During the last couple of weeks RealStars have visited multiple gymnasiums (High School) in the Stockholm region and will therefore be blogging frequently during the next couple of days in order to talk about all the exciting things we have been doing.
A common theme throughout our school visits is that the students are encouraged to be active, take part and ask many questions. Just as the heading states, I believe that involvement and inspiration is born when the students are free to express themselves, without having to be scared of saying the wrong things or what the feel and think.
This involvement looks different between classes, depending on how much time has been put aside for the visit by the school. During the visits we’ve made the last couple weeks at Ross Tensta Gymnasium the time has been scarce, but the lectures have nevertheless been full of discussions and thoughts from the students. Many of the students have come with, for me completely new, perspectives and ways of thinking – which has created a good foundation for discussions and reflections of our own and other peoples life situations.
At Kunskapsgymnasiet Globen on the other hand, the time set aside was a bit longer, but unfortunately not long enough to have a creative workshop. Instead, we chose to focus shortly on the evaluation exercises we always bring with us. The exercises works in such a way that I, as a process leader make more or less controversial statements – around three themes; “close to me”, “prostitution and trafficking”, as well as “purchase of sex” – which the students then get to take a position on by answering yes or no. We always let the students know that these are all things you can’t be right or wrong about, and that everyone is allowed to feel and think exactly the way they want. One of these statements is: “It is a human right to have sex” – initially many students say yes right away. After having some time to really think about it however, many start questioning the statement – “ Having the right to your own sexuality is a human right, but not having sex with someone else”.
The set-up during our visits to Norra Real have been similar to those at Kunskapsgymnasiet, even if the students at Norra Real have had a little more time for the evaluation exercises which was much appreciated -“I think it was good that we got to discuss and express our opinions on what we learned”. We at RealStars always encourage creativity where there’s time. The creative work can be for example: making collages, photography/art or film – in the case of Norra Real, as a part of their social studies class the students have to write their own argumentative article about the Swedish “Sex Purchase Act”, as well as having the chance of having the essay published here on the RealStars blog.
We want to thank Ross Tensta, Kunskapsgymnasiet Globen and Norra Real for rewarding and inspiring visits.
You are stars.