I am not normally a religious man. But when I pass an exam which I had no right to pass, then it makes me greatly desirous of retracting all the unpleasant things I’ve ever had to say about life, the universe, and everything.
Oh, and an update on Argyle Design – they launched their new website at midnight last night! I just wish I could show you some of the gorgeous conceptual axonometrics, floor plans, and other sketches they’ve drawn for us.
Ξ April 28th, 2003 | → Comments Off | ∇ General, School |
Sundays are spent blissfully free from computers and desks, whenever I can.
So it’s been about 25-29 degrees C here, and sunny. The weather outside is enjoyably cool with a slight breeze and in the shade of a large tree.
…Which is where I spent six hours yesterday:
A) drilling strikes from Ringeck’s vier Leger (four guards) and their prescribed responses in the vier Versetzen (four displacements).
B) being introduced to basic Capoeira. I can now crudely imitate the ginga, carera, esquivas, and armada techniques that R taught me. My spelling is atrocious, no doubt.
Any day where your leg muscles cramp up with every step is a day well-spent. :)
It’s been three years since I’ve graduated, and that late afternoon teatime sunlight still captivates me. The long, horizontal, slanting rays set the grass by the music school aflame with emerald fire. I almost felt as though I could take a quick jaunt around the clouds and sun on the dust motes dancing in the sunbeams. Alas, my much-abused legs kept me firmly cemented to the stadium parking lot.
I swung through the RMC Grand Hall, and pow-wowed with some Lovetteers at the Gillis-Camacho study break.
It’s nice to be almost done with my finals. :) The past two weeks were pretty hairy. Statistics final, two presentations, two papers, etc. on top of the rush of activity prototyping. But it’s all downhill from here.
I’ve resolved to try playing on the grand pianos in every college at Rice. So far, I’ve played at Wiess, Will Rice, Hanszen, and the RMC student center lobby piano.
Some are out of tune, some are a little sluggish, but it’s good variety and experience for me. Now I need to find something a bit more formal than popular songs. I think I’ll hit up some of my MUSI friends for ideas.
Ξ April 28th, 2003 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Work |
After closing my first blog entry with a comment on children…
Reports are filtering in, as we ruminate on the implications of our observations.
Mostly, the children responded to the most concrete aspects of the stories and activities. None of them connected the 100 eggs story to VN’s creation myth — they all just liked the bit about killing the monsters. Ditto with the Areca / Betel nut story — when asked about what they remembered, they said, “Well, the husband and wife and brother all die and turn into rocks and trees.” They got the impression that family is important somehow, but they couldn’t get at the idea of the significance of the wedding vows and commitment and love.
Today, one of the other folks who helped me test said that a Houston Area Women’s Center (HAWC) counselor called him up. HAWC runs clandestine safe houses and takes in battered women and their kids, when they have no other place to go. They have arrangements with places like our CMH to take the kids on group outings sometimes. However, it’s done anonymously, in an unmarked van, and no one is supposed to know who the kids are, where they’re staying, etc. This is for their protection, so that no word can slip out and possibly lead to a stalking, estranged husband/BF coming to abduct the kids or track down the mother, etc.
So. Enter my activity prototyping…
The HAWC counselor told Armando (my co-worker) that the kids had done some stories and activities at CMH. So afterwards, they were doing a coloring activity at the HAWC. This one kid got really angry, and the counselor asked him why.
The kid said it was because he had heard a Vietnamese story about a husband and wife, and they hadn’t worked out, and the husband said they had to live apart. The counselor said this was the first time in a month since the child had come to HAWC that he’d said anything in their group sessions.
At this point, I was thinking, “Gott in Himmel, that’s the story of Lac Long Quan and the 100 eggs.” It’s the VN creation myth. I’d link something, but all the story versions online are retarded — they conflate other, unrelated tales or story elements, or inject sordid 20th century character flaws into an elegant story from a more civilized age (oh, wait — that’s a lightsaber).
