From a No...to a maybe...to a Yes!

I decided to introduce some art materials to engage the students in the High School that I volunteer at. This is a group of 5-10 students aged 15-18 years old who have about an hour in their 'crew time' with their teacher. I co-lead the group with the teacher every Thursdays and last week, we decided that instead of talking, we would provide the students with the space to create anything that they wanted from a range of art materials, like paint, crayons, charcoal, sketch papers and colored papers.

In introducing the exercise, I was very vague about my instructions and said that this was a time for their own self expression and they could choose any of the materials and create anything that they wanted along the theme "change". On hindsight, I really should have put in more thought into struturing the activity especially since it was their first time trying out art in this context of crew time. Not surprisingly, there were 2 students who resisted the directives. There were some who seemed to like the openness in the structure and jumped right into drawing or painting in their own space. I remember feeling helpless when I sat next to a student who did not want to draw nor talk to me about what she was feeling.

Thankfully, at that point in time I remembered the activity that we did in class where we partnered and did the follower-leader exercise on a piece of paper. I remembered how the activity helped me to feel safe as it was predictable in a way and that it was also interactive without having to talk. I immediately picked up a paper and put it between us. I gave her a choice between purple and green crayons and asked her to pick a colour. (by now I realized that the lesser the options, the better it was in engaging her at first) She pointed at the green one. Feeling encouraged. I drew a line in the middle of the paper and asked her to follow my lead. She seemed curious enough to pick up the crayon and follow me. I made big shapes and went really slowly so that she had a sense of success in being able to follow my lead and create something together with her. When I sensed that she was beginning to relax, I asked if she would like to switch roles with me. She agreed! And so we continued the exercise and eventually I asked for her to draw in a way that she would lose me. And she did! She looked at me and said the most she has ever spoken to me in the class before, "I lost you!" We both laughed and in that moment I felt that a connection had been made.

It was a powerful moment as without having to say anything, she picked up another piece of paper and started to paint colours on her own. This was a poignant reminder to me that not everyone responds well too open a directive and that it is so important to ease them in with little successes in order to build trust and establish safety. I know that our class was also designed in a similar way where we worked our way up from easy clear directives and materials to more complicated and messy ones.