Parsons Enrichment Program
Written by Amy Shire
Photography by Ula Zavala
Imagine you are sitting down to a tea party in colonial times, and you find yourself in the company of Peggy Shippen Arnold , Benedict Arnold's wife. What would you have to say to her, especially if you found out she abetted her husband's traitorous conduct during the Revolutionary War?
PS 8 fourth graders got a chance to role-play scenarios such as this, dressed in Colonial-era wigs they had created with help from teachers and students from Parsons: New School for Design. Each PS 8 student was first provided a postcard with a picture on it of a historical figure from the Revolutionary War era. Based on these images, they designed the afore-mentioned wigs -- concocted from the deceptively simple materials of plastic bags, paper and cotton balls -- to wear, enabling them to physically impersonate that figure. They also researched significant aspects of that person's history and daily life (hence the Colonial times tea party!).
This interactive project was but one component of the Parsons: The New School for Design's multi-faceted enrichment program at PS 8 this spring, which integrated art and design projects with the social studies and science curricula of the third, fourth and fifth grades. Parsons student artists were dispersed among these nine classrooms for a whirlwind several weeks. Developed, spearheaded and supervised by P8 kindergarten parent, architecture professor and visual artist Madeline Schwartzman and her Parsons colleague, John Jerard of Jerard Studios in Red Hook, the enrichment program involved a dazzling array of activities, including the making of stick puppets (again based on the fourth grade Colonial era curriculum); the production of graphic novels with the fifth graders; stop-motion videos (to enhance the third grade's study of realistic fiction); and technology-based art, such as designing "machines to make the world a better place" (third grade science curriculum). In an additional, physics-related science project, the third grade examined the concepts of force and motion through designing model cars which were then rolled on inclined planes in a "slow race." The PS 8 students were given the challenge of placing a variety of materials (tape, paper, etc.) on their sloped planes to create friction and slow down the cars. The slowest cars which could still move, won the race.
As if all this activity weren't enough, the Parsons students donated two different kinds of extraordinary gifts to the school. One was a series of nine individually designed, graphically striking books exploring themes centered on PS 8 and Brooklyn Heights neighborhood and history. For example, one book invited readers along on an investigation to find out exactly who Robert Fulton was; another focused on the culture of the Lenape Indians, this area's first settlers; another on the engineering of the Brooklyn Bridge; and yet another on Walt Whitman. These books, meticulously researched and written in conversational tones, hung on display in PS 8's front hallway before being moved to their permanent home in the school library.
The second gift was to design elaborate sets and costumes for PS 8's school play, "Return to Soldea Island." One set involved a grove of trees which, when swiveled around, revealed itself to be a model for a garish, super-sized hotel (sadly, destined to desecrate Soldea Island's natural bounty). Beautiful larger-than-life masks were painted for the children playing animal roles such as Cat, Bunny, Frog, Dinosaur and Owl.
This blitz of enrichment projects was the brainchild of Madeline Schwartzman. It was in part a response to her learning what a big chunk of the PTA budget goes toward funding enrichment programs, and wondering what she could contribute professionally. Teaching a studio course to Parsons students, she realized they were a ready resource of free talent which could be harnessed by PS 8. Schwartzman and her colleague developed a proposal to work as volunteers with the school's three older grades on collaborative projects, with PS 8 teachers providing input for the students to develop "user-based design." (For example, the wigs and puppets were requested by the fourth grade teachers to augment their study of the Colonial era.) With the support of Mr. Phillips and Mr. Mikos, who were very open to the varied curricula and extremely helpful in coordinating such a multitude of projects, a new enrichment program was born.
Sandy Yoon, a Parsons student who worked with the third grade, spoke about how challenging it was for the art students to pitch their projects at the appropriate level, and how worthwhile it felt: "We wanted it to be interactive, educational, out of the ordinary, almost like play… especially with physics, it had to move, it had to be fun. My groupmates and I... we really wanted to do it for the kids. It wasn't just about building a model for class. It was really about other people, other kids and their education... We learned a lot from the classroom teachers themselves. They trusted us, which was very great, and they were very cooperative and generous to us. We had a really unique opportunity this semester."
And what did the PS 8 students think of all this? As Madeline Mardiks -- aka Peggy Arnold -- put it: "It was a great experience. Most schools just read out of textbooks. Rather, we got the chance to make wigs of a person and have conversations… It was a really cool experience."
Posted on: June 19, 2009
