This week we will return to a theme that has come up several times in the course of our semester together: art, trauma and the impact on children. We will start by visiting the Human Rights Watch website (a major humanitarian organization documenting and monitoring instances of human rights abuse throughout the world)and an amazing exhibition of children's drawings from Darfur, Africa (Darfur is an independent sultanate or state within the nation of Sudan)during the 2003-2010 conflict with the Sudanese military and related militia groups, widely considered a genocide.The drawings were solicited by Human Rights Watch researchers in 2005 while visiting refugee camps in the neighboring country of Chad.The project was overseen by Dr. Annie Sparrow, a U.S.-based pediatrician.
I'd like you to just look at the pictures in the gallery section of the website. If you are interested in children, this work will trouble and amaze you. We've talked in class about children's resilience.
Question: Do you think these children will recover from what they have seen?
Question: Women and girls received "special" treatment by enemy soldiers. You may or may not know that this is common in warfare in all parts of the world. It was even part of the domination strategy used against African Americans during slavery. Here I'd like you to put on your "critical thinking caps" and venture a guess as to why this is so widespread. Think strategically: what purpose does it serve in the larger effort of one group to oppress, dominate and terrorize another group?
Now I'd like you to visit a website that isn't on our list of links:
http://www.internationalarttherapy.org/trauma.html
This is the International Art Therapy Organization. Art therapy professionals work with children and adults in a variety of situations. For example, on the first page you will see a "slideshare" by art therapist Gretchen Miller about children exposed to domestic violence.
Question:The slideshare begins with a quote from The Art Therapy Alliance. Read this quote. How likely is it that in your future career as a teacher, you will have students who could benefit from art therapy? How likely is it that at some point in your life, YOU might benefit from art therapy?
Question:What is an "art intervention" and what does it seek to accomplish?
Question:Going now to the colorful link titled "GlassBook Project," explain what this is and the particular areas of mental health it has focused on thus far. Please look at the gallery of pictures from the GlassBook Project. The work is very beautiful and emotionally touching.How likely is it that at some point in your future, you might be able to use your knowledge of this project (and others like it) to assist and give hope to parents of a troubled child?
1. I think what these children have had to experience will stick with them forever. It is a truly devastating and traumatizing experience to have to endure. I do not think they will ever forget or move on from what happened to them whether it be seeing loved ones taken away and killed or watching their villages burned. They have had to flee from their homes and have known such hatred and violence that I do not think there is recovery from such a traumatic experience. I think because children are resilient, they will be able to move forward in life and perhaps rebuild their lives. However, the experiences they had will forever haunt them. I do not think there is recovery from such terrible devastation.
ReplyDelete2. I think women are often targeted because they are seen as weak. Men can easily overpower and belittle women, so they put on their superiority caps and ride with it. In being superior over someone and exercising their force, they feel powerful. And ultimately, power is often the goal of terrorism and oppression. It always seems to boil down to power and wealth. These soldiers are able to degrade and break these women’s spirits which in turn increases their power. The world around them develops fear and the power of the soldiers grows ever stronger. I think soldiers target these women to break the unity within the communities. When the women are broken down, the family often breaks down. Therefore, the group as a whole loses its strength, becomes weak, and becomes an easy target for terrorist groups. These groups strive to dominate and feel no remorse. They simply want to gain the power, no matter the costs.
3. I think it will be very likely that in my future career as a teacher that my students could benefit from art therapy. There are so many new experiences that children are now having to go through that art therapy may be an outlet for them to cope. It can help develop their creativity as well as help them express their emotions. I think it would be especially useful in dealing with difficult students who may have behavior problems or who have dealt with a trauma in their life. However, art therapy can be beneficial to all students. I think it has already been relevant in my life to benefit from art therapy and I think it will continue to be beneficial. I have always enjoyed the creative process because it helps relieve some of my stress. Art allows for freedom and creativity and an escape from the struggles and stressors of the world. Therefore, I think art therapy is beneficial to anyone who is willing to give it a chance.
ReplyDelete4. An art intervention provides a safe environment that provides freedom and opportunity of expression. It can help in dealing with children who have experienced trauma or domestic violence. It seeks to accomplish stabilization, expression, coping skills, reduction of fear and anxiety, trust, and acceptance. It basically seeks to help children who have endured a traumatic experience, working towards short term intervention and prevention.
