For those who don't already know, the Junior Youth Empowerment Programme is for those in the age group 12 - 15. You call them teenagers, we call them Junior Youths. You call them confused and rebellious, we call them a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. The programme has a couple of books which the group goes through with the help of an animator. These books are more or less story books, each chapter with reading/comprehension and vocabulary exercises, and then quotations to reflect on and memorize. But you can't learn kindness or justice by just reading and answering questions. Definitely you have to practice, that's why engaging the group in service projects is a very important component of this programme. The third way of exploring the concepts/virtues in the stories is through ART (being imaginative and creative). Of course art takes several forms, but this post is about how valuable drawing/coloring is!
My list of other complementary activities I did for three JYEP books are in the next post.
Drawing is my absolute favorite activity to do with Junior Youths. I recently started a JY group here in Manila, and right after reading the first chapter of Breezes of Confirmation, I asked them to draw the members of their family and write on them what quality they love most about that person. So they could have just written Mom or Dad or the names of their family members and next to it the quality - but I asked them to make an extra effort and draw. Why? Well, I just feel that they write and write all the time in school, so I don't want them to feel that JYEP is just another "class" on weekends. I also asked them to show everyone in the group their drawing...since it was their first day with each other, naturally the JYs were shy. Perhaps they weren't confident about their drawing, but then I didn't pass any sort of judgement; I was just extremely happy that they drew and so I made everyone clap for each other. This again removes any feeling of a "formal classroom" because they aren't getting a grade for their drawing (so no competition).
Here are some photos/stories from last year, animating over a dozen groups of Junior Youths at City Montessori School, Station Road Campus, Lucknow:
Apart from drawing on paper/chart paper, I enjoyed making use of the blackboards in the classrooms. The activity shown above was - draw a ladder and on each step write a quality one needs to posses to be a "good friend" or a "good citizen". So one by one they came to the board to write. When they were done filling the steps, some girls said they wanted to draw in the space around the ladders. The beauty of having JYs take turns to the board is that everytime they look at the finished product, they remember this was team work. It's not the best artist in class who came to the front. You won't remember who did what part - because the whole work belongs to everyone. *Each of the classrooms has several soft boards, and usually what happens is that "the best artists" in class traces a drawing from their science or geography text book and pins it up on the board. This blackboard activity is one of the few, if not only, chance the WHOLE class (including that one person who can't draw a straight line) contributes to beautifying their space.
So in the above activity, I told them to write in the ladder. For this other blackboard drawing activity, I didn't have a say. Right after the lesson from Breezes of Confirmation which has the quotation "Let your heart burn with loving-kindness for all who may cross your path", I asked the JYs to volunteer to come up to the board and draw what this quotation means to them. So someone drew two people sharing food, another drew thought bubbles. The drawing on the bottom left is someone yelling to a person across the street to be careful "Stop" because a car is approaching. You can easily ask each JY to express this quotation in their own way on their own sheets of paper, but when you have all their interpretations up on a board like that, it reflects so much! They get to "see" their classmates' ideas. In a class of 40 - 50 students, you can't know each and every person very well. But an opportunity like this to watch your classmate go up to the board to express their thoughts helps them relate and appreciate each other better!
Here's another quotation they learnt (together with a chant) "Kindle the fire of love, and burn away all things, then set thy foot into the land of the lovers". These three pictures are examples of drawings from three different grades - top left is Grade 8, top right Grade 6 and in the middle is Grade 7. The beauty about being an animator is you are NOT a teacher; you are their friend. You are their mentor. Knowing this has such a humbling effect, because you're always in a learning mode too. I had so much to learn from watching these JYs interpret one quotation in several ways.
It's really easy to ask JYs what does X mean to you? What is patience? What is joy? What is respect? But it's always more interesting to get them to think about the word harder by relating it to themselves. For example, ask how do we show patience to others? When was the last time you showed patience?
So of course they have to think, they have to write - but they can be creative about the way they express it. There's something therapeutic about writing with coloring pens, don't you think?
