To educate for life

More than once I experienced the magical power that portrait provides: Feel closer to unknown people, through the intimate space that each of us has, and create a sort of common place where I feel really close and friendly with people I do not know.

A month ago I prepared this activity with my students:

In the home for the elderly, in Algodonales, the village where I teach, they were waiting for us to spend the morning with them.

The students, sitting in front of each of the elders asked them about their lives, took notes in their sketchbooks about what they told them and finally they tried to make them a portrait.

It is difficult to create interest in something in the teens with whom I share all day in the school. (Some of yo know well…) Moreover when the administration does not help art teachers in this sense, puts impediments and relegates art education to the drawer with the old and useless junk.

But experiences like this, when things go well, make me feel that there is still place for truth. I think something like this could be “To educate for life”.