10 CONTESTS TO END THE DROPOUT CRISIS

Nearly 1 out of every 2 students in Latin America does not finish high school. Young people affected by violence are especially vulnerable to the dropout crisis. This month, for our third contest, we ask:

WHAT ROLE SHOULD THE EDUCATION SYSTEM PLAY IN REINTEGRATING YOUNG PEOPLE AFFECTED BY VIOLENCE?

I want to learn more

“I want to show young people affected by violence that it is possible to start fresh down a new path.”

Jorge Gallardo Camacho, winner of Contest 3

Idea #7, Jorge Gallardo Camacho

Thank you, Jorge – and thanks to all of you who participated in our third contest to end the dropout crisis. We hope you’ll participate in the next contest and help us keep the conversation going.

IDEA
# 7

Good memories mark the beginning of a new path

By: Jorge Gallardo Camacho

April 20, 2013

COMMENTS

1. Objective of the proposal

Our proposal would be included in a campaign entitled: “good memories.” With a single and clear mission: to use positive thoughts and memories of all the campaign participants to show troubled youth that it is possible to choose a positive way forward.

2. Approach of the proposal

Artistic expression phase

The first phase, before looking for the solution to the problem of violence, is its detection: recognizing and confronting it. Youth will be asked to draw one negative moment (of violence) and one moment that conjures positive memories (both from the same period of time).

Depending on the age of the children, they could receive help from visual arts teachers to obtain more professional results, especially on the positive drawings. It has been shown that after 7 year old children increasingly draw more accurately and they are in a stage of “visual realism of aesthetic ideals, of reproduction, pseudonaturalism or intellectual realism,” (López, San Pedro y López, 1997: 14).

Functional analysis of negative experiences

We propose to involve psychologists from participating schools. If school psychologists are not available, we could work with NGOs or volunteers of psychology schools of the region.

Specialists will be able to analyze each young person through the verbalization of what they wanted to draw. Bad experiences are the result of life circumstances and, therefore, they can be modified. The positive side has to be found from those experiences and to conclude that the way forward is in the drawing with positive connotations.

Exchange of positive experiences

The campaign will feature talks from other young adults affected by violence in their childhood and they will explain in their own words how they overcame the past. Young people with good personal and professional traits will be chosen to become heroes and role models. They will share their negative experience and demonstrate that it is possible to get ahead. However, they will pay special attention to the students’ positive drawings. The good memories shape the future.

The blog of good memories

The drawings of good memories will be uploaded by schools in a blog. Therefore, it will became a place to encourage positive thoughts.

Similarly, each school will publish a video blog and a calendar will be developed on paper called “good memories” in order to raise funds for recreational activities and to finance a psychologist or specialist in each school. The blog will also have instructions to attract volunteers or contributors to the campaign.

3. Conclusions

Finally, our intention is to lay the foundations for improving student performance and sense of belonging, and to raise funds to support children and youth affected by violence.