Playspace in Jenin

One of the things I noticed in Jenin is that there were not many areas dedicated to children's play - and with streets being filled with cars going by - and also with the occasional gunfire (you heard it in the city several times a day) and also with the cultural fact being on the street was not always socially acceptable for women this made street-play not as desirable as what it might be in other countries… I have been following how street-play in the UK has become a project to get children playing outside more… see Play England website for more information. Could a similar project be something for Jenin? Or is there a need to start with the play-spaces?

Most of the play-spaces I saw there were in conjunction with a school or kindergarten/preschool - and were not available to the general public… this is quite different from here in Sweden where everyone has access to preschool play areas on weekends and other times when the preschool/school is closed - AND there are lots of purpose built play areas to…. AND most apartment complexes with have a play area in the garden if it is large enough (there is a sandbox and playhouse next to the lawned area where I live - and we live about 50 m from a huge green area with a large play-space).

Why am I talking about the importance of play-spaces in Jenin? It is because I believe these are important places for learning… for building up hand-strength for the hand that will write, for developing balance, for problem solving, for social and cognitive development… play is essential - and outdoor play is an important part of a child's play repertoire - and therefore I deeply believe in the fact that by investing in play-spaces a community is also investing in the education and well-being of its children… its future.

Here are some articles and research about the importance of playgrounds for children's cognitive and social development - it is not just me that believes this, and there is much evidence to support it…

The Benefits of Playgrounds for children aged 0-5… Imagination Playground
The Importance of Outdoor Play - Community Playthings
The Importance of Playgrounds - Kidsafe
The Development Benefits of Playgrounds - Ooey Gooey (book review of the same title by written by Joe Frost, Pei-San Brown, Candra Thornton, John Sutterby, Jim Therrell and Debora Wisneski.)
Matching Children and Play Equipment: A Developmental Approach - Early Childhood News
Landscape Design for Children and Their Environments in Urban Context - Habibe Acar


I got to visit one of the few play-spaces in Jenin - one that The Freedom Theatre together with local children worked hard at fixing up…. taking away layers upon layers of rubbish, fixing swings etc - the hope was that the city would continue with the work of revamping the park… sadly that has not happened and the enthusiasm of the local children was sucked right out of them.
How then can the children of Jenin get the play-spaces they need - if there is no real value seen in playgrounds - as the educational value of them is not seen. It is, though, important to acknowledge that play is not meant to be educational. Rather education flows naturally into the environment of a child at play. So the idea is not to construct a classroom in the play-space but for us adults to be aware of the natural learning that accompanies play. 

Here are the images of the play-space I got to visit dying my week in Jenin… I am aware of one or two other public play-spaces which I did not have time to visit.

 As you can see that during the months since The Freedom Theatre and the children worked hard to clean up the play-space it is slowly becoming a place for rubbish again… this of course was a problem in the whole of Jenin and not just the play-space. Swings have been fixed the best they could… and the two slides were missing the sliding - just the steps up to the platform

 There was an area for basketball/football - which obviously has not been used for some time - there was a spinner (bottom left) I saw these several settings in Jenin. None of the equipment had soft landing space under, but this actually was not my biggest concern (after all soft landing hardly existed in playgrounds when I was a young child either) - I was more concerned about its ghost/skeletal quality - a playground devoid of play - no children and a huge sense that play was not being valued as something important.

The location of the playground was stunning - an expanse of nature behind the play-space to explore and have picnics, and in front was an amazing view over the city of Jenin - and Nazareth on the hill across the valley (so it was a hike, or a drive, to get to the park) - the park had beautiful trees and plants to play and explore in… perfect for hide and seek - but also so that quiet corners could be found too. The space has FANTASTIC play potential. Potential for children's gross motor skill development, for their understanding and appreciation of nature, as a place for social interactions.

Imagine if it was possible to set up a system like we have in Sweden - a Parklek (click on the link to learn some more) - where the park is staffed with play workers to support the children in their play, to ensure the play-space maintains a high standard (is not pulled apart/damaged or littered too much) - and becomes a place for families to enjoy play together, a place for children to feel safe and to play - and also a possible excursion destination for kindergartens and schools to experience a playful hands-on learning through team activities and other games?
Is such a dream too big? Can such a dream happen for the children of Jenin - and for children living in similar towns around the world where play is no longer seen as important.