5. The project seeks to use artwork to help people who have endured trauma in their lives. The books give you a sense of how people respond to trauma in their own unique ways. The project seeks to connect people with their communities and support systems when they have endured trauma in their lives. The survivors talk about their experiences and how they have dealt with it. The project has dealt with self injury, eating disorders, anger, substance abuse, relationship and career changes, thrill seeking, and dissociation. I think it is these types of projects that can often give hope to parents when they are feeling discouraged. It is able to show them a different perspective they may not have been aware of. They can hear the stories and see the expression through artwork and perhaps it will give them the motivation they need to continue to try and help their child in unique ways. Sometimes a troubled child just needs to find their niche. This project may be appropriate for some children and inappropriate for others. However, I think artwork is always a positive outlet for any child, troubled or not, to express themselves and experience freedom and control. Overall, the website could help instill hope in the parent and could help them in dealing with their child.
Question: Do you think these children will recover from what they have seen?
ReplyDeleteI believe when children are education and guided into recovery that they do recover. I think that it will never leave them nor will they ever forget but I do believe that children can still grow and develop past traumas in the past if lead in the right direction.
Question: Women and girls received "special" treatment by enemy soldiers. You may or may not know that this is common in warfare in all parts of the world. It was even part of the domination strategy used against African Americans during slavery. Here I'd like you to put on your "critical thinking caps" and venture a guess as to why this is so widespread. Think strategically: what purpose does it serve in the larger effort of one group to oppress, dominate and terrorize another group?
I think that women are seen as the weaker and more fragile gender so we are considering less threatening. I also think many times women are used as leverage. I think this can motivate or change a soldiers mind on doing something if the women in their life are in danger. I think that we are sometimes looked at as a pawn in a plan. I think we are looked at as less value as a man sometimes and that is why we are given “special” treatment.
http://www.internationalarttherapy.org/trauma.html
Question:The slideshare begins with a quote from The Art Therapy Alliance. Read this quote. How likely is it that in your future career as a teacher, you will have students who could benefit from art therapy? How likely is it that at some point in your life, YOU might benefit from art therapy?
I think that Art Therapy is a great idea and I would definitely use it in my classrooms. For example if we were struggling with understanding some rule or if something like 911 happened to help cope with the sadness. I think that Art Therapy would help in my life get rid of some of my anxiety and sadness when times are hard.
Question:What is an "art intervention" and what does it seek to accomplish?
Art intervention is a therapy method that helps create acceptance and trust and helps normalize trauma reactions and dealing with stress. It promotes self-worth, self-esteem and safety. It also helps build relationships and guides resiliency.
Question:Going now to the colorful link titled "GlassBook Project," explain what this is and the particular areas of mental health it has focused on thus far. Please look at the gallery of pictures from the GlassBook Project. The work is very beautiful and emotionally touching.How likely is it that at some point in your future, you might be able to use your knowledge of this project (and others like it) to assist and give hope to parents of a troubled child?
This project is dealing with traumas and how people respond to traumas such as self-injury, eating disorders, thrill seeking, and substance abuse. The work in these galleries is haunting. I think that this would be a good point to turn people/parents to if they have had a trauma and their kid was acting out.
1. I don’t think recovery is something these children will ever reach. What they have had to see and live through is truly devastating. I do believe they will find some kind of peace later on in their lives, and be able to move forward, but it will never be something they can just forget. Hopefully seeing such tragedy, your village being burned, people being killed, won’t stop them from finding happiness in their lives.
ReplyDelete2. Women are seen as the lesser of the two genders in most parts of the world. Men think they can scare them and therefore control them. Control and power are what these kinds of people, terroristic people, strive for. They can use women as hostages, to achieve whatever their goal is. I believe a lot of men think we are less than them; therefore we are some sort of property.
3. I believe it is very likely that as a future teacher art therapy for my students would be something I would use. Art is such a unique way to express what people think, feel, want, need etc. You see a lot of therapists using drawings especially in younger kids to help understand their stories. It is easy for a kid to draw something and not have to put a lot of thought into it, as opposed to using their words. I also think using art therapy in my own life is something I could one day benefit greatly from. It is an expression in so many different forms, and nobody can tell you that you are doing it wrong.
4. An art intervention is something that is for kids who have experienced some kind of violence or traumatic event. They can come and have the freedom to express their feelings openly and honestly. The goal of it is to find some kind of safe place for these kids. They seek to have a stable environment where these kids can look forward to things in their future and not dwell on what has happened.
