I Wish I Were a Prodigy

My class just finished reading The Ballad of Mulan. It is a story in the Houghton Mifflin basal reader.
They enjoyed it.

This year I am using, every two weeks, an art print and suggested lessons from a poster series that once was in Scholastic or Instructor magazine. It was donated to my room from a retiring teacher's collection. A TRUE gift. We started the year with two Van Gogh prints but now I am displaying a beautiful picture by Wang Yani.

 

As it happens my students are VERY interested in China. So we are making a map of China and watching Big Bird in China as well as reading and looking at a book called "A Young Painter" by Zheng Zhensun.
This is the story of Wang Yani an incredible Child PRODIGY in art from China.
My students have been looking forward to Friday when we will cover our tables with paper and  use calligraphy brushes to try some Chinese style art.
Like this:




The teacher that donated the posters and art also gave me a magazine, Smithsonian-from Sept 1989, the month I had my first daughter, which contains an art collection that was touring America by Wang Yani.
 So this is totally off topic but looking for our lion picture by Wang Yani.
 I found this art project we are going to do, a bit offtopic....



 And then we will write about lions.
For science. More on that to come.
Obviously she was a prodigy. Just look:


 Sometimes I wonder how many children we don't identify for their genius because we don't give them the opportunity to amaze us. Like with a brush-and they never learn it either.
This is our poster:



 Well the thing is I like to make the connections through art, of course. But also I'm asking my students to acquire academic language. We are learning about "prodigies." Because I think they did want a label to put on this kind of amazing thing this young artist achieved as well as bridge to lesson on geography, animals and other areas of study. One child said after seeing Wang Yyani's amazing three year old art, "first Picasso and NOW THIS." Because he remembered a picture I showed them of Picasso's work at age 12 from another writing/art activity.

I had a paragraph writing task about this notion of the prodigy, left by this retiring teacher in her file for me. It asked students to look up the definition for a prodigy.
So they did:

prodigy - an unusually gifted or intelligent (young) person; someone whose talents excite wonder and admiration; "she is a chess prodigy"

Which reminded me of Josh Waitzkins who was kind enough to write to me once or twice or maybe even more responding to my thanking him for inspiring years of my teaching. His book on learning, The Art Of Learning - bar none, is one of the best I know talking about just what a prodigy is about. And it turns out that refining and focus in a prodigy is a very artful process.
Then our paper, our writing task,  asked each child to IMAGINE they were a prodigy.
And I think that was hard for them.


Now this is right up my alley- when I was a child I would dream of dancing. I could barely go to the ballet.
I'm a very ungraceful person. But I dreamed of just having that.

Then it asked they would write a little bit to tell how their life would change.
Many students needed more time but I gave 15 minutes and this is what I got.

I did not expect for this assignment to make me cry.
I did not expect their answers either. You don't know the students as I do, so you cannot experience the shock I had with some of these dreams. But in some cases it was a complete surprise. 
But I think you might appreciate the tender voices of some children who are coming from extreme poverty and have such moving thoughts.
There is one, among all of these that literally reduced me to tears. So when that happened one of my students staying after school over an hour waiting for Mom whose car broke came over and said, "why are you crying?" But you know how that is you need a second. So he said, "I'm sure we can write better if we practice."
And I cried a little more.
My third graders are doing very important work.

If you were a prodigy in some area of skill, what area would it be?
How would being a prodigy change your life?


I would like to be able to play the piano very good.
It would change my life because i like to play Piano, I like the sound and my teacher says I already play Handel, Water Music.



I would like to be the world's best dancer.
Because if I got to dance everyday my life will be much better. A lot of people will know me better, I will be awesome. My Mom and Dad will like me then so much.



I want to be in art a prodigy.
I will change my life to paint a lot for people. I will paint all of the time. I will teach children to paint well. And they could tell other people how topaint.



I'd like to be a painter.
It will change my life because it will give me pleasure to help poor people with what I make.



I'd like to be a great teacher.
I would teach every single day and help others.



I would like to be a child prodigy in baseball.
It will change my life because they give money for this for food. You could get water, a TV and a bed.


(I cried here)


I would like to be a great doctor. A surgeon.
My life will change because it will have purpose. I want to help people. I want people to be healthy.

 

I'd like to be a soccer player and my Mom would cheer.



I would like to be a 5 minute prodigy.
I would be able to do anything in 5 minutes.
I'd like to be a prodigy, say at 5 years old I could do anything in 5 minutes. Dance for five minutes, sing for 5 minutes. Last year I seemed to do things for ten minutes.



I would like to be a basketball prodigy and play NBA.
It would change my life because now I could make lots of points.



I would like to be a singing prodigy.
It would change my life in a lot of ways. I would even give autographs!



I'd like to be the world's greatest dancer.
It would change my life because I will dance in front of people and no longer be shy. I will dance in front of the stage and when I'm finished dancing people will clap.



I want to be the greatest soccer player in the WORLD.
I would choose soccer because it is so great and I'd change because I'd have fans.



I'd like to be a great teacher and artist.
If I were a prodigy and a great teacher/artist it would change my life because I would be going to lots and lots of meetings with other teachers (hopefully my prodigy friends Diana and Annika). I would love my life if I were a teacher. PS I would also thank my teacher Mrs. Puglisi.


I want to be an artist.
I will be happy in this life and I will draw all day.



I would be a singer because I actually first sang when I was 2!. I love singing! It would be so amazingto wake up and sing my favorite song without making a single mistake. i hope my dream can come true!


Interestingly no child wanted to be the best test taker in the world.
Stunning NO ONE.



I , too wanted to know what this artist is doing now-I found this interesting conversation.


See my Mrs. Puglisi's 100 National Standards