Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Reflections on "Reading is Life" Program at the Boys and Girls Club

After your work at the Boys and Girls Club feel free to leave some thoughts and reflections here.

posted by adam at 9:52 AM

2 Comments:

Blogger adam said...

To follow on my email message. Thanks to all who participated in the reading program at the boys and girls club. While a little hectic pulling it all together, it did not show in the presentation. We taught and entertained more than 50 children over the week--an experience, from their comments, for which they'd like a repeat of next year.

What was particularly satisfying for me was seeing all of you in action. As I have had the experience of teaching and learning with many of you in either or both of mods 1 & 2, as well as student teaching, it was so fulfilling to watch you work with these kids. It was uplifting to watch care in action and a living out of the mission we have crafted as a group. The work you accomplished this week should not be diminished. It was the politics of prefiguration in action. Our process brought peace, creativity, and democracy into the lives of 50 children. This experience is now a part of their living history--one that could be used to launch them in several different trajectories. Now, I'm not trying to oversell this thing here--we didn't save the world this week, but as Solnit points out, we don't have to--we just have to join the struggle.

Thanks, again, for your work, and renewing a sense of hope.

I want to also especially thank our newest PrESS Network folks, Beth, Beth, and Cindy for jumping right in and helping this week. Without your work we couldn't have pulled this week off.

9:30 AM  
Blogger Cindy S. said...

Hello everyone,
I wanted to thank you all for including me in the work at the boys and girls club. I really enjoyed the experience and learned from it as well. I think the middle group I worked with will remember the activities and "teachers" for a long time. As for the two or three challenging black boys, I found they worked best when I sat with them, allowed them to express themselves and have some control over their work. They asked Beth or Angela (can't remember who)if they could make one collage page together and were allowed to do so. I watched the boys work together and they did produce good work. I think if a teacher had insisted that they each do their own page, more battles would erupt. Also, I suspect these boys are the "father" figure in their homes as are many boys who live in poverty or single parent homes. They really need male role models and mentoring. We may want to study more ways to reach children who live in generational poverty. There are several good books on the topic.
Again, thanks for the experience and I hope to see everyone soon.

11:41 AM  

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