5. The GlassBook project is a project that seeks to help people who are or have been through trauma. Trauma could include self-injury, eating disorders, thrill seeking, and substance abuse, relationship changes, a lot. Troubled children sometimes just need a safe place to get back on track to what they want to accomplish in life. They hear survivors talk about how they recovered or are recovering. Sometimes hearing someone who is going through something similar can help to motivate you.
1. I do not believe that these children will ever recover from what they have seen..I cant imagine seeing so much death and violence at such a young age. I do hope though that they could learn to move on from this experience and never have to fear for their lives.
ReplyDelete2. Past years women were always viewed as weak and vulnerable, and today some still see us only as "the mother" or "nurturing one". I think these men in other countries and around the world see us (women) as dependent on them and very naive. We are not big and bulky like these men so it is much less of a fight or an easy win..it is much easier to take advantage of a woman.
3.I think art therapy is a wonderful thing for my future students to do...honestly before this class I did not appreciate art in the way I should..coming to class though always makes me zone into our projects and relieves any worries I was having and I love that. the students may be having problems at home or stressed about learning but art therapy can calm them down and leave all those things behind. It clears their minds..ready for new knowledge!
4.Art intervention "encouranges and provides creative choices for open, self expression. It provides opportunitites for decision making, problem solving and building resiliency. It wants to make art "free of judgment, interpretation, and too many questions."
5.The Glassbook project is a art program that helps "sruvivors of trauma". People respond to their own personal traums in many different ways such as anger, drug abuse, self injury or eating disorders. This project wants to shift the perspectives of other children or people not actually involved..This would be good to use to let parents know that their child can and will stop acting out with the appropriate "means of survival" it can also make them feel that they are not alone in all of this and that their are others dealing with this situation as well.
Question 1) I believe that every child is different in whether or not they could recover from the trauma that have seen and been through. If a child has a very strong independent personality I believe that through lots of care and attention many of the children could recover. But like I said, every child is different and there will definitely be some that will never recover from the terrible things that they have seen and been through.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2) women are seen as weak, less aggressive and not really able to defend themselves. This has been going on forever throughout history. Soldiers can definitely intimidate a woman quite a bit more than they could another man. Because women were/aren’t seen as equals to men, they can easily be seen as given special treatment.
Question 3) art therapy is 100% something I would use in my classroom in the future. I believe that if I talk to my class about bullying, or things that make us happy or sad, then they could definitely benefit from drawing the things that are on their mind so they are able to fully express themselves. I believe that in some point in my life if I were coping with the loss of a family member or stressed that this is something I could definitely use to express my feelings.
Question 4) an art intervention is used for someone to be able to feel free to express themselves free of judgment and where they can create a sense of worth and self confidence after going through traumatic issues in their lives.
Question 5) this project is revolved around people who had had to deal with different types of trauma and the ways in which the respond and cope with it. Eating disorders and substance abuse are two examples of the types of traumas that these people have gone through. I am not so sure I would use this type of project openly in my classroom, though I do think it is a great idea, I believe that it would be better for a school counselor to use this project to help troubled children and their parents.
1. Death is a terrifying thing for most people, especially children. As you get older, you learn that it is apart of life and it is not as scary. However, whenever you are a young child, you do not understand death and it can be scary. I do think these children will recover, but I also think that it will affect them for the rest of their life because they probably do not have someone explaining to them why this is happening.
ReplyDelete2. Unlike the United States, most countries do not look as women as their equal. For example, women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. Women have the archetype of being weak and fragile and in some cases not as wise. However, many people have strong feelings towards women. So when a woman is in danger, the rest of the world is more willing to get involved. I think in wars and terrism situations women get taken advantage of so that the terriost will feel powerful and strong.
3. I am sure as a future teacher I would use art therapy. Art is a freedom for the mind. It allows you to do whatever you want because nothing is too weird in art. I use art to relieve stress from college and it works for me so I know it would work for younger children and allow them to express themselves in ways that they cannot verbally.
4.An art intervention provides a safe environment that provides freedom and opportunity of expression usually aimed towards children that have expercienced trauma or serious hardships. It allows children to feel as if all the stress and unhappiness to be lifted from their shoulders so that they can actually enjoy being kids again.
5.The GlassBook project is a project that seeks to help people who are going through sever trauma or have been through severe trauma. Trauma has lots of different meanings foreverybody. Trauma could include self-injury, eating disorders, thrill seeking, and substance abuse, relationship changes as stated before. But it could also include things on the more emotional side. This seems like a great project, but I cannot see myself actually using it in a classroom setting. I could see it being used however in maybe a counselor setting or maybe a one on one with the teacher and student.
