I may have feathers, but I'm no chicken

(This is a worthwhile video, but if you don't have 18 min. here's a quote to sum it up)

" we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said this -- he said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it."

So I have come to this conclusion, well not so much a conclusion, more of a premonition. It came to me during a class discussion last week with my period 7 class. This is my best class in terms of discussion and sharing ideas and feelings. The discussion came from a conversation I saw on the NY Times website about if The Hunger Games should be considered more than just a Young Adult book. One literary snob said "The only thing more embarrassing than a grown man getting caught with porn on an airplane is getting caught reading The Hunger Games." So I printed the varying opinions out and brought them in to hear what my class had to say. The conversation was very good and eventually made its way to how I taught The Hunger Games and what they liked and did not like. One girl, very tactfully, began to complain that she wishes we had done more fun things with the book. Other teams had had mock HUnger Games with competition and prizes and costumes and the whole time Im thinking "that sounds like such a waste of time." But as I scanned the room I saw many students nodding in agreement. My premonition: maybe I am not fun enough for middle school.

You see as an English major, and a rather intellectual one at that, I cannot think of anything more fun than sitting around analyzing a book in a class discussion and then writing a paper relating that book to a current issue. What I forget is, I did not enjoy that sort of thing in middle school. Now this has two sides. 1) Students need outlets for creativity and movement in companion to text because that helps them learn. But also 2) the reason I did not enjoy these things in middle school was no one ever gave me the opportunity to do them, I am of the strong belief that our student will rise to the expectations and challenges we set for them. But for the sake of this post lets focus on the first.

So, tomorrow I am stretching myself, because I refuse to be "not fun enough for middle school." If my kids want creative fun, they shall have it! We are currently reading The Light in the Forest (Native American novel) so tomorrow we are going to have our usual end of book writing assignment and discussion. BUT there will be a twist. In addition we are going to make indian headdresses, complete with feathers and beads and all kinds of stuff. Our discussion is going to become a pow-wow. Kids will share their thoughts as native tribes did. We will eat goldfish and popcorn (symbols of the Native American dietary staples), and we will soak in the themes and language a novel that I know they all hate.

My hope for this class is that they take something worthwhile away from the book, and have fun. I went to a craft store today to get supplies and spent a lot of time at school cutting out the ugliest feathers you have ever seen. For me this is a step out of my comfort zone. It's something that I do not do well, and honestly I don't see as being that beneficial. But I know my kids will enjoy it, and I know it will stretch their mind in a different sort of way. And I for one am willing to take a risk for that opportunity for learning.