As adults, it's our duty to tell children about the importance of dreams...that they give a sense of direction. Dreams give a vision and, if nurtured, can bloom within a child, giving direction and light. I'm learning so much from these kids each and every day. They are teaching me how to teach them, how important it is to encourage creativity and openness of mind to young adults. These children are so engraved with the idea that there is always a right answer and a wrong answer. What's been great about this kind of work, with these kids, is that they are learning there is no real wrong answer when it comes to talking about how they feel, their emotions, and expressing those emotions.
The most recent project I've started with the children is entitled, "Love, Hope, Freedom, Happiness, and Peace," (a long title, I know). During this project, I set out five cards, each with one word written on it (i.e. 'peace', 'love', 'hope', etc.). The students then chose one of the words and described what it meant to them, keeping in mind that there was no right or wrong answer, only their personal response. After writing what love or hope or freedom meant to them, we talked, as a group, about symbolism and how different words have various visual symbols which represent those particular words. After discussing the visual symbols, I handed out the cameras and the children ran outside to make their photographs. The results have been beautiful, lovely, creative, amazing. I'm so excited to share them all with the world! And as Gandhi's birthday is fast arriving (October 2nd), there is much reason to speak of these themes of love, hope, peace, freedom, and happiness. I can see the students opening up before my very eyes. It's beautiful and I feel truly lucky to be here to witness it.
