entertaining message to the students and teachers at Huth Road Elementary School. He is revisiting a performing career from which he retired in 2012. 
Glenn Colton said that he "started with an idea in 1985 and became full-time in 1993." He performed in libraries, elementary schools, and in town-sponsored summer concert series. During his full-time career, he has performed more than 3,000 shows.

Glenn, who now works in an automobile dealership, said that his performing career was a dream come true. He said that he was happy to have had a full-time performing career, which he was able to do "in a concert-type setting." Also, he is happy that he was able to promote his own original music. The one dream that did not come true was the road crew that he would have liked to have had.

"I don't have that," Glenn said.


Glenn said that he wrote 80 to 85 percent of the songs for Wednesday's show. He had very enthusiastic audiences for the two shows that he presented. His positive messages were accompanied by acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and various rhythm instruments. "Always tell the truth. It's not always easy, but it's the right thing to do," Glenn said.




Glenn shared a positive message about friendship. He summarized it with: "There are tall ships and small ships, but the best are friendships."

He acknowledged, however, that not everyone will want to be your friend. In fact, some people might act mean and unpleasant, like a bully. So... how do you deal with a bully? You start by asking the bully if he'd like to be your friend.


Um. No. Probably not.

Then you ignore the annoying and rude bully.

Will that make the bully stop? Maybe or maybe not.

The next step is to tell the bully to stop. Tell the bully that his picking on you bothers you and that you don't like it.

Some bullies will quit. Others will just stubbornly cling to their bullying behavior.

Glenn, who dealt with a stubborn bully when he was in elementary school, said that the last step was to ask an adult for help in handling the bully. Eventually, Glenn's bully stopped. In fact, Glenn and the former bully became friends and they stayed friends until they both graduated from high school.

Glenn also shared a message about healthy living. "We celebrate healthy choices." One example of a healthy choice would involve eating your vegetables. 
 


The performance was interactive and a great deal of fun. The audience had the chance to sing and to dance and to do the wave. Glenn also enjoyed sharing stories about his own childhood. He asked how many of the students remembered the 1970s. Amazingly enough, quite a large percentage of the students, all under the age of twelve, remembered a decade that ended years before they were born.

Everyone became a member of the "Ducky Wucky club," after singing along to the earworm-inducing "Ducky Wucky" song.

If you'd like to hear some of Glenn Colton's music, you can find it on You Tube.

Check this out! It's loads of fun, very singable, and something you can share with the kids.
Optimism!

Enjoy!

5 comments:

Sandy Segur said...

Dealing with bullies can be very troublesome. I explain to my daughter she needs to tell them to stop. As she is 15 and in ninth grade. If the bully doesn't stop, she needs to tell an adult that is near. Keep telling an adult until one listens. .

Your advice was dead on.

Unknown said...

Good clean fun! Lovely to see communities embracing artists and artists sharing messages like this. Hopefully, there's a budding little Glenn who watched the show and became inspired to someday write and sing his (or her) own music. Beautiful share!

Martha said...

What a super guy! Glenn sounds like an inspiration to many and the students look like they really enjoyed his concert.

Marian Allen said...

Sounds like he gave them some good advice, and proof that it can work. I'd like to see somebody address the bullies, too. "Being a bully is sad, not cool. Here's how you can tell you're being a bully. Here's how to ask for help. Here's how to be cool."

Alice Gerard said...

I know of one person who started agreeing with everything that the bully said. If the bully said, "You are ugly," this person said, "You're right." No matter what the insult that the bully said, this person just kept saying "you're right." Finally, the bully gave up because he got nothing out of it.