A Library Where Kids Learn to Tinker
Walk into a North Philadelphia library, and you’ll be greeted by an
unusual sight. While adult patrons surf the Web and whisper in hushed voices,
adolescents giddily piece together sticks and balls to make structures that
snake across the room. Grownups leave with books under their arms; kids carry
out hand-sewn wallets, colorful birdhouses and wands tipped with glowing LED
lights.
Maker Jawn, a
year-round Free Library of Philadelphia initiative funded by an NBCUniversal
21st Century Solutions grant, opens branches’ underutilized spaces to
middle school students to experiment with hands-on creation. The program began
in 2011 as a way to fill a gap in the city’s public school education. Noticing
that arts and music classes were being slashed in favor of test-prep
memorization, the library stepped in to supplement project-based creative arts
learning. The term maker jawn comes from the learning
environments known as Makerspaces, in which participants experiment with
creative technology, and from the slang word jawn, which
originated in Philly’s hip-hop scene and can take on the meaning of any noun in
a sentence. The Free Library of Philadelphia chose it for the program’s title
to suggest the range of work that youngsters could create, where nothing is
off-limits.
Supplied with iPads, power tools, a 3-D printer, hot-glue guns, paint
and buckets of marbles, buttons and other knick-knacks, the preteen
participants are given free rein to build what they please. To an outsider, it
might seem the kids are just messing around, making arts and crafts from
leftover junk. But for many of its young devotees, the program is a welcome
change from the confines of a school day shaped by strict, rote learning and a
respite from some of the hardships of life in an impoverished neighborhood. The
mentors who run Maker Jawn’s daily lessons see that the kids are tapping into
their creativity, maybe for the first time, and building up diminished
self-confidence.
“People who are always told what to do can be overwhelmed at first when
you say, ‘Here’s the material. Go for it,’” says Sarah Winchowsky, the project
coordinator, of working with the kids. “But by giving them avenues to branch
out, they flourish.”
A student works on a creative project at Philadelphia's Widener Library
as part of the Maker Jawn program.Courtesy of Maker Jawn
Case in point: Musa Andrews, who wanted to make a sci-fi gangster film
in the library’s back room. Andrews was just 13 years old when he began
scripting “Godbrothers,
Part I,” a time-warped flick with scenes set in prison, space, heaven and
hell. Two years later, after crafting props and costumes, recording an
original song, shooting in front of a green screen and a belabored editing
process, Andrews presented a 22-minute film. Sixty people gathered for the
premiere. Andrews has since taken video-production classes and gotten involved
with filmmaking groups downtown.
“This is a place to assert some agency over the physical world,” says
Goda Trakumaite, a Lithuanian artist who’s been a Maker Mentor for nearly three
years. “Self-esteem comes with that. ‘I never used a hammer before, and today I
built a bird-house. Tomorrow I want to learn more.’ That feeling of being
capable and powerful is the coolest thing that I think kids gain over time in
the program.”
To that end, all ideas are encouraged, says Trakumaite. “It’s rare for
these kids to be in a place where they’re in charge, and where an adult
functions more as support rather than an authority figure,” she says, adding
that in the library, you rarely hear a “no” or “don’t do that.”
The freedom to tinker with new materials, to try things out and to fail,
is particularly important in low-income neighborhoods. For the primarily black
and Hispanic population in North Philadelphia, students who don’t perform well
in school often believe they’ve been written off. “There is a cycle that
perpetuates itself, of violence and poverty, that leads to self-deprecation,”
says Winchowsky. “The kids will say, ‘I’m a failure,’ and then they’re then
unlikely to try again.” Every child has inherent talent, she adds, and it would
be a shame if a kid never discovered it simply because he or she was too scared
to try.
For
Maker Jawn's Future Fashion project, participants designed and sewed futuristic
outfits and participated in a photo shoot.Courtesy of Maker Jawn
Beyond
personal development, Maker Jawn also squeezes in academic enrichment. “Our goal
is to have them learning without realizing it,” explains Winchowsky. That can
happen when a mentor, for example, subtly schools the kids in thermodynamics
while demonstrating how to make a lava lamp from old soda bottles, water, oil
and dye. Or when building a self-moving robot — in one instance, a
rudimentary, solar-powered motor attached to four wheels became a lesson
in circuitry and photovoltaic cells.
And
sometimes the education is behavioral too. One 10-year-old troublemaker who
poked her classmates and cursed under her breath for her first 18 months of
visits did an about-face when one library branch put on a fashion show. “She
was in her element,” Winchowsky recalls. “She was engaged and had a purpose.”
Mentors stopped reprimanding her; instead, they applauded her suggestions
during the four months of prep for the big night.
On
the whole, the program offers a different vision for what role libraries might
serve in the future. Upending its traditional role as warehouses for printed
books, the Free Library of Philadelphia is pushing a broader definition of
knowledge that includes artistic experimentation and digital literacy. To some
adults, “the library is supposed to be a quiet place for studying or reading a
book. But that’s not just what it is about anymore,” notes Winchowsky. While
physical pages might be disappearing into the cloud, the library’s physical
space is more important than ever as the site for interactions, making it akin
to a community center. “I feel that Maker Jawn has a place in this new library
model because it’s a space to share ideas,” she says. “That’s what I see
libraries moving toward: They’re becoming less about the books and more about
hands-on information sharing.”
Maker
Jawn is transforming libraries into more freewheeling, open spaces. The kids
leaving with kites, cereal-box castles and solar-powered robots aren’t just
walking away with cool new toys. Over the course of a couple hours, they’ve
been tinkering with a new, stronger sense of self.
Maker
Jawn is a recipient of the 21st Century Solutions grant powered by the
NBCUniversal Foundation, in partnership with the NBCUniversal Owned Television
Stations. The grant celebrates nonprofits that are embracing innovative
solutions to advance community-based programs in the areas of civic engagement,
education, environment, jobs and economic empowerment, media, and technology
for good.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
No comments:
Post a Comment