Marwen provides free visual arts instruction and college and career programming for Chicago’s young people from under-resourced communities and schools in middle through high school. In 2003, Philip Yenawine guided a series of strategic planning discussions with Marwen staff, artist-teachers, students, alumni, and trustees to explore Marwen methodologies and to plan for future programs. The following essay by Yenawine was printed in a report, Fuel: Giving Youth the Power to Succeed, 2004.
“The second greatest gift you can provide kids is an education,” said Steve Berkowitz, the founder of Marwen. “The first is a healthy self-image.”
It sounds simple, wanting to provide young people with learning that endures, as well as feelings of confidence and self-esteem. But, as all who work with adolescents know, such goals are easier to aspire to than to achieve. As a society, we offer less than we should to help adolescents negotiate the tumultuous teen years.
Researchers studying after-school time — or out-of-school time — offer some suggestions. For example, Richard Halpern, of the Erickson Institute for Graduate Study in Child Development, says the best programs give kids opportunities to explore and learn, as well as time to “dawdle and daydream.” Although after-school programs sponsored by schools and community agencies are well intentioned, he says, many simply extend the school day with homework and study sessions. Such programs fail to satisfy kids, especially those who need time to “just be kids.”
Other researchers agree. A two-year study by the National Research Council concluded that after-school programs should support and complement classroom learning by emphasizing social, emotional, and physical development. NRC researchers noted that programs should provide secure places for adolescents to interact with friends, offer supportive relationships that make them feel accepted and included, allow them to assume responsibility by making choices and pursuing challenges, and engage them in activities that develop their personalities, as well as their intellect.
Even schools with scores of dedicated, hardworking teachers too often fail to deal with the issues of youth, especially students who operate at the margins. Those who are gifted or talented are frequently underserved in terms of opportunities and challenge, even as those who are troubled and ill-prepared are not helped to overcome their difficulties. The Education Watch 2004 State Summary Reports provides a state-by-state snapshot of the condition of education throughout the United States. The report documents how on every measure – teacher quality, access to high-level curriculum, and state/local education funding – students of color and low-income students continue to get less than their fair share of public education’s most critical resources.
Neither teaching methods nor curricula have been reformed enough to adjust to changing social conditions and technologies. Buildings, equipment, and other resources are often inadequate to the task of seriously engaging all students, much less challenging all that could excel. In a 2000 report on school facilities, the U.S. Department of Education concluded that environmental conditions in schools, including poor lighting, inadequate ventilation, and inoperative heating, can affect the learning, health, and morale of students and staff.
Little is offered to youth outside of school to pick up the slack, offer expanded opportunities, or provide additional avenues of learning and expression. According to 2000 U.S. census figures, there are 54.3 million students in the public K-12 system; a recent study by the After School Alliance shows that 14.3 million, including one-third of all middle school students — have no supervision between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., and therefore nothing to build on or compensate for what happens at school.
Meanwhile, colleges and employers bemoan the fact that too few high school graduates operate at a level at which entry into either the workforce or higher education is predictably productive. Somehow American society has failed to consistently create circumstances in which learning and maturation are supported in ways that are welcoming and engaging, making young people want to work hard, commit themselves, sustain healthy communication, and come back for more.
While school systems face major obstacles — for example, entrenched bureaucracies and inadequate funding, after-school programs such as Marwen’s also encounter difficulties. In fact, nothing is simple:
getting the word out to attract students
sustaining the interest of students
balancing what youth need with what they want
addressing practical, social, and logistical issues
dealing fairly with discipline
encouraging growth and accommodating change
providing adequate facilities
fund raising on a continuous basis
Each of these is a formidable, constant, and ongoing challenge for those who want to influence the lives of young people.
The problem is not in the nature of youth, of course; it is in the imagination of adults and in our collective assignment of priorities. Looking backward to chart courses for others, we infrequently get it right. The scale of the problem is enormous, and the resources assigned, even the small number of those addressing the issues, tiny. Adolescents are therefore too rarely given the guidance they deserve to help them navigate these troubling years with a sense of direction, control, and accomplishment.
What can we do about this? What will, to paraphrase philosopher Nelson Goodman’s useful admonition, teach young people how to learn and also show them what there is to know? What entices adolescents to participate in an activity, and what motivates them to continue? What, on one hand, helps them become productive members of society, cooperating and communicating well with others? And what, on the other, nurtures their self-esteem and individuality, helping them to be the best that they can be?
Marwen’s approach
Marwen seems to have found some answers. Simply stated, Marwen provides high-quality visual arts instruction, college planning, and career development to young people (grades 6-12) free of charge. Programs are offered after school, on weekends, and during vacations. Recruitment targets “under-served youth,” students whose interest in art exceeds the resources of their public schools and their families as well.
