“Hands up!” You would think this was some sort of crime scene, with the police shouting at you to drop your weapons. But today was different. If you did raise your hands, you’d actually be charged with wrongdoing- not correctly following the rules of Simon Sez- in other words, not being a good listener and showing respect.

On February 6th, we had an assembly featuring Steve Max, a person who travels all over the country playing Simon Sez, a game where you only do something when someone says “Simon says” before the action. Steve does this to enforce listening skills and letting others learn about respect, a word he says is the “big mama” of all the other words on his “six pillars of character” list.  He relates to this with various examples, like “look them in the eyeballs” when his volunteers have a boy verses girl faceoff and “I don’t like teasing others, because it doesn’t show respect” when teasing the boys.

Although this is an educational assembly, which usually don’t feature any humor whatsoever, Steve Max has included jokes that made people howl with laughter. His sudden bursts of music, like “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!!” and “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” are both surprising and funny. Steve also adds in bits of humor here and there with his “crazy” actions, like picking up a boy, shaking him around, and then declaring has back hurts because the boy was too heavy.

“Steve Max-The Simon Sez Show” has given us an idea that listening and respecting can be funny as well!!!

Thank you HSA!!