Over the years I have blogged I have returned to outdoor play-spaces quite often… here are some links


a collection of ideas for outdoor play and learning from various locations around the world
Shade - I include this as many forget the importance of shade - not just to repent you getting sunburnt - but also the neurological impact it has…
Outdoor water Play - maybe more difficult in a place where water is a premium, but it does rain in Palestine too.
The many hops of hopscotch - the idea that sometimes the simplest of play-space equipment can offer you enormous amounts of play and learning potential… this could also be drawn into sand/mud/earth with a stick
Children Learning together - Iceland - this post shows that play does not require a great many things… a place space can be made of recyclables - this post also clearly shows how much learning happens through play… and maybe the children do not always see this as learning - they see it as play… it is STILL learning.
Parks and Play in Stockholm - I am slowly visiting various playspaces in the Stockholm area and documenting them - here could be elements of ideas for a possible play-space


Then there are ideas from elsewhere… for recycled play areas…
How to build a playground out of recycled tires
Playgrounds made from junk
Is this the perfect playground, made from junk?
Kids don't need fancy toys to have fun - just junk

So there is potential for creating exciting play spaces - but how to do this in a place where there is junk scattered all over the place - and probably not safe junk at that - how do the children learn the difference between up cycled, safe play junk and dangerous junk? Do the children need more investment in their play-spaces to be shown that they are valued members of society? Do they need a cleaner look to their play-space for it to have more value from all the empty spaces that tend till fill with junk and rubbish of various kinds and aromas?
At the moment I have absolutely no answers - just a million questions - and a longing to understand a city so that play can be injected in a meaningful way… so that the context is right.

Do you have any ideas?

the one year old exploration of sand can teach you many things...
to see the complexity of sand... the many coloured individual grains...
the speed sand can fall depending on the angle of the hand...
the temperature of the sand depending on the weather (today it was lovely and warm)
can it be squeezed and made smaller?
and why does it stick to fingers covered in drool?
Slow careful observations by child and teacher...

Learning to listen...

In the last year I have had the great honour to have visited early years settings in Canada, USA, Iceland and Palestine, as well as here in Sweden. I also have the great fortune to collaborate and be inspired by educators around the world... through global #ReggioPLC twitterchats, this blog, the facebook page connected to the blog, through various groups on facebook in both English and Swedish... many ways to learn and be inspired.

What I have found is that we have many different ways of viewing early childhood education - various different approaches, different cultures, different education laws and requirements and different expectations of teachers and children.

Sometimes I find there is a lack of tolerance in some of these groups and pages I follow on facebook... and in the last year I have actually withdrawn myself from some of these groups and pages because of the comments made towards others for having a different approach/opinion.

I think there needs to be more time learning to listen to each other... respecting where we all come from, enquiring as to why we think differently - learning how we can lift each other... because, for sure this is a profession that needs lifting - we should not be sinking each other. Early childhood education is important... it is a part of the foundation of the child... the foundation the child will build his/her education upon, the foundation the child will build his/her whole being upon... we need to get it right... and right is not going to look the same in every place we visit.

Context is SO important.

This means we need to learn to listen.
We need to learn to listen to understand and not to insist what we think is right - by listening we can expand our own thinking either with new ideas or by consolidating what we already believe - or maybe even doing a complete rethink...
We need to listen to the context of others... by understanding the context we can understand how to lift each other, how to inspire, how to share...

I don't believe in telling others that they are doing it wrong... because it just means I have not taken the time to listen to their circumstances. I truly believe that everyone working for/with  children are doing the very best they can. Of course there are those who maybe don't want to be in the early childhood setting... but I don't believe they are working for/with the children they are simply working at the setting - and we need to listen to their story too... why are they there when maybe they should be somewhere else?

Interestingly Erika Kyrk Seger wrote about this recently - Lärande Framtid is the name of her blog, I linked it to my facebook page this weekend as it resonated with me so much (as this post has been brewing for quite some time - and even more so since my visit to Jenin). Erika quoted Kierkegaard - which I want to aswell... but for this post the whole poem, I feel, is useful.

SÖREN KIERKEGAARD

“If I want to succeed
to bring a person
towards a specific goal,
I must first find her
where she is
and start from there.
Those who can not, is fooling herself
when she believes that she can help others.

To help someone I must
certainly understand more,
than she does;
but first of all understand
what she understands.
If I can not,
it does not help that I know more.

If I still want to show how much I can,
it’s because I’m vain and conceited
and really wants to be admired by the other
instead of helping him.

All genuine helpfulness begins with humility
in front of the one I want to help
and therefore I have to understand,
this with support
is not wanting to rule
But wishing to serve.

Can I not do this
I can not help anyone.”

 The poem tells me about the need to listen. That everyone needs to learn to listen - to listen to understand and not to answer... as the latter is just showing what you can and is not taking the time to know how to help.

This is something that needs to be done with all people - no matter what age - whether classified as child or adult.

Today I shared an quote by Vea Vecchi on my facebookpage...

Yes, it is a way of seeing... but also a way of listening... of learning about where the children are. I took lots of photos and short films in Jenin - most I will never share with others... the photos are all a piece of the puzzle to understand ECE settings there. Photos that will help me learn more about where ECE settings are in Jenin. I listened lots - and I will continue to listen - because it is only if I listen, and if I understand that I can be helpful. AND in the process I will learn more - about diversity, difference, ECE possibilities, culture etc etc. Learning is never a one-way process... whether it is with children or with colleagues (be they in the same setting or through social media).