Marwen began to take shape in the late 1980s when Steve Berkowitz started to wonder what he could give back to Chicago after selling a successful business. Consulting with various professionals in art and education — his own primary interests — he discovered school arts programs were being cut. The more challenged schools in the rougher neighborhoods were the most limited, and Berkowitz decided that he would focus on adolescents from such circumstances. He wanted to ensure that the instruction they received was professional, effective, and long term.
In1988, Marwen opened a single studio on the second floor of a building nestled among galleries, close to Chicago’s vibrant art scene. Always free, Marwen initially offered only painting and drawing classes for high school students. The range of options grew over time, in part to accommodate students returning year after year. College and career counseling became a staple early on as students asked for such direction. Entrepreneurial programs — such as painting commissioned murals and producing a line of greeting cards — were established in the 1990s. And the age range eventually expanded to reach students beginning in grade six.
In 2000, Antonia Contro, the director since 1993, and her crew moved Marwen to a larger facility, where it now has six studio spaces, allowing for more classes and a wider range of media, from painting, sculpture, and clay, to photography, design, and animation. There are beautiful gallery spaces for exhibiting the work of students, alumni, and artist-teachers, and a library. The increased capacity has led to program changes as well, for example, creating sequences of courses from introductory to advanced.
In its move, Marwen chose to remain close to galleries and museums, consciously intending to acclimatize students to the community that inspires and contextualizes their activities. Despite the distance the students often travel to get from their neighborhoods and schools, the trip itself comes to symbolize the transformation encouraged by Marwen — from ordinary teens in often-challenging surroundings to young artists and designers shaping their own futures.
What follows is not a description of Marwen’s program — details are available elsewhere in this document and on its website. Rather, my intention here is to examine the premises that Marwen has established as it has learned how to work with young people over the years. In my view, Marwen has discovered rationales and methods that others need to know. Some will be familiar to all who target adolescents. But other aspects of Marwen might be revelatory. I hope that an examination of its focus, philosophy, attitudes, offerings, and staffing decisions — what might be termed the “Marwen method” — will present a model of what works to attract and empower adolescents. When asked what about Marwen was most important to him, Orlando C., 17, said, “A lot of the freedom. It’s not school. I come here because I want to. No one is making me. I don’t get a grade. No one is telling you to be any way. You do what you need to do.”
Implicit in this essay is my belief that all of us in education must continuously question what we do in order to end up with more students who think as Orlando does. Activities and lessons that worked yesterday may be worth repeating, but we cannot rely on that. A certain healthy skepticism is in order: Do students recognize a subject or activity as useful? Is its value self-evident to them? Given a specific assignment, is everyone able to start working quickly? Do students get the help they need, when they need it? Are they asked to reflect on what they do? When finished, do they feel it was worth doing? Are they ready to move on from there, building on experience?
For education to work — for kids to grow and to know it and want it — systems and structures need to be nimble. Social changes and new technologies are but two frequently shifting factors that require flexibility. As educators we need to be responsive to situational changes as well. When a disaster occurs, for example, how do we shift our plans to address the concerns of students in a constructive, sensitive manner? When we see that teens are consumed by a movie or computer game, how can we make use of that? How do we adjust to economic changes that directly affect kids’ lives? Tweaking what we do is almost always necessary, and wholesale renovations are occasionally required to provide adolescents the combination of nurture and challenge they deserve. Being a parent may be the only analogous circumstance; educators operating by assumption or habit can fail to accommodate the day-after-day changes that are the inevitability of adolescence.
To maintain our edge as educators, it is useful to look at examples set by others, whether to confirm what we do or to challenge ourselves. Marwen is an example of an organization that has a building, trustees, budgets, funders, staff, structures, and traditions, and therefore sets of expectations and reasons to enshrine the status quo. Still, it has chosen to redefine itself in an ongoing way so that it remains responsive to what young people want and need. Attendance is thus assured, staff morale is high, and funding follows.
This essay is written for both those within Marwen and without to think carefully about reaching young people and helping them grow. In my opinion, just because Marwen has it right at present does not mean that it will sustain it. It will take conscientious effort, no resting on laurels. What I offer here is an examination of the hallmarks of Marwen’s method that I see as useful for anyone wanting to design successful programs for adolescents.
Emphasizing relevance and authenticity
Those who set up programs for young people outside of school have a range of options open to them. Many are potentially successful at engaging young people and helping them grow into adulthood with a sense of how the world functions, what work in general is like, what specific jobs entail, what interests them, and what they are capable of.
