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ccasionally, you are given an opportunity to not only use your skills but your love for your work in a way that has the potential to positively affect those you are serving while profoundly changing yourself. Such was the case a little over a year ago, in the months after Hurricane Harvey when Sally Andrews, coordinator of community relations with Vidor ISD, approached the Young Audience Program and me with the proposition to use art to help students struggling after the heartbreaking disaster. More than 80% of students attending Vidor ISD were touched by the storm. For many of these students, they were already at or below the poverty level and also had numerous issues in their lives that affected their ability to learn. This traumatic event was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. We worked together to craft a program that would use the arts to help students not only express what they were feeling but would also give them useful, concrete ways to handle these challenges throughout their lives. We decided to start with elementary students and began meeting weekly with those recommended by the counselor and teachers. The approach was multifaceted and designed to use the arts to help students relax, have a safe place to let their guard down and express themselves openly and honestly, while giving them usable skills. These could be viewed as lofty goals for elementary students in a weekly 45-minute session creating art. However, exciting and amazing transformations have occurred during the past year. With younger students, simply asking them what’s wrong and how they feel often leads to one word answers, shrugs and sometimes confusion. With the exercises and projects chosen, students are guided and inspired to open up in a fun and relaxing atmosphere. The opening day activity continues to be a student favorite. Students are given all the ingredients to make volcanoes from baking soda and vinegar. Food coloring is incorporated as students experiment with combining colors to create new hues — yellow and red for orange, blue and yellow for green, blue and green for teal. As they work with the ingredients and colors, we talk about how sometimes we keep things that are bothering us deep inside, then a small ingredient is added and suddenly we erupt in a messy overflow.
Students love the unpredictability and volatility of the ingredients, range of colors and fun. They also are triggered to talk about how they get in trouble in class for outbursts or sometimes just inappropriate use of excess energy. The discussion evolves into ways to release that energy before it boils over by using the arts, exercise and positive self-expression. The use of straws to blow paint across paper and create a picture teaches students deep breathing techniques that help them self calm when they’re feeling stressed. They’re able to connect the fun activity to the cleansing deep breathing activities and think calming thoughts during stressful events. Many of the students do not feel that they excel at anything. The freedom to create things that do not have a specific right or wrong outcome allow them to build true self-esteem cultivated by trying new things in a safe and encouraging environment. A student questioned why anyone would want to do activities with them or allow them to do something fun like this. When asked why not, he simply but resignedly stated, “Because we’re the bad kids. Everyone knows we are. Why do you do these things with us?” Upon further questioning, he said his mother always tells him he will never be anything. For a child to believe at 10 years old that his future is already set in stone and is not one with promise is often a self-fulfilling prophesy. The opportunity to redirect and change that thinking is vital if there is to be any chance of changing the outcome. Allowing these students to not only create projects, but also do something that other students would like to participate in and to end up with useful life skills in the process is important in breaking the cycle.
The approach was multifaceted and designed to use the arts to help students relax, have a safe place to let their guard down and express themselves openly and honestly, while giving them usable skills.
Other students have commented that they always make sure they are at school on art class day. Students have also formed friendships in these groups because they often find they share common challenges such as parents in jail, learning difficulties or having lost parents in violent situations. An autistic student has been able to hone his social skills with students who are accepting of his challenges. The progress has varied from student to student, but each one has exhibited some level of improvement. Through continued classes and activities we are excited and expectant about ongoing success. STACIE JANNISE is an art therapist in Vidor ISD. Texas School Business MAY / JUNE 2019
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