KID’S
CHAT ROOM EVENT
We saw
blue agave fields creeping into russet sunsets, wild and savage
geological vistas like nowhere else on the planet, colonial
architecture untouched by five hundred years of history and
the highlight of the trip, hands down, took place inside a dusty
little classroom in Guadalajara.
That’s where we made the connection between fifteen
Mexican fourth graders and students in five school districts
back home in Detroit, via the Internet, in what was (we hope)
the first of many Visionalist Entertainment events linking the
daily lives of children around the world.
Lincoln School in Guadalajara (our Mexican base) is an interesting place: bi-lingual, of course (we weren’t prepared to handle insta-translations), founded in the Seventies for the children of missionaries. Among the five hundred students now attending Lincoln, many come from as far away as Korea and Japan so the students get a multi-cultural exposure from the outset.
At ten
o’clock in the morning, February 1, despite some opening-bell
jitters and frantic hi-tech phone calls between our Internet
gurus Rob and John and various servers both in Mexico and Michigan, connections were made with schools in Utica,
Birmingham, Farmington Hills, and Detroit.
Hundreds of conversations were started,
followed, and logged; and the result was more than what we’d hoped
for,
near-perfect, and on the human level, both touching and
magnificent. Rapid-fire questions… who likes Ricky Martin… who plays
soccer, who plays hockey… who eats what, and at what time of
day… but over the course of the half-hour, it was soon clear
that the children in both locations were quite unconscious of
the two thousand miles (and cultural cosmos) between them.
Far more similarities than differences were exposed; the
universality of humor and the shared experience of growing up
proved the best lesson of all.
It’s been said that the Internet shrinks the planet. Maybe, but we saw more expansion than contraction: that, of course, within the hearts and minds of our fourth graders.
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SMILES
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We’ve met many, many children here, and though very few speak English, they all share an interest in learning about who we are, and what we’re doing… showing up in their schools, their neighborhoods, their sidewalks, passing by, carrying cameras and notebooks. |
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And once they figure it out, it’s wonderful to discover that there’s no real need to understand every word that’s spoken. Smiles and friendship seem to work just fine. |
LETTERS FROM KIDS AT LINCOLN SCHOOL