But most opportunities open to young people deal with subjects, motives, and methods established by adults and do not necessarily reflect things that kids intrinsically care about or can do. It is, in fact, a long time before young people are allowed to move from elementary activity into the authentic work of the field. Really satisfying work is seldom possible without formal education or training. For example, office internships rarely amount to more than directing calls, making copies, running errands, and, at best, attending meetings; research assignments are often elementary, repetitive, and toward ends defined by someone other than the student. In my opinion, few opportunities actually allow students more than a glimpse of what work in the field can become, and it’s difficult in most instances to give kids tasks as interesting as what professionals do.
Despite this, students may stay involved because of a charismatic leader, because of positive interactions both with other young people and with adults, or simply because they appreciate the attention and reinforcement they get for contributing — good things, to be sure.
I do not mean to question the value of many sorts of programs. I want instead to stress that there are two key elements particularly germane to serving adolescents’ needs and desires: the inherent value of the activity to teens and its authenticity as a window into adult work. Is the activity something that young people want to do naturally, might do on their own? Something they care about personally? And, furthermore, does the activity truly reveal something solid and true about the field of focus?
Marwen’s choice of program focus is visual art — making it, learning about and from it, being around it — and I think it is a prime reason for Marwen’s success. The notion of art as an enriching activity for adolescents is so important, and so little understood in the pragmatic, utilitarian culture of the United States, that I want to be very specific about the attributes of visual art that make it an ideal activity young people.
The argument for art and adolescents
In terms of offering an authentic experience, even beginning studio activity can be constructed so that the young people do exactly the things practicing artists do: select materials and manipulate them, make choices, look, feel, and think in ways that are genuinely parallel to what trained, mature artists do. Young people’s production might be less accomplished, but their process is identical. Similarly, if asked to look at and to think about works of art — their own and those of others — they can construct meanings in ways that mirror precisely what expert viewers do: They gather observations and come to conclusions. The meanings they construct may be little informed by historical and technical knowledge, but the process of gaining insight is an authentic and an important part of the viewing experience. A visit to galleries, museums, and studios is often undertaken by young people with less inhibition and more curiosity than adults, especially if conjoined with studio experience.
When making art, traditions, standards, and procedures exist, but individual creativity, experimentation, and rule breaking are also necessary. Craft is important and so is self-expression. Discipline is essential, but chance and surprise are desirable. Logic and syntax contribute to successful communication, as does personal vision and rule breaking. Even as beginners, artists create from within, with self-defined objectives being as important to what they produce as conventions. Each of these attributes addresses adolescents’ developmental stages.
In addition, within art, there is ample opportunity to follow one’s own instinct and interests. There are many media to choose among. Different options involve varied skill levels and engage a range of interests, temperaments, degrees of patience, attention spans, and intentions. Those whose drawing skills are minimal, for example, may competently use a camera. Those who want to work alone can paint; those who want to be part of a team can become involved in video or film production.
With art, any specific activity has important open-ended possibilities. A teacher may assign a specific task or process, but as often, students can decide on a project based on past work — what was the last problem solved? or new ambition — what have I seen that I want to know more about? The actual work, therefore, can be guided solely by the teacher (which some prefer), solely by the student (better for others), or by a mix of students, teachers, and even input or example from peers.
Moreover, art can be taught so that process is more important than outcome: the activity is rewarding and self-justifying, even if the end product is less than one had hoped. Solving the problem is often a matter of incremental growth in skills and equally often a matter of personal definition: Is this what I wanted my work to be, to look like? External comparisons are acceptable so that one can see where one stands, but a good teacher can find examples of existing work by professional artists to buttress many types and levels of accomplishment. “Mistakes” in art have no negative consequences and may in fact represent breakthroughs. All of these factors help young people cope with expectations — those of others but, more importantly, with their own.
Criticism of performance is an essential aspect of the discipline for both beginners and professionals. In offering criticism, teachers can comment on effort and risk-taking as well as achievement. They can easily ask students to participate in their own critique. The process can be entirely subjective: Did I use my time well? Did I try as hard as I could? Did I accomplish my objectives as well as I should expect? Or critique can be a relative matter: Was I better able to do what I wanted than last time? Did I come closer to what is possible than I have before? And it can be objective: How does my work compare to standards, or with that of others?
Student work, again like that of professionals, can be periodically exhibited, permitting concrete measures of accomplishment as well as a chance to see the impact of work on a variety of observers. Seeing work hung is to see it afresh, at a distance, and aided by the perspectives of others. What teen does not want such attention, particularly when the point is useful perspective on himself or herself and others?