The ECE settings in Jenin were in a different pedagogical place than the ECE settings I am familiar with here in Sweden... but what was the same was the passion of the teachers to be able to give the best learning environment they could to the children. The same desire to learn more about ECE and to expand their knowledge of young children and teaching and learning opportunities... this is something I encountered not only in Jenin, but also when I was in Rejkjavik, Toronto and Boulder.

So part of my year dedicated to listening is also about being humble... to accept differences and to learn from them. To find similarities and to grow with them. To find the common ground where we stand as equals and to start from there.

You can see some images from Jenin on Filosofiska's facebook page... here you can see me doing a workshop with a group of children in Jenin.

a hundred languages...

This year I have decided to focus upon listening... to explore what it means and to get better at it...

I have also been reflecting upon the phrase "a hundred languages" and I am begining to feel that something is missing... that maybe we should not be focussing on the children's hundred languages... but on our adult ability to have a hundred ways to listen.
There is absolutely no point in the children having a hundred languages if there is no-one to hear them and understand them, to connect them to other languages, to see the learning and to interact with them...

So if the children are born with a hundred languages the problem is not the fact the children are expressing them but the fact there is no-one there to listen to them... children slowly stop communicating in the languages that are not heard...

How, then, do we train ourselves, as adults, to re-hear all these languages? Is it even possible to rediscover all of them? This is what I am going to try and discover this year... I want to open myself up to the possibility of hearing a hundred languages - actually not just hearing, but listening, understanding them... and to be able to communicate in all 100 hundred.

They [children] are autonomously capable of making meaning from their daily life experiences through mental acts involving planning, coordination of ideas, and abstraction.... The central act of adults, therefore, is to activate, especially indirectly, the meaning-making competencies of children as a basis of all learning. They must try to capture the right moments, and then find the right approaches, for bringing together, into a fruitful dialogue, their meanings and interpretations with those children.

 Malaguzzi

I assume that I need to start with observation... to listen with my eyes. To see languages and traces of languages that I can explore and learn. And to allow the children know I am listening I need to make visible MY learning as well as theirs. I am a facilitator... which I feel my work as a facilitator in philosophical dialogues with the children has allowed me to hear the children on a deeper level... and also allowed me to practice bringing together the children's thoughts, allowing them to see the connections.

The wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences. We must widen the range of topics and goals, the types of situations we offer and their degree of structure, the kinds and combinations of resources and materials, and the possible interactions with things, peers, and adults.

Malaguzzi

 

Another way to learn to listen in a hundred languages is to "mess about" as suggested by David Hawkins (you can read more about messing about here, written by Diane Kashin, who co-moderates the international #ReggioPLC twitterchat with me)... by messing about as a teacher we learn how to play with the materials... we relearn how to play, how to explore,  and in this way can discover new possibilities, resources, materials and interactions that we can offer the children.

Messing about also opens up the teacher to making mistakes, and the great power of learning that comes from making mistakes...

If nature has commanded that of all the animals, infancy shall last longest in human beings - it is because nature knows how many rivers there are to cross and paths to retrace. Nature provides time for mistakes to be corrected (by both children and adults), for prejudices to overcome, and for children to catch their breath and restore their image of themselves, peers, parents, teachers, and the world.

Malaguzzi

Alison Gopnik also talks about how humans have the longest childhood and the power of learning through play... you can read "this post" where I wrote about the competent child after being inspired by Gopniks Ted talk.

So my focus this year is going to be rediscovering the hundred languages... MY ability to listen to them.

This photo is symbolic for me... a child that did not fill the form with sand to make a shape, but placed the form down and placed sand on top. The child was surprised every time when the form was lifted and there was only an outline. The process was right - form sand, patting the form with the spade and lifting it up - but the order was wrong. I waited to see... I listened - and so did other children... they came and explained that the sand needed to go inside the form BEFORE turning over and patting. The "mistake" taught the children that a new kind of shape could be made in the sand - something they had not explored before... and then the sand was filled with 2D and 3D shapes... a communication in sand.

Third day in Jenin

Another busy day.
In the morning we visited two early years settings, both located within schools… the first one being out of town … a large building with nature all around. The second one being in town, not in the centre, but not in the camp either.

One thing I have noticed with all the preschools is that they are not outside very much - some not at all - most do not have it as part of their daily routine. This, I understand, has cultural reasons… reasons such as the parents not wanting their children to be outside, especially in the cold and wet. There is also a lack of natural materials indoors, which is understandable if there is not the connection of outdoor play. So for me the materials/toys felt very plastic, as they were not balanced with nature… this has been the case with ALL the preschools.

