Reflection: How the Arts Breach the 'School to Prison Pipeline'
From Shelly Gilbride, writing for California Arts Council Blog:
As a partner in Creativity at the Core, a program developed by the California County Superintendent’s Education Services Association’s Arts Initiative with support from the California Arts Council, a collaborative team of teachers, teaching artists and administrators are piloting teaching and learning techniques that are responsive to the complexities of juvenile incarceration. They are embracing the sadness and uncertainty in these kids’ lives while promoting self-understanding, agency, responsibility and hope.
Dancing is way more than just a way to let off steam for these kids, although the power of joy in this situation shouldn’t be underestimated. Lucero is teaching them about their capacity for self-expression and self-control. Some of them are digging into their own cultural heritage, some are finding positive ways to express aggression. Some are feeling a different future in these dance moves.