The liveliness of charcoal
The invitation to slow down, notice and pay attention to the liveliness of which charcoal offers and the potential connections to the beloved forest, sparked many thoughts of practicality and curiosity in my self as an educator.
Lines began to move rapidly from one place to another, offering the extension of a line from one being to another, waiting for the line of travels to connect to the feet of ones body. Charcoal moved with the bodies in fast pace, with gentle pressure to the paper, slowing down was not offered through the children’s bodies but from the noticing of the marks left behind as the charcoal travelled across the paper.
Fingers pushed tiny pieces of charcoal, but the creation of dark thick lines moving from beneath fingers were noticed. How could such a small fragment offer such darkness? Intricate and thoughtful movements of up and down with our hands offered others to move or transfer the ‘imprinted charcoal’ from the initial space of contact to another, pulling, smoothing, and rubbing with fingers to create connections with another. The children moved with the charcoal and took up ideas of connecting lines to bodies and making tracks from one space to another. Children moved or strayed from the space presented and multiple attempts to bring back to the charcoal were accepted by many, but also there were many struggles to regain focus and be with the material.
A declaration, “that is my forest” “we go there”, drew the children to the forecasted image of the forest left for them to build connections to a space that was known, and the encounters shifted yet again away from the charcoal but to the forest, and movements of our bodies across the paper, around the room. Eventually, ending the encounter.
Understanding the importance of bringing back not only the children but myself to focus on one experience by drawing out and engaging differently than before together has left me thinking about, what are the complexities within our role and our confidence as an educator to allow us to continue to bring children back? How do we need to adapt to slowing down, noticing, paying attention and to focus? What do these things mean for us in our work?
