Happy teachers make for happy students!
A
dream has come true for a team of Keiskamma artists who wished to
develop the skill of teaching art to children. For the past year,
Cebo Mvubu and Nomfusi Nkani have had the plan of teaching art to
primary school children during school holidays. Their passion
generated enthusiasm in 5 other artists who joined them to
attend training by our Keiskamma Creative Development expert
Themba Mchunu. For the past two weeks, Themba passed on very special
skills to this team: how to capture the children's attention, to
develop an interest in them for drawing and painting, how to give the
children freedom of expression, to plan a lesson and also
how to report on challenges and explore how they might be
overcome.
Standing
in the class while the trainees are going through the de-briefing of
the previous lesson, it is amusing and uplifting to hear the children
packing up on the other side of the door. One has to stop them
from pushing each other to enter the class. The art class is
obviously THE PLACE TO BE. "That's it," says Themba
to the team, "you hear them, they can't wait for your new
lesson, because when they wake up in the morning, they remember that
the day before you told them they are going to do
something new today!".