Looking at art by others is an entirely different aspect of what makes art a productive focus for teen programming. Examples of work by a variety of artists can show myriad ways of solving problems, making it clear that success does not mean coming up with a single right approach. The work of artists from many times and situations opens windows into possibilities, ideas, and feelings that allow for constructive expression of young people’s own concerns. Looking at and discussing art with peers, particularly if facilitated by a neutral party, is a very sure way to build respectful, thoughtful dialogue. Each voice can be heard, acknowledged, and validated, allowing kids to understand themselves and their uniqueness; at the same time, differing points of view can be aired, revealing how each individual connects to others. As young people put their minds together to probe meanings inherent in art, they expose themselves to a range of human expression, discuss complex issues, and learn the benefit of extended observation and collaborative thinking. The language for discussing complexity is exercised. This kind of making sense of things lies at the core of what motivates adolescents.
By giving you this lengthy analysis of art’s attributes, I hope I have made it clear that art addresses what matters to teens. It offers a perfect amalgam of rigor and freedom during years when conflicting impulses often result in a mix of behaviors. Art education:
offers authentic experience
easily addresses developmental stages
involves both self expression and discipline
permits process to outweigh product
encourages both individual and group activity
teaches accurate self assessment
celebrates a variety of voices
Art is not the only reason that Marwen succeeds with young people. The next 12 points are culled from my examination of Marwen’s method. These points should be hallmarks of any program that aspires to help adolescents mature into productive, self-motivated adults.
A welcoming community
In the words of Melissa W., who has attended Marwen courses for three years, “I kept coming and I wanted to stick around because the people who work here are the nicest people that I’ve ever met.”
Warm human interactions are an essential part of any successful program for adolescents. We who work with them must continually demonstrate that we care for each individual. Beginning to separate from their families, teenagers still need to feel an integral part of a community — once of family, now of peers and other adults. A measure of the importance of this is that during my first hours of discussing Marwen with current students and alumni, they talked more about the friendships and the sense of family they treasured (their frequently used word) than about anything they learned about art.
Creating this feeling comes from effort and intention on the part of Marwen. Especially when young people come from challenging home circumstances, a warm, consistent, supportive environment reinforces a sense of positive identity. To the extent that students come from schools with paltry resources, distressed facilities, rigid rules, policed security, uninteresting curricula, and/or uninspired instruction, a wholly different feeling is required to remediate, nurture, and instill trust.
Community begins with the warmth of welcomes, simple friendliness, and offers of assistance, and it builds by way of introductions within classes and other contexts; in some Marwen classes, students interview and introduce each other. As students work, they are given chances to interact. Discussions build channels of communication, a central element in community. Student advisory boards — and this organization’s is very active — are powerful motivators of participation, enfranchisement, and, of course, relationships.
Students also need time with one another in situations that allow for informal exchange. Marwen has social occasions: opening and closing celebrations or events, performances, discussions, some with families invited. But students also like lounges and eating areas, if space permits, though their use must be governed by rules upholding respect for property as well as the need for behavior suitable to the facility and program.
Small-scale programs find it easier to manage these things, though large ones can do so by carefully calibrating the ratio of young people to teachers and staff. But no matter how big, a central tenet of any successful program for adolescents is individualized, reinforcing attention. Interactions with adults must be perceived as warmly supportive, whether we as educators are greeting them at the start, introducing them to options, encouraging their ongoing participation, disciplining them, guiding them along the way, or sending them off when it is time.
Such concern and attention may be rare in kids’ lives, however, and balance must be sought. Teenagers need to see that people can care about each other, even deeply, and still maintain the distance that reflects interactions in the “real” world. We must communicate positive feelings without crossing boundaries easy for kids to ignore. Marwen’s artist-teachers ascribe more to the image of mentor than of friend to describe the relationship they strive for.
Marwen has grown in terms of space recently, and it is now perceived as somewhat less personal. When asked what he might change about the experience, Orlando C. said, “. . . Marwen needs more room to grow, more classrooms. But as it grows, it loses its family togetherness that we had when we started in the other building and everyone knew each other.” In order to maintain a sense of community, Marwen is addressing the challenge by instituting more events that have a social component, wanting interactions among students to be continual, and both structured and informal. Friendships among students endure, and peer exchanges serve as an ongoing support system. Relationships formed here also have the potential for later resonance as artist-teachers and alumni assist students who go on to college and later to work, supplying references, contacts, and counsel.
An environment built on respect
In all aspects of operations, students must come first, and be treated with respect and dignity. Raising money, keeping buildings clean, creating course listings, involving trustees: We as educators do all of these so that we can keep our focus on kids — the realities of their needs, interests, and strengths. We must in all matters be student centered.