Most of the preschools have many children sitting around tables to learn, as they do in school. We have been told that this is due to the parental expectation that the children must learn to read and write… and we were also told by one of the people we met that even the schools are requesting that the children arrive from preschool knowing how to read and write.

This indicates to me that play and learning are not seen as the same thing but as two very separate entities. What I do see is that many of the teachers/people working with the children in the early years settings are very interested in using play as the primary source of learning… where the whole child can learn, and not just a focus on the academic side of things. In that sense we are fortunate in Sweden to see the preschool years as a time for learning though play - although I have to admit that I wish this attitude to learning went even higher up through the ages… Malaguzzi said "nothing without joy" - and I am a believer that children learn better when they enjoy what they are doing.

Here are two photos from the two settings I visited today. The one below was the first time I saw that there were paints visible to the children, in most places they were either high up or in cupboards. Also the below setting rotated the children every 30 minutes, instead of always being in the same classroom… so that the children had access to different lines of learning… a role-play room, a reading room, a art/exploration room and a concentration room.

 In the afternoon I did a short workshop with the children from the women's co-operative preschool "Happy Kids" talking to the children to work out what kind of art we should do… they were interested in flowers at the time… so we painted with flowers… afterwards we talked about what we could see in the artwork. So wonderful to be able to take a small part in these children's lives… to go from the point where the children are shy and unsure of how to talk with me… to being able to communicate their thoughts.

And - lucky me - I got to use one of those sinks that I have been admiring so much… and also witness the fun the children had there too… but of course this kind of fun usually results in wet children. Having extra clothes is quite important to allow for these kind of explorations…

At the American School, where I visited in the morning they had a section of the wall that was carpeted and could be used for velcro stories - wonderful big space for story-telling - and also a great way to manage acoustics in these big marble buildings…

Tomorrow a meeting with the ministry of education here and then a presentation for many preschool teachers in Jenin.

Day two in Jenin

Today we visited two preschools… the morning a preschool in a mosque close to the Freedom Theatre and we also returned to the the preschool where we ate lunch yesterday to share some images of of our work at Filosofiska and to explain our approach. It was a great way to connect and explain and share experience.

Afterwards we played the bubble game (click here to find out more about the bubble game) together and shared laughter and happiness… laughter really does unite us, no matter what language we speak.

 I have noticed in several of the preschools these long sinks for washing hands - this one is outside, the others have been inside. I see so much collaboration opportunities here as well as play and exploration opportunities.

Day one of exploring Jenin

A day filled with visits and meetings.

The sun shining warm and glorious, oranges and lemons growing on trees, flowers blooming a perfect start to the day.

We started by meeting all those involved in The Freedom Theatre's new play "The Siege" that will be touring UK later this year. The Siege - UK tour - if you click on the link you can find out more about the play - and also about a small piece of Palestinian history. I recommend you taking the time to check out this link, it will allow you to understand the background of where we are right now.

During the rest of the day we have visited three preschools..

The first setting we visited was a large Christian preschool open for all children aged between 3 and 5. Ninety children attended the setting and there were four teachers and two volunteers working there with the children.

There is a focus, we were told, on reading and writing as this is what the teachers in school expect (that the children already know this) and also what the parents are expecting - a visible learning, which is the academic learning of reading and writing.  So of course the rooms and walls reflect this expectation.

The second place we visited was a Christian setting for 0-3 yr olds - here there was a 1:5 ratio of adults children. There was little furniture and the setting had no access to an outdoor area. The teachers interacting with children believed in each child as a unique individual and that love is essential foundation in learning - if a child feels safe they are able to learn and build upon that. The largest rooms of the apartment turned into a nursery school was used for sleeping with mattresses and cots.

The last place we visited was a newly started nursery school with just five children and a teacher… there is room for up to 60 children, so there are plans to expand. They also have a large outdoor area, where only part of it is in use as a play area at the moment. We will be going back there tomorrow to see more. Today was an opportunity to meet the women's co-operative that has started this nursery as part of a way to support women - those without work, they also have a catering business - the idea is not so much to give women money, but to give them an opportunity to earn money.

Right now my head needs to rest after a whole evening reflecting on what I have seen today, and planning a presentation/workshop for the nursery school tomorrow based on what I have seen today. So this is all you are going to get for now… I have to get that presentation finished...

In Jenin

After a long journey of over 14 hours I am in Jenin… the weather was warm and sunny in Tel Aviv - a huge contrast to the snow and ice of Stockholm… but by the time we arrived in Jenin the sun had long gone down and the coolness of night had crept in.

Mountains and stones, meat hanging outside shop fronts, people grilling food, orange trees and fruit stands… these are all of some of my first impressions… skeleton houses too - and donkeys pulling carts…

I am looking forward to tomorrow to see everything in daylight, to meet the people and to start my Palestinian education...