Arts! By the People
Empowering Individuals Through Collaborative Acts of Self-Expression
Today I worked with the preteen girls on writing their own “This I Believe” pieces. We read and listened to Tarak’s list of “Thirty Things,” and then they set about to write their own, pens to wide-ruled paper.
They wrote many in just 20 minutes. Seven-year-old Tarak spent six hours writing the 100 things he believed, two hours per day. (And this was before he whittled it down to 30. Writing takes work!)
Here are some of the girls’ beliefs:
I believe kids shouldn’t have coffee.
I believe everyone will have bad days.
I believe everyone has at least one miracle.
I believe anger is not a bad thing.
I believe spending is good sometimes.
I believe clouds look like pillows.
I believe there should be different colors on every pen.
I believe they should make smoking illegal.
I believe we don’t need technology to survive.
I believe everyone should laugh, but also cry.
I believe people should not call me CUTE.
I believe sometimes the blind see better than the people with sight.