Respect must pervade the organization. Intrusive hierarchy is counterproductive; despite roles, knowledge, or experience, all staff members must be treated equally to ensure that students will be. Students quickly pick up on the ethos of a place, and what we project will predicate what we get back. If each negotiation is respectful, the practice of respect defines all relationships. Disciplinary action need rarely be invoked; people who are respected see little benefit in acting out.
A corollary to this is the need for evenhandedness, all students subject to the same rules and treatment. All decisions and disciplinary actions must be understood and seen as fair. At Marwen, even programs that involve competition for entry, honors, or opportunities are handled with such fairness that no rancor results.
It should not need saying, but evoking the authority of title or age is useless. Respect from adolescents is won by virtue of concern as much as because of what we know and can do. While maintaining professional distance, teachers and other staff must nurture each student, essential if we want youth to take chances and to give their best.
An open and fair structure
Like most adults, adolescents are more comfortable in situations with boundaries and parameters than in those without. Thus, educators should establish and make clear a set of sensible rules and policies — ones that are logical in the kids’ eyes — and only as many as needed. Make rationales for decisions and actions transparent. Include matters such as attendance, focus, effort, output, manners, even dress if clothing affects one’s ability to participate fully.
It is useful to step back when conflict occurs to ascertain whom a policy serves: the youth or the program. Change unhelpful policies. Staff and students both have stakes in maintaining a system that works for all, and the point is to prove this by being responsive to feedback.
Expectations can be exacting if developmentally appropriate. In other words, goals and objectives for behavior cannot seem either childish or, conversely, beyond reach, “too adult.” They must reflect the present capabilities as well as the potential of adolescents, neither condescending nor expecting too much. Establishing structure is therefore a matter of negotiation and delicate balance, particularly in programs in which students range in age, come from differing backgrounds, or may at any point be new and unaccustomed to the program’s environment.
Yet, structure must be sensitive to individuals (not just groups), respond to changes and events in society, and never be seen as permanent, even though certain aspects remain constant. Premeditate if, or when and how, exceptions might be made; again, make sure that kids know the possibilities and limits of special consideration.
It is important to make clear what disciplinary actions will be taken for behavioral infractions. Let nothing be arbitrary or whimsical. Although it is smart to be flexible, we do not want to be entirely situational: “Well, okay this time,” or “Because it is you, I’ll look the other way.” Again, fairness and equal treatment are essential if we want adolescents to conform willingly to a system and to expectations. Marwen meets this criterion. As Eddie M., a Marwen student, commented: “Students here know how to carry themselves, how to act. Rules are minimal, and I’ve never experienced any inappropriate behavior from Marwen students.”
Clear criteria for teachers and teaching
Hiring people to work directly with adolescents must be done with great care. Obvious as it sounds, the most critical criterion is to like youth; I will go so far as to say staff members must love working with teenagers. Candidates will prove this by a record of involvement that allows us to see the nature of their interactions with kids and provide evidence of kids’ respect, interest, and warmth for them.
Marwen is an art school, of course, but any of us who want to influence students’ lives should think of ourselves as teachers, committed to helping our charges grow, and therefore I would state a second criterion — “teaching ability” — even if a program does not call for outright instruction. As teachers, we create an appropriate working environment, insuring that facilities, equipment, supplies, and other resources are ready when students arrive. We set a tone of appropriate seriousness and commitment. We get them to work in the event that they do not already know what to do (and preferably want to do), making sure that all assignments represent authentic practices — nothing too challenging or dumbed down or apparently irrelevant, no exercise for what appears to be its own sake. A good sign that a task is appropriate is that all get to work immediately and enthusiastically with few questions, and no comments such as “I can’t” or “I don’t know what to do.”
If a demonstration is required, we only want to show as much as needed to get students started; seldom is a beginning-to-end process memorable. And too much teacher- or technique-focused time can be boring. Instead, we want to be continuously available as students work, acting as facilitator, coach, or source of help/information when needed. As I said earlier, Marwen artist-teachers think of themselves as mentors who guide students as students teach themselves; artist-teachers share knowledge and insights when they mean something — in other words, when they answer the questions formed by kids as they work. According to Melissa W., Marwen teachers “are not trying to get you to do things their way; they’re trying to help you do it your own way. …If you have a question about how to draw a certain part, they’ll show you the best way to do it but they’re not going to say, ‘do it like this’ and take your hand and do it. They kind of explain it and let you figure it out on your own.”
Another criterion is competence within a subject area. As Marwen student Camille S., put it, “I think the fact that the people teaching oil painting have spent years and years studying it, the people teaching photography work as photographers – that’s really important. They know what they’re doing.” Ideally, we want for those who lead to model well what a kid might aspire to become — teachers should be effective role models.
