Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hello All, A few words about how I spent today. I taught a one day photo class to about 20 10 and 11 year olds at our local middle school. We converted a washroom into a temporary darkroom for the day. These were all children with learning disabilities of one kind or another, ranging from very mild to fairly severe. Many of them have trouble with fine motor activities. They tend to have low self esteem and think that they can't succeed at art projects among other things. They were pulled out of their usual classes for the day, and before this many of them didn't know each other well. They didn't know what to expect before they got to the darkroom, and a few were a bit apprehensive and nervous. We spent the day doing photograms using objects I brought from home. Everything from lace and shells to plastic monsters. It has been a long time since I've seen people get so excited about photos they were creating. They were all oohing and aahing as the prints came up in the developer. They spontaneously discussed among themselves how to do the next image, what materials to use, and how to arrange them. All I had to do was get them started and they took it from there. It was wonderful to work with these children. They were noncompetitive, friendly, and very helpful to each other. Compliments flew back and forth all day! Many of the kids asked pertinent questions and were really curious about what was happening and why. As I was leaving the building one of the teachers told me that all the children in the school were talking about the class- that sure made me feel good. I'll be dry mounting the photos this week, and then hanging them in the lobby of the school. We are going to have an opening party, grape juice and cheese maybe? Today was a good day, Richard Wasserman