Into the Outside

Yoga for School Kids

I've been thinking a lot about yoga this week--how it's funny that when I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s, yogies were consider "out there", definitely not mainstream. Now, it couldn't be more ubiquitous. There's yoga for every segment of the population--men's only, women's only, prenatal, couples, mommy and me, toddler. Yoga's become so cool that even high school students are doing their sun salutations! If you think about it, teenagers are probably the population most in need of a bit of om and meditation. Anything that will keep them away from the constant stimulation of technology and peer pressure for a few minutes is probably a positive thing.

I learned about yoga for high school students from an article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/education/29stress.html?em&ex=1193889600&en=45e4fc62a9c24bea&ei=5087%0A), which profiles one over-achiever mecca in Needham, Mass., where high school students need to be strongly encouraged to relax and take a break from work and activities, the opposite image of parents threatening to take away the car keys for incomplete homework.

"Needham began an intense self-examination a couple years ago, after four of its young people — one in college, two in high school and one in middle school — committed suicide. While school officials emphasized that the suicides were not related to stress, the deaths heightened concerns about how Needham’s students were responding to school pressure."

High-achieving kids like those at Needham are driven--with the ultimate goal being acceptance into one of a handful of brandname colleges. But, this drive has led to a generation of stressed out kids: this is where yoga and Needham High School's Stress Reducation Committee come in. They are implementing programs to help these kids learn to take a step back, to enjoy high school without always thinking, "How will this activity enhance my college application?".

Of course, not every high school has to deal with overachievement as a problem, but every high school student does have to deal with stress: be it from the fear of physical danger, peer pressure, underachievement, or overachievement. Programs such as the yoga and Stress Reducation Committee from Needham could be implemented at any school and perhaps help to create a generation of more centered students.

Has anyone heard of stress reduction programs at their school or done any research into this topic? If so, what are there positive results from such programs? What advice can you offer?

Waterfront Walks in Red Hook

I've been taking a lot of walks lately, in part to savor this protracted Indian summer we're experiencing in Brooklyn, but mostly to get ideas for taking students out into the field on community walks. Two weekends ago, I explored the Red Hook waterfront – it was sort of like a fact-finding mission - through a BCUE (Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment) Urban Tours program.  These “community walks for adults” are conducted all over the borough and can give great historical background to relate to students.  They also provide a template for focus your own neighborhood walk with students.  You can find BCUE's fall tour program here.

Since then I have traveled with students four times back onto the Red Hook streets.  Initially looking at three kinds of zones within a neighborhood - residential, commercial, and industrial – the students used their senses of smell, sight, and hearing to hone in on the people and buildings they passed.  The sense walk seemed a logical way to introduce the neighborhood as an place of inquiry.  It encourages students, especially those Red Hook born and bred, who could teach you a thing or two about what you're looking at, to think deeper about where they live.  Guiding questions included: “Why would people move to Red Hook?” and, once there, “What kinds of jobs did Red Hook provide?”   

Prior to the next, more site-specific walk, students looked at photographs of an older Red Hook waterfront.  What do you notice about the photographs?  What do you think is happening at the moment of capture?  Tell yourself a story about the people, the ships, and the jobs.  Close your eyes and imagine the longshoremen's conversations...

That was then, and this is now...The same groups then traveled back to the waterfront as they began to think more about the roles of water and geography in the development of the neighborhood.    Students visited the Beard Street Warehouse, which they noticed looked "just as old as it did in the picture."  They visited the pier at the tip of Conover Street and saw a vista of Liberty Island not unlike the view in the panoramic photos from 1939. 

I like this kind of flexible neighborhood walk because it is guided exclusively by on-location student inquiry.   The  site - in this case the Red Hook waterfront - begets the questions, which informs the investigation.  Again: "Why would people move to Red Hook?" and "What kinds of jobs does Red Hook provide?"   Being at the waterfront - peeking in the barges and the piers and the warehouses, walking the same streets that generations of longshoremen have walked before - certainly begins to answer some of those questions.

 

You mean they’re not extinct? - American Indians in NYC

How many of you would say that your students are under the impression that American Indians only live on isolated reservations in Arizona and New Mexico and run casinos on the Canadian border? Well, tell them they can all just think again! There are approximately 27,000 American Indians living in New York City alone, according to the American Indian Community House, New York’s premiere service organization dedicated to the health, social services, and cultural needs of Native Americans living in NYC. (Oh, and if any of you were unsure, we were assured that the terms “Native American” and “American Indian” are considered synonyms and used interchangeably by Natives and Non-Natives alike.)

