Therapy at School : Puppets Persuade Kids to Share Pain

Until he met a puppet his own size that seemed to understand the pain and confusion of having divorced parents, a third-grader in a Pasadena school was so withdrawn that he couldn’t talk.

When he finally spoke, it was to the puppet. “My parents are divorced,” he said.

“That was his breakthrough,” puppeteer Jean Gunnell said. “He finally could say it.”

The puppet is one of the life-sized “Kids on the Block” who discuss such difficult issues as divorce and child abuse in skits performed for third- and fourth- graders in the Pasadena, Arcadia, La Canada and San Marino school districts.

Gunnell is on a team of nine Junior League of Pasadena members presenting the shows as one of the league’s community projects.

When “The Kids on the Block” was introduced in schools three years ago, the puppets talked about children’s physical disabilities. When they reappeared this year to bring the issues of divorce and abuse into classrooms, project chairman Brooke Garlock said the troupe was immediately booked for the rest of the school year.

“The most impressive thing about them was that children forgot they were puppets and really talked to them,” said William Robertson, principal of Camino Grove Elementary School in Arcadia.

“An adult standing there talking about divorce and abuse would not have come across in the same way.”

Garlock said: “We know we’ve touched children. We can tell from their questions that we’ve made them aware. The scripts are not to frighten children, but to let them know there is a way out and, if they tell someone, things could get better.”

The puppets, with cartoon-like faces and representing several races, are styled after a Japanese form called bunraku. The puppeteers who stand behind them wear black clothes and synchronize mouth and hand movements to give the illusion that the puppets are speaking.

At a recent performance in Camino Grove School, puppet “Brenda” told “Melody” about her parents’ divorce. “For a while, I thought if I could be a better kid, they would get back together,” Brenda said.

Next, “Stephen,” with cuts and a bruised eye, told “Nam” that he was “just sitting around, not doing anything” when his mother hit him. It happened so often, and for no apparent reason, that “I figured I should tell someone about it, so I told my teacher,” the puppet said.

Garlock said the children’s reactions showed that “they were really listening, and some of them had a very good grasp” of the message--that it helps children with problems to discuss them with a caring adult.

“The Kids on the Block” was created by Barbara Aiello, a former teacher in Alexandria, Va.