Creative Journals in a Bottle
"We can be heroes, just for one day" David Bowie
What takes place in the minds and hearts of teenagers when at the age of 16/18 they are getting ready to become adults?
What are the challenges that they have to face in order to become an adult, that is being autonomous, self-confident, responsible, able to think outside the box and to learn by experience, kind, optimist and with no fear to admit when you are wrong?
How can educators, both parents and teachers, support them in their journey to adulthood?
In the chapters of this book you will be able to see a number of creative experiences proposed to teenage students in order to let them reflect on themselves and express some feelings they have inside and that they generally keep for themselves. At home, not many teenagers open up to their parents, telling them about their fears, their deep desires and some of their problems. When they are at school, it is even more unusual for them to have the right situation that allows them to share their inner feelings with others.
The title of this book, Creative Journals in a Bottle, refers to the idea that a message in a bottle can symbolize hope and the human desire for connection. Many of us, when we feel lonely, look for ways to reach out, to connect with someone, anyone. That is where the message in a bottle comes into play.
Many complain that students are not involved in the school subjects, they make an effort to spend time at school and to study what their teachers told them to. It is given for granted that young people should be motivated to study and perform well at school. But it is not so. Without a real motivation inside them, they do things without putting their souls in them. One of the strategies used in some of the following experiences is one based on multisensorial visualization. From their creations at the end of each one of them we can see how they had found something inside that they had no idea to have: a sensitive, original and productive creativity involving the whole of themselves.
In the extracts of the creative Journals teenagers created when stimulated by the right situation and support, they show their potentialities as human beings. Their kindness, their sense of beauty, their responsibility towards themselves, their friends and family, and the world around them.
Some questions for the readers of this book:
• How to make ancient history appealing, involving for the new generations?
• How to transform a classroom that is not particularly motivated to learn new things in different subjects into one that becomes active in their learning process?
• Have you ever found a teacher that did not judge you, but helped you empathically to find in yourself alternatives to ways of learning that were not effective for you? • As we are all different, do you use a different approach when dealing with a person who is your son, daughter, husband, wife or friend?
• When dealing with another person do you try to deal in an empathic way, without judging the ideas different from yours, but try to put yourself in their shoes and see how you would react to some circumstances?
• When you see a painting that you find interesting, or a novel you like, do you complete these works of art with some of your personal ideas or emotions, like when you have in your hand a message in a bottle and you read it and react to that message?
Final Reflections
The cover of this book represents a bottle with a message inside floating in the sea. The message is that we are not alone at being alone. The activities described in this book show how during and after them teenagers felt a sense of being part of a friendly and supporting environment.
The slogan I have chosen for this book is a line from a song of David Bowie: “We can be heroes, just for one day”.
I hope that the out-of-the-ordinary experiences described in this book could inspire you to look for alternatives to attitudes, habits that you find in students or kids: you can help change them and help them to be free to experiment new ways.
A video about the book:
