an exercise in self-expression

For the past few weeks, students from a new "small-school" in Oakland have trekked over to 826 to work on developing a self-expression project that reveals who they are through myriad means. The first-year high schoolers were asked initially to conceive a form of self-expression — visual, written, performance, artistic — that would tell the story of their life. At the conclusion of the six-week workshop, the kids would present their self-portrait to their family and teachers, and to their 826 mentors, as well.

The first few weeks have been spent working in both group environments and one-on-one with the kids to formulate their project. Mentors, teachers and kids have come up with a "Success Rubric," which defines the qualities of a good project including, "honesty, passion, thoughtfulness, displaying signs of growth, clarity," and others.

What I've found most interesting over the few weeks we've been spending time with the kids is the differing levels of excitement, interest and understanding they've had for the project. Some kids are incredibly motivated and have very specifically formed ideas of what they want to do, others have great interest but also great difficulty in figuring out how to express themselves, and some are just stumped by the idea. The focus of MetWest is to allow kids to work with teachers to build their own curriculum. There are no letter grades assigned, and no specific initial education requirements. It's both incredibly satisfying, but also a bit challenging to discover which kids need which kinds of guidance. We find ourselves learning alongside them.

The next few weeks should be quite interesting. Few kids have moved beyond the planning and scheduling stages on their projects, but there is not much time left before they are due. All of the mentors are hoping, I think, that when the kids arrive this coming Monday they will have brought some of the means for starting the construction of their self-expression. More later.