Summer of Learning

Now that life keeps blazing on at it's usual pace I've found myself settling back into the swing of things. It took a little while for sure. The first week back, I would try to accomplish a task, but instead I would find myself falling asleep. I blame this temporary narcolepsy on my post-study abroad hangover but mostly on my jetlag (because that's a more legitimate excuse for when I hadn't done the dishes like my mother asked.)

This summer I'm teaching art and architecture to kiddos here in Baton Rouge at a place called 7 elements. This is only my first week, but I can already tell that I'm going to love it. This week I've been teaching architecture to teens and kids, and I can honestly say that each day already feels rewarding. These first few days have taught me that it's challenging to teach 7 year olds about architecture, but I'm not going to lie its always entertaining. The first day I asked them to tell me (in their own words of course) what they thought architecture was. One precious little boy raised his hand and yelled "It's like arc's textures like different textures of things like arcs". .... close, right? Then after I explained to them the difference between plans and elevation drawings, I asked them to draw plans of their "dream house". One of my students drew her father sitting in the bathroom on the toilet checking facebook on his ipad. I nearly fell over trying to hold in my laughter when she explained her drawing to me. They truly melt my heart, they are so precious and mostly unaffected by the world. 

 7 yr. old Olivia's Floorplan with her dad on the toilet

The constant jabbering about instagram, Demi Lovato, and the latest gossip reminds me that my other older group is blazing forward through their preteen years. I decided that preteens are a thermometer for the condition of the world. Their innocence is usually in it's first exposure to the inevitable corruption of humanity. Even though most of them are only 8-10 years younger than me, I find their conversations and interests so different from when I was that age. There is such a huge generational gap between even me and my own brother that's only 7 years younger than me, I can't imagine how different the world will be when Ella comes around.. she's 15 years younger than me. I'm grateful for my own parents and teachers (as well as all other people teaching kids out there-- you go glen coco). They are fighting the hardest battle: to keep children's minds pure, open, and not corrupted by the world. So much of what the world offers is empty and sad. The young children see their lives so clearly, so unaffected. Nothing is unnecessarily over-complicated to them. If only we as adults (or as almost-adults..) could tap into that ability, tap into those eyes that see such beauty and pure joy. Maybe if we had those eyes, we could see how the love that the world offers is empty and flawed. Maybe some of these kids will teach me more than I could teach them. At least in the preteen class I will be more educated on social media...did you know that there's such a thing as a group text fight these days?!?!? (how did I become a geezer already... )

After only a few days at this whole teaching thing I can tell it's going to be an adventure, and I'm looking forward to the rest of this summer. Yes, it'll be a challenging and busy one, but that's what an adventure's all about anyway: challenging ourselves. So here we go, let's do this.

*all pictures courtesy of 7 Elements Baton Rouge