Saturday - January 10
The main item on our agenda for this trip to Rwanda is establishing a Pottery Studio as part of the legendary MGS Maker Space. Bernie and Sue Pucker want to add the making of pottery to that space in which the students have learned so much about robotics, coding, tinkering and teamwork to demonstrate that the A in STEM is not just an added letter. It is central to maintaining the humanity in the technological advancements that the sciences lend to our lives. STEAM is essential to our future. For the Puckers, the pottery work of the late Brother Thomas Bezanson, whose work they feature in their Boston art gallery, is the expression. Of how the work of an artist comes from an inner spirit within the creator and has the power to impact others by its beauty and sense of hope, a sense of the goodness of the human hand and mind. As Brother Thomas has written, “Art is a constant dance to the music of openness and “unlearning.”
Before we arrived, Sister Laetitia selected 30 S-4 students to begin learning about the art and pottery of Brother Thomas. Joni and I are scheduled to meet with them in two two hour sessions over 2 Saturdays. Our class will be based on our reading of Brother Thomas’ essay, Reflections on the Cup. In that essay, he explains,
“We gather around the cup to share ourselves, to tell our stories, to sing our songs. With scarcely a conscious thought we welcome a friend, a guest with a cup of tea, a cup of coffee, a glass of wine. This spontaneous cup-of-welcome is a primal ritual which celebrates a relationship, something over and above its function. Moreover, it is a custom so old and so cross-cultural that it touches what is common in us despite what is different between us.”
After introducing ourselves to the students, Joni and I asked each student to introduce herself and what they enjoyed most studying at MGS. We learned we had some enthusiastic mathematicians, physics students, some computer science girls, some budding biologists, chemists, and ICT enthusiasts. Joni and I had set up two trays of familiar objects, vessels. The students separated into two smaller groups to look carefully at one of the trays. After taking time for careful observation, they separated into smaller groups to talk about what they had observed. We asked each group to generate a list of the words they used to describe the cups or words which came to mind as they looked at these familiar artifacts, these cups, these vessels.
Back in the large group they shared the most common words on their lists. As expected many words indicated color, shape, size, height. Words like white, orange, pink, round, heavy, tall, small. Some words reflected utility: cereal bowl, for drink, useful.
Then we asked did any group have any words that were different? One group had written teamwork because they talked about observing as a group. One group noted the different positions of the objects. Another commented on the different uses they noted.
Then we asked if the objects reminded them of anything else. One student quickly shared, “I saw a mug that reminded me of a special cup that my grandmother always saved for me when I visited. I loved using my special cup!” Another student saw a cup that reminded her of one day visiting a neighbor and breaking a bowl “by accident.” Another memory included remembering “a white bowl that was colorful when it had fruit salad in it at a friend’s house.”
The girls became fascinated that looking at such a familiar, common object, cups and other vessels, could call out a memory of other times that included visits to grandparents or friends, special occasions or sharing foods, growing up, tasting.
Asked to look closely at a few objects one girl commented” I really felt a sense of concentration and how it feels, “what you experience when you are asked to observe closely.” And some of the girls asked questions: Who made these? Who decides what a cup or mug or bowl will look like? Such interesting ideas and queries emerging as it was time for the session to end and for the students to enjoy their lunch.
We thanked them for their work this morning and looked forward to returning to the themes of “gathering around the cup”…”which celebrates a relationship that goes beyond its function.” Our work introducing a pottery studio to the Maker Space had begun!
“Art is a constant dance to the music of openness and ‘unlearning.’” Brother Thomas
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