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• Career Day with the Kidz.

  Wednesday, Jun 4, 2008 8:25AM / Standard Entry / Members only
  1 comment
  
  
  Remember when you were in elementary school, and they had Career Day?
  
  
  
  Firefighter?
  Police Officer?
  Yoga Instructor??
  
  
  Awesome, inspiring, boring, or just out of place, our Moms, Dads, & a plethora of other strange adults would come to share the highlights of their daily duty.
  
  
  Today, I set foot on a Bronx elementary school campus to do just that. It was a whole new kind of crowd, talking and singing to 4th & 5th graders. I've gotta say though... after doing a number of workshops for college students and adults, it was pretty refreshing to see so many little hands shoot up in the air like rockets to my questions.
  
  Because my attention span is similar to theirs, I figured more clapping, singing & generally noisy activities would suit us best. When they asked me what musicians inspired me to start, my mention of Stevie Wonder and Boyz II Men drew collective silence. Thinking on my feet to update them with a comparison, I said, "Well... like John Legend & Diddy's new group, Day26."
  
  Which drew an uproar of applause. This moment made me both very happy and sad at the same time.
  
  Three sessions later, I had handed out dozens of my last Cd to the kiddies. They wanted to keep in touch somehow and I wondered outloud... "Wait, you guys aren't even old enough to use MySpace, are you?"
  
  What followed was the most hilarious, unanimous, guilty confession of "Yes..." I had ever seen, as their eyes turned back to a teacher who clearly disapproved of promoting MySpace to elementary school kids.
  
  
  "Vu. Sshhh. Don't worry, we gotchu."
  
  
  

  ---

  
  As I left the school grounds, someone commented that now, all their students want to write songs and become rockstars.
  
  
  
  Today, I successfully became a hero to the children...
  and quite possibly their parents' worst nightmare.
  
  
  All in a day's work.
  
  
  
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