“Cootie Shots” Teaches Kids To Resist Hate

Marquette Michigan – NMU is presenting it’s last theatre production of the year, an energetic and engaging series of short plays, songs and poems for kids called,  “Cootie Shots”. The show was created to teach kids about tolerance and diversity while offering them tools to combat hate and bigotry with understanding and respectful communication. The show is designed for kids from Kindergarten – 6th grade and will be open to the public this Saturday, April 25th at 1pm.

Read the excerpt from their website below for more information about the show:

Cootie Shots: Theatrical Inoculations Against Bigotry for Kids, Parents and Teachers
Edited by Norma Bowles with Mark E. Rosenthal
A Fringe Benefits theatre project and book
Created by Fringe Benefits in collaboration with over five hundred educators, administrators, therapists, theatre artists, youth and parents, Cootie Shots provides a fun and constructive way to promote tolerance and celebrate diversity by presenting role models of many different races, nationalities, cultures, classes, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, religions, ages and appearances. Cootie Shots provides children with an opportunity to see beyond “isms” and conveys the message that every man, woman and child deserves to be treated with respect.

Cootie Shots asks children to acknowledge the bigotry and discrimination in their lives, while helping them to imagine and take responsibility for creating a world shaped by love and understanding. By using familiar circumstances, often generated by real-life experiences, these plays assist children in understanding the feelings of everyone affected by cruel words: those who speak them, their targets and their bystanders. By engaging directly with these performance pieces, children learn to express their feelings honestly and effectively. They learn to choose words that heal the hurt and bring people together.

The 54 Cootie Shots plays, songs and poems may be enjoyed and performed in homes, classrooms, and theatres and/or community and religious centers…in celebration of Martin Luther King, Junior Day, Dias de los Muertos, Passover, Ramadan, Graduation, Women’s History, Disability Awareness and Gay and Lesbian Pride months, and more.

by marquette_magazine