I wanted to share one of the things that happened during our claymation class today.
I was helping the students brainstorm ideas for their project to see what they could come up with. We were talking about education and how the world has changed through our increasing understanding about it and through passing on that knowledge from generation to generation.
One of the students started to talk about how different things were even during the short time he has been around. He didn’t see it as a short time, we never do, that’s just my addition. With a bit of encouragement he elaborated that he has noticed differences between children who were born in the 90’s and children who were born in the 00’s. I asked him for an example and he suggested familiarity with technology and devices. In particular how much the later generations take these things for granted where as it is still a bit of a novelty to the earlier ones.
I was very pleased to see that he had considered this and had the awareness to notice a broad trend such as that. It indicates his ability to observe things about the world in a more abstract way. Especially it showed his ability to observe subtle behavioral cues.
I asked him if there was anything else he noticed change. He said that since as recently as 2010 he has noticed how much more difficult it is for people to get a job. That people need to make a living and that as this continues more and more people become homeless. Without the money to pay the rent and the bills they get more desperate and things start to fall apart.
The perspicuity to see something like this comes partially from experiences but also from empathy. His expression of it showed that he felt what he was saying.
The project that he is working on right now expresses these sentiments. At my encouragement he is also including how he sees education fitting in, as well as what might be done to improve things.
Having the opportunity to work with students on broad and socially important topics like these is very fulfilling for me. To be able to provide the space and circumstances that allow them to express things like this is very much what Art Sphere Inc. does. I see one of my primary roles as helping the students to precipitate their ideas and feelings and creativity into a cogent piece of art. Teasing out the little details and guiding them to the core aspects of the ideas they begin to express. The soul of each project, though, always belongs to the students.