Power of Written Names

The Paideia students in Greg and Martha’s 7& 8 class really stepped it up this year. Their spring project brought new materials never worked with at Children Inspiring Hope before- tar roofing paper and pastels. Leslie, an art teacher and one of the Ghana facilitators, commented that she learned from this project. And, the students in Ghana needed little to no guidance. “We just gave them the materials and sat back and watched the process,” she commented.

As the large 36 x 36 group murals made it back to Atlanta, many observations were made when sharing. The groups seemed to know which one was “theirs.” We aren’t sure how they determined this, but each group identified theirs, and everyone was in agreement. While watching the video, we observed, the Ghanaian students started from the outside and worked their way in, while the American students started from the center and worked their way out. The students spent nearly as much time looking at the back of the mandalas- where the Ghanaian students wrote their names large- as they did the artwork on the front. They loved the art, but they loved just as much the personal signatures boldly written in colors.

When the students made the mandalas which were Ghana bound, they made extras to auction for their school scholarship fund. When the ones from Ghana returned, they decided to auction a couple as well and send money for the Vida Oyiadzo Scholarship Fund- and specifically, Fred and Matlida. Evan and Dillon were connected to Fred last year, in a student-to-student art exchange. They also raised funds from selling pizza, and as a group, they decided to help Fred and his sister with school funds. This marks the second school year that our scholarship fund, supporting 6 students, has been fully supported by students in the U.S.

Fred pictured on the left holding communications from Evan.