So Lac Long Quan was descended from dragons. He did many great deeds and killed monsters which threatened his people. Then he met Au Co, daughter of the mountain spirits (or fairies). They hooked up, got it on, and she dropped a big sac. From that sac came 100 eggs, which hatched 100 sons.
Then Lac Long Quan yearned for the sea, and told Au Co, “I am descended from dragons and must be near water. You come from the mountains, and must live in the highlands. Our time together has been wonderful, but now we must part.”
So they split their sons, and took 50 each to the mountains and the coast.
Thus is shown how the VN people lived in the highlands and by the sea.
So why’d the kid get angry? Well, apparently, he took it as a parable for incompatible interracial relationships. His mother had married outside of her race, and the arrangement hadn’t worked out, which is why he and his mother are in HAWC now.
The counselor was really excited, because this represented a major first, a breakthrough if you will, in helping the kid to deal with his issues. Once he got angry, then the counselor could help to draw out the reasons.
Then the child can see that it’s not the story at which he’s angry, but rather his parents. So why them? Well, things didn’t work out. Why didn’t they? etc. etc. And in talking it out, you can work out and work off your emotions, instead of keeping them pent up inside where they’ll tear you up over the years.
Second story:
The Chinese Community Center came with a pack of rambunctious kids. They were fun, but a handful. They also listened to the 100 eggs story. When I asked each kid what the story meant, this 9-year old girl said, “Well, before two people get married, they need to know each other. If they don’t, then they might not work out and they will have to leave each other.”
Third story:
Two Indian women and their son (8) and daughter (6) tried out our ancestral altar activity. The mother and aunt prodded the kids a little at first, but then they got right into the swing of things. The kids were engrossed in drawing a picture of their grandfather, and the boy said he really liked picking out words to describe his grandfather.
The mother and aunt later said that the grandfather had passed away in the past couple years, and the little girl thought about or drew pictures of him all the time. The boy didn’t, but the mother felt this activity really gave him a chance to think about his grandfather. Both women thought the activity was great, and that it provided a really supportive and positive way to think about family members who’ve passed away.
In short, our design team did something very, very right.
* * *
I’ve learned that kids absorb only the really tangible or concrete facts usually. But they’ll often hit you with a real stunner.
First person to identify these lyrics gets 10 points and a rubber chicken-with-a-pulley-in-the-middle:
Careful the things you say,
Children will listen.
Careful the things you do,
Children will see.
And learn.
Children may not obey,
But children will listen.
Children will look to you
For which way to turn,
To learn what to be.
Careful before you say,
“Listen to me.”
Children will listen.
Ξ April 26th, 2003 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Work |
I concluded two weeks of activity prototyping today. The museum linked herein is much more fancy-pants about its testing.
Me, I begged for other staff members to volunteer time, borrowed plastic fruit, and stole empty Office Depot cardboard boxes (subsequently wrapped in butcher paper to simultaneously simulate boxed goods and altar tables).
Each day, we set up in either a science station space or a secondary cafeteria room in the museum.
Then, I went on the prowl for innocent little children. Unlike your typical sex offender, however, I sought their parents out.
To summarize: kids play with our posterboard-and-Sharpie produced mock ups, parents watch and pipe in, and I ask occasionally-probing questions about whether the kids understood and liked the activity.
Based on this statistically suspect and loaded data, our evaluation firm then writes up a formally informal report recommending how the activities should be designed (from an educator’s perspective). Working with the evaluator on our project, Evan, has been immensely educational for me. I went into this with a BA in Philosophy and a vague notion of where my towel was. Two weeks later, I now understand what “empowered” means — in this case to assert my own $0.02 in our upcoming design discussions.
Soon, our designers will incorporate this info into the third round of our design process — schematics. Michael and Cheryl at Argyle are great fun to work with (he does sketches and design, she devises the means to convey our educational criteria in the activities). Their web page isn’t much to look at right now, presumably because they’ve been working triple-shifts to come through for us on our current exhibit-in-progress and the previous one — Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm (beefy .pdf file).
So, it ain’t exactly a military R&D program, but it’ll do for non-governmental work.
Me, I just like the straight dope that little kids give you.
"
"
