Recognizing Change

In one of my final classes this quarter, we were placed in the same small group of five students that we were in on our first night of class when we first met. What was our purpose? We were to spend about 20 minutes quietly reflecting on a poster we had designed together that first time, about what we felt the purpose of schooling was, and then we were to recreate the poster with any additions or changes we would like to make.

Reflecting on the original poster was quite revealing, as it clarified changes that had occurred in us. We had all been so proud of this poster, but now we thought we had gotten it all wrong. It was a picture of a huge tree with the roots being the subjects that children study: history, mathematics, science, reading, writing, art and music. At the time, we thought we were being creative and interdisciplinary in our approach. We had shown two children talking to each other using old fashioned tin-can phones, one while sitting on a tire swing hanging from one of the tree branches and the other sitting on a branch higher up. A big question mark rested on a different branch; a magnifying glass looking at a bug on another; and a paintbrush and musical note on another. At the top of the tree was a tree fort with a window looking out to a beautiful view. What was the problem? There were only two children, and they were passively talking to each other from a distance. The children were passive, and nothing about the children’s backgrounds was mentioned. We had a lot to change.

We began with the roots. We now realized that children bring their ethnicity, race, and family background to school with them. Those became our new roots along with their abilities, social class, culture, and gender. Then we added more children. Our small group was unified that we needed to make this an example of inclusion and interaction. A child was drawn sitting in a wheelchair painting the structure while high in the tree on a platform with the pulley in plain sight that made this possible. I drew several children that were in the process of building new additions to the tree. One was sawing a piece of wood on a sawhorse inviting others to “create” with him. The others were girls. One sat on a branch building a platform saying “join me.” Another was carrying a piece of wood asking “why?” and the other was carrying a hammer asking “where?” I also drew another child looking at some mathematical equations trying to compute the next step needed. Someone else drew a couple sitting on the top platform of the tree taking turns looking through a telescope.

Previously, though we had all talked about what would be in the poster, only one person drew it. This time, we all drew it. I am not skilled in drawing but it didn’t seem to matter to anyone. The goal was to draw different kinds of people and to show them actively learning both by asking questions of each other and working together collaboratively. We drew pink, purple, blue and green children of various sizes and abilities, and all of us were much happier with the revised poster.