1.I don’t think they will ever forget. This will be an experience that will live with them forever. This experience will have a part in molding them into the men and women they become. I think here is where there will be many differences in the recovery. Some will choose to forgive, but hold onto this memory as a reminder of the people lost. Others will never let go of the situation, both as a memory and as emotional damage. How individuals choose to deal with this happening in their life will dictate if, when and how they recover. But either way recovery will be a long road.
ReplyDelete2.I think this happens because women are prized people in men’s lives. If someone is trying to oppress and dominate a strong group of men, by taking their woman from them is a huge crush. It doesn’t matter if those women are mothers, daughters, or wives, every man has a woman who they hold dear to their heart. The woman in a man’s life can be the breaking point for men. I know that my dad and brothers are my protectors and if anyone ever threatened to do something to me in order to get to them they would do anything and everything to get me back unharmed. I think that bond of protector men feel for the female population is what drives this as the breaking point. By taking the women the oppressors are finding that weak spot in a man’s heart, his breaking point where he will give into the oppressor’s demands. This ultimately makes the job of taking over much easier, the men have lost their concentration to fight back because they are so consumed and worried about the women.
3.I think it is very likely that I will have future students who will benefit from art therapy. There are so many stories that I hear now about what kids are going through these days. I can only imagine that I will have similar cases and sometimes cases that are even worse. Kids need a way to express themselves and let go of their emotions. I think art is a great way for kids to learn to deal with situations and traumatic experiences. Art therapy is a healthy outlet for children to use. Honestly, I believe that this is a developmentally useful tool for kids. I think if this had been my way of dealing with situations as a child then yes I would use it as an adult. But I have my own ways of dealing with difficult situations in my life, so I do not see myself changing my coping techniques now.
4.Art intervention is used to help children find ways to express themselves and cope with difficult situations. The goal is to “provide opportunities for decision-making, problem-solving, and help build resiliency”. Basically art intervention is teaching children ways to deal with their emotions in a healthy way, through the use of art as their outlet.
5.The “GlassBook Project” is a program that educates students on coping behaviors for trauma situations. These traumas can include “self injury, eating disorders, anger/aggression, substance use, changes in relationships and careers, thrill seeking, and dissociation”. The program brings in survivors to meet with children and share with them the coping behaviors they have learned that have helped them over the years. Again I think it is likely that in the future I will have to look into this program and others like it to help parents in my classrooms. I think me having a knowledge will only benefit me in my ability to aid parents and their students in the right direction for help. Obviously I will want to help as much as I can, but I know there will be certain situations that I will not be able to help much and have a knowledge of these programs will help me point the families in the right direction to get them the help they need.
1. I do not believe these children will ‘recover’ from the things they have seen. To be so young and be able to draw such horrific things is a place I never want any child. Because they are children though, I chose to believe they can ‘overcome’ the things they’ve seen. Children can be very resilient! Hopefully they are now taught that these horrible things they have seen are not necessary to life; that they can live a life without these pains and struggles.
ReplyDelete2. Though America has (THANKFULY!) come a long way from salivary and women being inferior to men, it is still very prevalent in other countries. Men think they possess a special power and authority because they are male. And because we are female, it makes inferior and not good enough. I believe these men force women into receiving “special” treatment because it gives the men power. I believe that is all men like this truly want and they will do anything and everything to achieve that ‘power.’ It is sick and unfair! I hope other countries can soon come to be like America and see everyone for what they are worth: men, women, children, black, white, purple or blue!
3. Thinking about it, I already use art therapy! Sometimes I just want to draw, or paint, or just be creative. This relaxes me, and once I am finished, makes me feel accomplished. I will defiantly use art therapy when I am a teacher. I remember loving any kind of hands on activity as a child in school and I hope to pass this on to my children. Something as simple as coloring in a coloring book can be relaxing! I believe you are never too old to color!
4. Art intervention seeks to accomplish to teach children different ways they can express themselves. Children in troubled situations do not always know how to express themselves and an art intervention gives them a healthy alternative.
5. The GlassBook Project is trying to help people who have experienced a trauma; such as: self-injury, eating disorders, thrill seeking, and substance abuse. This is a safe environment for children and parents to relate to others going trough trauma. Hearing someone speak out their troubles and how they made it through their struggles can give them the inspiration to know that they can too!
