Meme: Passion Quilt

Posted on | March 26, 2008 | 3 Comments

Just Look at the Eyes….

Apologies to Judy, Jenny and Tess for taking so long to get around to the Passion Quilt meme – I always intended doing it, and I always knew where I would find the photograph I wanted to display – I just wasn’t sure of the message I wanted to provide.

The photograph is meant to represent a whole Flickr site full of amazing and wonderful photographs from the Children At Risk Foundation (CARF), which works with street children in Brazil. Every photograph on the site opens up a different emotion, a different hope, a different dream, a different memory for each of the children and young people in the frame. I like the one above because it shows what I take to be a quiet and confident diffidence, but flick through the photographs and you will see every emotion and every hope, dream and memory that it’s possible to see on a child’s face.

For me, education is, more than anything else, about helping children to understand their fears, to hold on to their aspirations and dreams, and to find the means within them, through learning how to learn, to make their way in the world. That may seem easier to do in some settings than in others, but every child, no matter where they find themselves as they grow up, deserves the chance to do the best they can. Teachers have the awesome responsibility to nurture the positives in a child’s life without adding to the negatives, which we do every time we do anything that adds to the fears and anxieties they already bring with them to school.

And for me, it is the eyes of the children that I see mostly when I look through these photographs, and I know that something of the same range of feelings and fears and future desires can be seen in the eyes of any classroom full of children anywhere in the world – they are simply, perhaps, more obvious in the harsh settings in which the CARF photos are taken.

So, just look at the eyes!

For the thoughts of this particular young girl, click the photo and read her words.

Read about CARF in the Flickr profile, and look at their mission for change. Geoffrey J Smith, CARF’s founder, is a fellow of Ashoka: “Ashoka envisions a world where Everyone is a Changemaker: a world that responds quickly and effectively to social challenges, and where each individual has the freedom, confidence and societal support to address any social problem and drive change.”

Can I pass the baton, if it is not already too late, to:
Don Ledingham
Ruby Rennie
Theo Kuechel
Martin Weller
Jackie Cameron

Sorry folks!

Here are the rules:

1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to Miguel Guhlin’s original blog entry.
4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or blogroll or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Technorati Tags: passion quilt, meme

Category: children, education, emotion, passion, personal, schooling, society, teaching

Comments

3 Responses to “Meme: Passion Quilt”

Jenny Luca
March 26th, 2008 @ 2:14 pm

Well worth the wait John. Beautiful sentiments – we as teachers should hold these words close to us as we enter our classrooms. Our students deserve this.
Miguel Guhlin
March 26th, 2008 @ 5:01 pm

Thanks so much for participating. Awesome photo!
Judy O'Connell
March 26th, 2008 @ 9:18 pm

Beautiful John, and so thoughtful – as always!