Most of the time the JYs drew on cards or bookmarks and gave them to their family members, so they're usually at the giving end. One day, before the Christmas break last year, I took some of my JYs to an orphanage. We did lots of activities with the orphans - drawing and coloring, wrapping and exchanging gifts, decorating a christmas tree, playing games. Half the orphans were at the coloring table with the JYs who guided them (although the orphans were free to draw whatever they wanted). Before leaving, one JY ran up to me"look! this girl gave me a card she drew!" She was filled with so much happiness, because someone she just met had drawn something beautiful for her.
Some people think oh coloring/drawing is just for kids. Yes kids love it but so do JYs, and no they don't love it because it's easy (we're not asking them to doodle/scibble) but because it challenges them. Drawing is a universal language and it cuts across all age groups. We give JYs a quotation, or we read a story with them...interpreting what they understand into a drawing involves both the intellect and creativity. And even without grades (no scolding for squiggly lines, no awards for perfectionists) JYs create their art so diligently; they give their best! So when two JYs present two very different kinds of drawings - one stick figures, the other very realistic, I praise them equally AND make sure that when I applaud them for their wonderful drawings, the other JYs also appreciate them equally. THAT teaches them humility. It's not unusual for teachers to single out one person in class and shows off their work to everyone else, so giving them a chance to be in this kind of non-competitive/seeing-each-other-as-equals environment goes a long way to helping these JYs value themselves and each other.
It wasn't just like that in Lucknow, India; it was also like that with my Junior Youths in Nigeria:
This was my first JY group back home (I was in the 12th grade, and had to sit in the 6th grade classroom every morning while the teachers had their staff meeting. I decided to turn that free boring period into a study of Breezes of Confirmation).
I've observed that when children have to draw together on a chart paper, they almost fight over who does most of the work, or fight taking turns. Either way, each child wants his/her turn to draw. It's very different with JYs. In most cases, I observed that there's always one who assumes a leadership role, and one who free rides. It needs caution from the animator's end to talk to the team members, encouraging each person to contribute equally and reminding them why. Working together on 2D art is really hard work, unless there is unity. This process helps them improve their teamwork, interpersonal and communication skills!
Then in the neighborhood. I also had a JY group outside of CMS; we studied Glimmerings of Hope and a few chapters of Learning about Excellence. So this group was really small. Now in the big groups I had in CMS setting, I always preferred to do artistic activities with them once or twice a month because they had such a heavy load of school work - lots of reading, understanding, and I always felt that doing art right after reading a lesson would help them relate the lessons to their personal lives better in a fun way. So while that was my reason for always distributing paper and colors to my JYs in CMS, I had a different reason for doing that with my other JY group every Sunday. On Sundays we'd usually spend two hours together. This gave us lots of time to go through the story thoroughly, and have lengthy discussions (which I could never do in CMS, with a 30-mins a week schedule). Here in the neighborhood I always tried to make sure coloring and drawing at the end of the lesson, because I wanted the JYs to have something to keep. Why?
Drawings are really easy to keep. You can either keep a separate folder or attach your sheet into your book. When JYs pass the age of 15, they can become animators (after undergoing a training) and start their own JY groups. Memories of the activities they did will encourage them to do the same with their groups. I often practice the activities by myself before asking my JYs to do them (yes, I've done the career ladder, I've made butterflies with tissue roll lol - all the activities mentioned in the next post) and the advantage is it has helped me be more patient with the JYs!
One thing I love doing with my JY groups is making fund boxes for the Baha'i families in our communities! This is always a good example of art + service! These two times, I asked my JYs to bring old/recycled boxes/containers - they'd have to cover the containers and draw/color then give to a family to keep in their homes (in case they host a 19 Day Feast).
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Back to City Montessori School - At one point last year, I worried that the JYs might just see me as an "arts and crafts" teacher, because I always walked around with chart paper sticking out of my bag. It's good that they were always excited to make art, but the challenge was to make sure they didn't lose focus on why they had to do what they had to do. It's so easy for us to just praise and encourage their work, but then we should look beyond the effort and more at the content. So deciding on an artistic activity really requires a lot of planning, to make sure it's directly related to the story (better even a specific concept in the lesson) but with lots of room for them to unleash their power of expression!