Although the children may improve as their lives go on and the grow away from their past , I do not think they will every fully recover. The things the children have seen are terrible things for anyone to see, much less a child. I think the scars of what they have seen and or been through will most likely stay with them for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteI think the reasons the “special” treatment of women is so wide spread is because women are seen as weak compared to men. In the past women have not been seen as equal to men. Men are also usually stronger and larger than woman making it easy for them to appear scary to women causing many women to be vulnerable and do as they say. At the same time the men were probably doing this to make themselves feel powerful and important.
I think it is very large possibility that I could use art therapy in my classroom for certain students. I think it would be a very useful and helpful tool to many of my future students. I would deffintly apply it I my classroom. I think it is also a big possibility that I could use art therapy in my own life in some way in the future. Art is a great form of therapy for people of any age.
An art intervention is an intervention for children who have expiercned tramatic events in their lives. They are allowed to express themselves openly in the form of art. It is very helpful for them while getting through the events that occurred in their lives.
1.) I think that the trauma these children have seen is something they will never forget but I think through lots of time and therapy they will be able to deal with things. That kind of violence is something that weighs heavily in someone’s mind and heart and I know that it would be hard especially at a young age to recover from something so personal and horrible.
ReplyDelete2.) I think that people take advantage of women because they are perceived as the easier targets because of their feminine nature. Men like to feel dominate and preying on women who seem to be classified as weaker makes them feel powerful. By showing their power I think they feel like they earn respect, which makes others fear them and allows them to more easily conquer and terrorize other groups. Also I think they use it as a sign of disrespect, to break the women’s spirits and hurt the man of the family’s pride. This makes the people as a whole weaker and easier to manipulate. It is widespread because the world is obsessed with power and some groups will do whatever it takes to feel powerful.
3.) I think it is very likely that I will encounter children in my classroom who will benefit from art therapy I think that now a days children are going through so much and sometimes they don’t know how to express themselves so doing it through art can help them heal. Not every child likes to talk but by giving them different ways of expression it may help the child cope. I also think I would and do benefit from art therapy. Even just painting sometimes when I’m upset makes me feel better. Art is a wonderful form of expression that is very much therapeutic to a lot of people in different wats.
4.) An art intervention is an intervention that can be done through art. You can help the child change their ways by looking at their art and interpreting it in a nonjudgmental way. T he children can use the art as a means to healing and improving and it is your job to encourage and make them feel comfortable as you do so.
5.) The Glass Book project is a project in which children create books that in turn helps them understand trauma and people’s responses to it. It helps change the kids prospective on trauma and emotional disorders from “what’s wrong with them?” to “what happened to them?” They explore self injury, eating disorders, anger, substance use, and many other life changes. I think that it is very likely that I will be able to put my knowledge of this project and others like it to use in my classroom. Everyone has a story and through these common things that kids go through any outlet would help them.
1. I think that children are some of the strongest people in the world. Children are capable of recovering from traumatic events because they are able to see past all the horror they experience. Children somehow still see the light in dark situations.
ReplyDelete2. When women and children are terrorized, the real force behind a people group, the men, are more likely to comply with the demands of their enemy.
3. I think it is very likely that I will have a student who has suffered some kind of loss, abuse, or intense change in their life.
4. Art intervention is a chance for children to express their pain and emotions through art. Art Intervention seeks to provide an outlet for children to express their emotions in a healthy way that can be turned into something positive.
5. The Glassbook project helps students to focus on what happened to them rather than what was wrong with them and then turn it into a positive by using art and writing. As a teacher, I could give this website to parents of a struggling child as a resource.
1. I sadly do not think they will ever recover from what they have seen. I believe that those horrible memories will be stuck with them no matter how hard they try to forget. These children have been exposed to very horrible situations that will be with them forever.
ReplyDelete2.I think this happens because they want to overpower women and show that women are nothing to them. What can be more degrading than watching your daughter or wife be raped in front of you? I think this is the worst part of war, women normally are not involved with war but in these countries women are clearly involved but what the men soldiers so to them.
3. I think it is likely that I will encounter students that would benefit from art therapy. Not all children have great childhoods and I believe art therapy could be beneficial to children who experience some kind of trauma in their lives. I think it is possible that I could benefit from art therapy. Everyone goes through tough times, including me so I can see how it would be beneficial to me as well.
4. An art intervention is a way to see a person’s troubles through their art work in a safe atmosphere. Some people cannot physically tell you what’s wrong but can show their problems through art work. It helps children deal with their problems in a safe and relaxing way.
5. This project tries to help people who have experienced some kind of tragedy or trauma. These traumas could be a range of different things, and people react to these traumas in different ways. It is a safe place where people can share their stories and relate to other people who have gone through traumas as well.