Marwen artist-teachers practice what they teach. Their work is exhibited regularly, including at Marwen, and students thus glimpse the professional world beyond. Such exhibitions also help with credibility issues (big with adolescents), and they allow students to see their teachers holistically, as people who have lives outside their classrooms and who also struggle to create.
Usefully, Marwen alumni — some still in college, some in the early stages of careers — also show work, giving students insights into a midpoint in the process of becoming a professional artist or designer. Some alumni come back to work at Marwen, too, adding to perspective on future possibilities.
A combination of guidance and independence
A very real degree of independence is not just highly prized by adolescents but is necessary as they grow in ability to take control of their lives. If we seek to develop individuals who operate independently, adolescents should rarely be told what to do and never forced. In choosing, students exercise what it means to be an individual, positively differentiating oneself from family and group. They find what they are good at and what it means to be responsible to one’s self and to rise to challenges because of one’s own effort.
Out-of-school programs are usually voluntary and can involve students leaving their neighborhoods, both of which are helpful as kids decide what they want to do and be, move beyond the known, and maneuver larger terrain. Programs can assist the growth of decision-making skills by offering options that allow individuals to delve into existing interests, explore new areas, and be responsible for how time is spent.
For these students, the rest of their lives may contain too few choices. As Camille S. said, if she wants more art, “The fact is that there isn’t an alternative within my school. If we want some sort of extra art study, we have to either teach ourselves, which most kids don’t have time for or aren’t motivated for, or we have to go elsewhere.” And, she adds, “Marwen seems to be the best ‘elsewhere’ alternative.”
If, however, students are unused to making choices or simply want the advice of someone knowledgeable, guidance should be easily available. When communication channels are working as they do at Marwen, fellow students are a trusted source of information. Teachers and staff should see themselves not as managers who assign, supervise, and control, but as consultants who help young people learn how to do what they want to do. Marwen artist-teachers assist students as they consider next options as does the staff that coordinates the roster of classes; a well-liked and respected college and career counselor is available, as well as courses that assist in both trajectories.
Assessing the individual
While social interactions are best monitored by rules and regulations that apply to a group, assessing growth of knowledge and skill should be individualized. This means that those responsible for assessment must know the young people in their charge. They need a solid grounding in the abilities of each person as he or she starts, and they need to be careful observers of capabilities as each progresses. Assessment is, indeed, a process and should be thought of as ongoing, even if there are milestone projects.
As important as what instructors and supervisors think, the goal of assessment for teens is accurate self-evaluation, an essential ingredient in all work and relationships. It is vital to help young people understand where they started and how far they can get, assisting them to find and accept their potential as well as their limits. Make them aware that their effort is as important as their achievement; they are still learning, after all, and should be given explicit permission to “fail.” Creativity is dependent in part on discipline but equally on risk taking; no one learns the latter if he or she is constantly bound by achievement standards.
Inherent ability — whether “talent” or intelligence of various sorts — should be identified but not rewarded in and of itself. Teens deserve to know when they have natural gifts, and no one in their past may have made that clear. But even more, they need to know that it is not what they start with but what they do with it that matters. This means that programs for youth, including assessment, must be equal parts nurture — to instill confidence — and rigor — to ensure best effort. At its best, personalized assessment is neither permissive nor sloppy. It is, however, flexible enough to consider each student as a complex whole, where innate ability is accounted for, along with attitude, effort, and output.
Given Marwen’s goal that students end up with the capacity for insightful self-critique, discussion is a principal mode of assessment. Before artist-teachers comment, students talk about their projects and products, their process of working, and their intentions and how well they met those intentions. They are asked to find what they want to improve and how they might go about it. The principle here is to learn first what students think before telling them anything. Critique usually involves advice from the mentor, but it results from questions and conversation, and it conforms to what a student is ready for. Language is carefully chosen so that it can be heard; teens are, in truth, delicate. And kindness encourages growth, even if it occasionally has to take the form of tough love.
Critical assistance can come informally, and not always from teachers. Camille S. said, “It’s most effective if it comes from other kids. . . . They’ve gone through the same assignment, had the same problems. They know what doesn’t work, what did work. The teacher might know perfectly well, but they’re not doing the assignment. Somehow it means more when it comes from a kid.”
That said, we should always avoid comparing one adolescent to another. Also, we should always be careful to avoid judging student work by the standards of experts. Students should see work that inspires them but should not be held to unattainable standards. We want to define growth in terms of personal bests — not someone else’s accomplishment. Ambitious goals are a good thing as long as all enjoy the sweetness of success.
