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Participant: Jonathan Beale I did the Canadian leg of KEEPS at Rawlinson Community School (a local elementary school) in Toronto, Canada. Rawlinson is a government funded public school that is open to anyone in the area to attend free of charge. The student body is extremely diverse, representing backgrounds incorporating 40 different languages, with roughly 50% of the students coming from homes where English is not the first language or spoken at all. Prior to my arrival at the school, I contacted the schools’ Principal, Mrs. On December 18, I went to the school to start the project. It was an early morning on a particularly warm Canadian winter day when I arrived at the school and met with Mrs. Sarno. After a quick introduction and warm welcome, I waited in the halls for the daily morning announcements to finish. Being around the holiday season, the announcements ended with a merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Happy Kwanzaa, giving a sense of inclusiveness to the diverse student body. Following the announcements, I went up to meet Mrs. Severino and her grade 2/3 From the second I walked into the room, all heads turned and a simultaneous “Whoa!” could be heard. “Are you a basketball player”, asked one of the students. Given that I’m a tall guy (and maybe the tallest they’ve ever seen this close), I couldn’t help but laugh along as the questions kept coming in. After the initial excitement of a new visitor settled down, I set to introducing myself and talking about the special activity we were about to do. I could see from the kids’ faces that they were getting really excited. Some couldn’t contain themselves in their chairs, getting up and walking around as questions from the class kept rolling in. “Are we going to be famous”, some asked. With the introduction done and the kids ready to paint, a short twenty minute school-wide recess allowed me to set up the canvases and paint trays on each of the desks with the great help of Mrs. Severino. When the kids returned, they sat down and started painting. I walked around, talking with some, listening to them tell me about their families and their lives, taking pictures the whole time. They all had so many stories to tell me. One story I remember well was a chat with Pamela, who told me about her annoying older brothers who kept pinching her ears. Not being able to resist, I gave a small pinch on her left ear. The annoyed but playful look I received back as her hands landed on her hips was priceless. Thankfully, she cracked a smile and continued on with another story. Watching the process the students used to paint was amazing. Some jumped right into painting their subject matter, chatting with me while effortlessly adding small details to their compositions. Others, however, took a bit more time before starting, choosing not to be as social and focus on their pieces. Styles were also very mixed. While some students painted people and objects that were easy to identify, some students used abstraction to get their point across. In the end, most students painted their family, friends (of which one student included me in his painting!), oxygen, nature, and love, or some variation of these subjects. With the painting and write-ups done, the students came and sat down on the carpet with me at the front of the class. They were all still full of energy when I announced that I would be handing out official certificates of participation that they could take home and show their parents. I stood up and called each of their names out one-by-one while the whole class cheered each other on. We then shared some fruit and cookies while I passed out a gift to each student containing a small case of oil paints with a brush. I hope that my involvement with KEEPS will help encourage the students to keep painting. The day ended with the class inviting me back for their holiday party later on in the week. What an experience! |