A couple of weeks ago I attended the American Indian Community House Fall Open House to see for myself just what the organization is all about. Assuming that I would pick up some pamphlets, shake a few hands and leave, I was delightfully surprised when I was greeted by a handful of volunteers who suited me up with a nametag, entreated me to fill up a plate with corn bread, black bean dip, and warm bulgur wheat casserole, and whisked me down the hall for a tour of the building. It was down towards the Education wing where I met the Community House’s Education Coordinator. He explained to me that he was a member of upstate New York’s Oneida nation, an actor, writer, and experienced educator. I wasted no time in convincing him to come to Brooklyn as a guest speaker to a couple of middle school classes that are learning about native populations of America by looking at the Haudenosaunee people, or as the French have coined them, the Iroquois.

“Native Americans still exist? I thought they were wiped out by the Caucasians,” one 7th grader exclaimed, when the conversation had turned to Native populations and lands today. Our guest politely explained that a large percentage of American Indians died out because of diseases introduced by the Europeans against which the Indians had no immunity, but he also emphasized to the students that the people of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee still live and own a considerable portion of their ancestral lands. A lively talk continued that covered many aspects of Iroquois society: the clan system and familial roles, government, belief systems, popular myths and stories, and the importance of dance, song, and music to everyday life. One of the classes had already studied the Iroquois creation story, so that when our guest began to tell the Oneida version, the students couldn’t keep from inserting the details they had already learned, a foreknowledge that led to very lively discussion. But most significantly, the presence of our guest in the school imparted to the kids one very crucial nugget of information: American Indian people may not necessarily dress the way they used to, but their culture and way of life is growing and thriving in New York City and beyond.

I encourage you to check out the American Indian Community house (www.aich.org) to learn more about their programs, services, and special performances.

International Food Festival: An Opportunity to Learn

This weekend, we attended an international food festival hosted by one of the international primary schools here in Tokyo. It was such a fun cultural and learning activity for our family, but also just a great way to spend a gorgeous afternoon. The food stands represented many different countries: China, Japan, Brazil, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Italy, Ireland, India, and more...plus performers from various countries presented traditional dances and songs on a big sound stage, adding to the festive atmosphere. I loved seeing the little Japanese kids munching down on an empanada from the Brazilian stand, and the American kid using chopsticks to stab at Chinese dumplings. Parents, dressed in clothing representing the country, worked in the booth selling traditional food from their homelands. Ten tickets cost 1000 yen (approximately $8.50) and most items were 4-6 tickets.

Food is such a great way to learn about different cultures and an international food festival is an excellent way to raise funds for a school. Plus, it's a fantastic opportunity to bring a community together to have fun while learning about different heritages..outside the classroom.

Has anyone had success participating in such an event? I'm curious how much money a school "takes home" from an festival such as this, does anyone know? What feedback have students given to teachers about international food festivals and what they've learned from attending one?

More on Dual Immersion Language Programs

My daughter is the only 100% American kid in her preschool class. Because we live in Tokyo, you wouldn’t think that unusual, however, she attends an international preschool and many, many people in our community are Americans. But her class of 12 students includes children who are Korean, Japanese, French, Australian, Chinese, Irish—a few have one American parent, but she is the only one with two American parents. I am very happy that she is being exposed to such an internationally diverse community. I wonder if the diversity is because she is part of a dual immersion English-Japanese language program.

Today’s New York Times featured an article about diversity and language immersion preschools and how the two go hand-in-hand. The article discussed two preschools in New Jersey, one that teaches Mandarin and one, Spanish.

“At Bilingual Buds, Sharon Huang, the owner, says about a third of the 110 children come from Chinese-American families who don’t speak Mandarin, but want their children to do so; a third are families of all backgrounds who have adopted a Chinese child; and a third…have no Chinese connection.”

At schools such as these, according to the article, diversity is a given and it seems that, like at my daughter’s school, no one is different because no one is the same. One parent featured in the article stated, “People who start their children on a language so young understand it’s a multicultural world and they want their children to be part of it.”

If a higher percentage of American students were given the opportunity to participate in dual immersion language programs, I believe they would be better prepared to be part of this multicultural world we live in.