SAIL first visit

The School for ARTs in Learning (SAIL) is a K-7 public charter school.

According to their web site: “SAIL works to address the needs of students with learning differences by providing creative learning environments” We have developed a specialized curriculum using the arts to help children learn in ways that match their learning styles, paying special attention to individual learning styles and specific need. Our focus is on developing the whole child, intellectually, emotionally, physically, and socially.”

The class had about 12 kids, between 7-9 years old; the ethnicity background was 95% African-American 5% Latin-American. The first thing that caught my attention was the setting where the class was taking place. It was in a basement with artificial light, no windows and no very bright color in the walls. There were a couple of shelves and tables against the walls to story the art supplies. There were also three different size tables to accommodate the kids (small 4 kids, medium, 6 kids and large 8 kids) in the middle of the room. I did not ask the teacher about the reason for the different sizes of the tables but I think that it might have some relationship to social behavior, sense of belonging to a group within a group. I guess it is part of human nature and it is something that is part of us from kindergarten until the end of our life.

As soon as I arrived at the class, I introduced myself to the teacher Ms. Dorothy she was very nice and polite. After welcoming me, she introduced me to the activity: Collage.I was preparing to participate in the activity and one of the four girls of the group at the small table invited me to work with them. I sat and started to cut pieces of magazines and fabrics to create my collage as an excuse to know the kids better and observe their behavior.
They were working and talking about different subjects (TV shows, the images that they selected for the collage, Michelle Obama, etc) we talked about our collage projects and they showed a clear interest in making me feel good and part of the group. It was remarkable the way that they communicated with each other, sharing the material and personal space in the table. For instance to ask for a scissors they said: “excuses are you using this scissors? May I take it?” “Thank you”. A couple minutes after a kid from another table came and took something from the table with out asking and one of the girls said: “this is not nice, you have to ask for things” and the girls next to her said: “yes, she is right. Apologize and you can have it“. I was amazed for this kind of reaction and the sense of self-managed individuals and in the group.

The class was about to end and it got a little loud and the kids were moving from table to table, some of the kids were completely disengaged with the activity wondering around. The teacher raised her voice and made noises with her hands that the kids responded in the same way in order to take the class under control. At the same time another teacher in the class helped to keep the order. Nevertheless, it was difficult to make these kids, finish the activity, clean up and get ready to go back to the next class in an organized way.

After my first visit finished, I was thinking about the differences between SAIL and Peabody. I concluded, that there are important factors that cannot be overlooked in order to make a fair judgment. The differences in the two programs are based on the needs of the learning group and the community focusing on the use art to achieve different goals. However, settings (classroom with natural light and windows/ basement), programs requirements(individual project development / learning social behavior and self-control), size of the class (4/13) and student’s background (middle class / social disadvantages) are very important characteristics to put under consideration in order to seriously evaluate the pros and cons of any art program and reach a positive and constructive conclusion.