A culture of confidence building
Underlying all assessment of adolescents’ accomplishments must be recognition that they are young, still growing, and in need of confidence even more than they need a record of achievement. This is particularly true if students come from situations in which their gifts have not been recognized. Making efforts tangible and providing evidence of skill are important elements to adolescents and to others in their lives — the people at home who might question participation in any given out-of-school program, especially one that doesn’t pay a salary.
But despite either internal or external pressure to achieve, adolescents need even more to believe in their own competence; they must believe that with effort — of which they are capable — they can take in and process new information, take risks, weather mistakes, measure up, handle new challenges. The confident sense of being able to solve diverse problems is more important than a small set of teen-level accomplishments. Creative problem solving outweighs arrival at specific “right” answers; process is more important than product.
During visits to classes and while walking among students as they worked, I observed a concentration that was palpable. Yet, students were also likely to interrupt what they were doing to tell you about it. When they spoke to me, their conversancy with what they were trying to do and with their levels of success were also apparent. Even when they pointed out what they didn’t think was working, there was no hint of self-deprecation.
An inviting building and classrooms
We must always make every effort to maintain the highest quality facilities, equipment, supplies, and instruction. One way we show our respect for students is to house and equip them as we would for professionals.
According to the winter 2004 newsletter from the Advocacy Center for Children’s Educational Success and Standards, “A growing body of research . . . has tested the widely held belief that there is a relationship between the conditions of school buildings and student achievement” and that substandard conditions adversely affect learning, health, and morale of students and staff. The opposite is very likely true as well. Facilities that are handsome and adequate for their purposes, and equipment that works and allows for maximal performance, have beneficial effects on students’ attitudes and achievement.
Camille S. again: “The teachers at my school are really good, but they don’t have the resources for something better. At Marwen the supplies are plentiful, there’s decent paper, enough charcoal to go around. The studios are maintained well, not like the paint-encrusted brushes that we have at school.” This must to some degree account for the quality and amount of artistic output anyone can see on exhibit in the professional-grade gallery at Marwen.
Growth-enhancing activities
Whether from the range or the sequencing of offerings, a program for adolescents should allow for growth. There should be ample opportunity to explore a variety of pursuits at entry levels, and then means to develop an interest or advance a set of skills over time.
The program should also prove the truth in the truism “the more you put into something, the more you get out of it.” Youth need to see where ambition and commitment can lead. Marwen does this by offering special opportunities, such as trips, intensive workshops, and representation on decision-making boards. Selection for participation is competitive; the process is well publicized, simple, and open to everyone, and decisions are arrived at fairly.
Following initial impetus from participants in its early days, Marwen has developed programs in both college and career counseling. Information about schools, job possibilities, internships, and scholarships is available, along with actual application assistance and letters of reference. Computers are available to allow for data gathering and for preparation of applications. Kids empowered by skills, achievement, and confidence — fostered by the program itself — are thus assisted both in seeing the bigger picture of what is possible and in extending their educations.
The experience of diversity
Left alone, adolescents have a tendency to gravitate toward others like themselves. Yet, crossing normal boundaries of interest, ethnicity, language, race — even style — make a richer experience for all. During the teen years, attitudes coalesce. If young people do not learn what is gained from interacting with people who have different understandings and knowledge, it may never happen. The world’s largest immigrant democracy can only work if we appreciate people unlike ourselves. Diversity — of students, staff, faculty — is a huge asset in a program dedicated to helping adolescents bridge from the normal limits of family, neighborhood, and school to the wide world of their potential.
For us to learn to participate in multicultural communities, we need to be immersed in situations that nurture cross-cultural communication. Marwen has set a goal of recruiting under-served young people, those whose families and schools are ill equipped at this point to provide a broad range of opportunities. In contemporary Chicago, the “under-served” conform to no single ethnic or racial profile. Having limited financial resources is the most common denominator. Marwen participants are therefore diverse in demographics, and for students, this becomes a draw in itself. Melissa W. puts it this way: “My school is predominantly black and there are a few Hispanics. So when you come to Marwen, it’s more of a diverse atmosphere, and that’s something I appreciate. I like being around a lot of different people. I like to hear opinions, and I like disagreeing with people. It’s a debate. It adds to the conversation, and it makes you want to listen when you have a conversation like that.”
Encouraging teamwork and shared responsibility
The most responsible, sustainable, and appropriate growth within organizations serving teens evolves from teamwork among all stakeholders, very much including the young people. Students should have regular, expected access to program designers and administrators on an informal basis that allows for unselfconscious, natural feedback and interaction.
