In 2016 I was hired by Flexible Laboratory, a beautiful and stimulating “art, science and technology” lab for children and teenagers where content designers and coordinators were electronic artists, scientists, physicists, among others. It’s a great place to start exploring arts, electronics, biology, physics, programming, and more, specially dedicated to restless and enthusiastic kids.
When I met her founder, Micaela Puid I asked some questions about how they handled, from the pedagogical proposal, those disruptive or complex situations that usually occur in groups of children. And the answer was very interesting, she said that, as a consequence of a lack of tools in the teachers team, many children ended up leaving the space due to the impossibility of feeling included when experiencing disruptive behavior.
My proposal was to design a program to build more inclusive approaches in groups. We decided to bring art therapists to work among teachers, focusing on group integration and respectful coexistence with a focus on understanding and building respectful responses to diversity in general, making a therapist available to work in different emerging situations.
The results were very satisfying, the majority of drops had nothing to do with those emerging formerly experienced as disruptive situations. We made it to build a very open, comforting and empowering place for all participants. By 2018 the program was properly transferred and it’s still ongoing today.
Read More at Flexible Website: CLICK HERE
