PACOIMA : International Music Teaches Kids a Lesson

Pacoima Elementary School students Monday took a 25-minute world tour through music during a program aimed at persuading them to get along and finish school.

Dancers and singers from 25 countries, garbed in everything from flamenco dresses to baggy street clothes, performed a medley of international songs during two school assemblies for fourth- to sixth-graders.

Many of the students, who attend school across the street from the San Fernando Valley’s only federally subsidized housing project, said their favorite part was watching the dancers spin across the auditorium floor.

But some said they also understood the message behind the music.

“They showed us that education is fun and to stay in school,” said 12-year-old Rocio Gutierrez, a sixth-grader.

Added Natalie Foster, also in the sixth grade: “I learned that if you don’t stay in school, you won’t learn.”

Pacoima is one of 22 elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District that opened its doors to the pilot program called Project Pride, which was started after the Los Angeles riots last year. The musical group finishes a three-week tour of city schools this week.

Principal Lawrence Gonzales said the project is intended to promote education and understanding among the school’s 1,750 students, most of them minorities.

“We know that academic progress is tied to many different things, the most important of which is communication with each other as human beings,” Gonzales said. “These kids needs to be exposed to it.”