In addition, the structure of adolescent programs should include representation on the decision-making councils of the organization, possibly including the board of trustees. Students know what they like/dislike and what they want to see happen, even if they do not understand all possible options. They know what is working and what is not, and they can often have useful insights into how to fix what needs repair. They should therefore be consulted continually on decisions that affect them, and they should know that what they say matters. Students cannot be invited as a form of tokenism; they have to be empowered and ensured an influential voice when decisions are made.
Marwen maintains a student advisory board as part of its formal apparatus for hearing from students. Ensuring that this works is not an easy matter. Orlando C.’s concerns about organizational growth show up in this regard as well: “Right now the student advisory board is having trouble finding new people for our board because we don’t know the younger kids like we used to.”
Seeing its commitment to the ongoing support of young people, Marwen also has an alumni association and programs. Some alumni have already finished college. Marwen fills many jobs with alumni, who often first become teaching assistants. Other alumni have worked recruiting new students. After all, alumni have first-hand experience with what Marwen offers and who is going to benefit most from the courses. As advisors, alumni bring some distance from the experience of taking courses, seeing what has been most helpful to them in the ensuing years.
As young artists setting out on their careers, alumni also appreciate ongoing contact with people who have known them and their work over time. But it is very much a two-way street: Through alumni, Marwen stays in touch with what current participants will face in the world of advanced education and work, and, responding to what it has heard, Marwen has begun teacher preparation, professional development workshops, and fellowships. Marwen is considering other options to aid young professionals whose resources remain limited.
Building youth as future leaders
As the National Education Association reported in 2002, dropout rates in many urban districts are high — often above 50 percent. Young people without a high school diploma are either consigned to marginal jobs in the service economy or are left foundering. Interesting and reasonably paid opportunities are in areas that require more than high school level competencies. Changing technologies and the insecurity of jobs require workers who readily adapt to new circumstances. With large numbers not finishing high school, are we creating the needed dynamic, capable labor force of the future? As the Educational Testing Service has noted, without efforts to better prepare today's students for postsecondary education and increase their access to college, America's premier economic position and global competitiveness could be in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, our communities need people of vision with the ability to deal not only with complexity but also with diverse opinions and capabilities. Are we producing the leaders of tomorrow?
Those of us with the commitment and means to make changes in the way things work need to ask ourselves these questions. We Americans like to think we prioritize and attend to our young, but we have ample evidence to suggest otherwise. At present, it would appear that we not only squander a precious resource — tomorrow’s citizens — but we also create a problem: Those who lack both confidence and skills can create trouble instead of being its antidote.
With imagination, we can build successful programs around anything: art, history, science, and social service. Our goals should always be to develop young people’s skills, self-esteem, body of information, capacity for teamwork, and individual voices. The key components of successful programs are three fold: their inherent value to kids, their authentic connection to the world, and their reflection of the work of adults. Marwen’s method resonates with kids because they see these principles in action.
Pull-up quotes interspersed throughout the print version of this essay
There are beautiful gallery spaces for exhibiting the work of students, alumni, and artist-teacher faculty, and a library.
The problem is not in the nature of youth, of course; it is in the imagination of adults and in our collective assignment of priorities.
As a society, we offer less than we should to help adolescents negotiate the tumultuous teen years.
Adolescents are therefore too rarely given the guidance they deserve to help them navigate these troubling years with a sense of direction, control, and accomplishment.
Tweaking what we do is almost always necessary, and wholesale renovations are occasionally required to provide teenagers the combination of nurture and challenge they deserve.
I want instead to stress that there are two key elements particularly germane to serving the needs and desires of adolescents: the inherent value of the activity to teens and its authenticity as a window into adult work.
. . . a central tenet of any successful program for adolescents is individualized, reinforcing attention.
Disciplinary action need rarely be invoked; people who are respected see little benefit in acting out.
Marwen artist-teachers think of themselves as mentors who guide students as students teach themselves; artist-teachers share knowledge and insights when they mean something . . . .
. . . the goal of assessment for adolescents is accurate self-evaluation, an essential ingredient in all work and relationships.
... the trip itself comes to symbolize the transformation encouraged by Marwen — from ordinary teens in often-challenging surroundings to young artists and designers shaping their own futures.
When making art, traditions, standards, and procedures exist, but individual creativity, experimentation, and rule breaking are also necessary.
Establishing structure is therefore a matter of negotiation and delicate balance, particularly in programs in which students range in age, come from differing backgrounds, or may at any point be new and unaccustomed to the program’s environment.
Marwen participants are diverse in demographics, and for students, this becomes a draw in itself.
If we seek to develop individuals who operate independently, adolescents should rarely be told what to do and never forced.