Our Claiming Face curriculum is unique in that it is both artist-based and kid-tested. It is created by the artist, Maya Christina Gonzalez, and deeply rooted in the creative process. Through the creation of every book that Maya has illustrated, she is continually thinking about how that book can be used in the classroom. She is immediately aware of the child who she knows will one day be holding one of these books and how it can specifically serve them and open up new venues to explore. The curriculum resonates with Maya’s own very personal lessons of reflection and creativity as a tool for self knowledge and empowerment as a child of color.
The exercises and perspectives in our Claiming Face curriculum have literally been used with hundreds and hundreds of children and adults, and not once have we not been moved and amazed by the power and response. The curriculum is experience oriented. It is about developing emotional, mental and psychological skills and not necessarily art skills. Art skills will most likely occur, but they are only used in support of the above mentioned interests. Claiming Face is first and foremost about being present with yourself, as the educator, so that you may then be a model of personal presence for children.
Our goal is to instill an internal perspective first. We know ourselves most deeply from the inside. While reflection in our environment is vital to a sense of belonging and is part of a developmental process, the aim of our curriculum is to provide children with the form and skill to know themselves especially when those external reflections do not exist. This also changes how they will see themselves reflected in the environment. For example, a child may assume they’re supposed to see themselves as the child they read about in stories or see in movies, but if they look inside first and then look out, the reflection that best suits them in the world may be anything from a sunset to the president. By creating this double set of reflections, internal and external, kids can more firmly experience a holistic sense of belonging, almost as if they’re being held and comforted. Through this curriculum, you can empower your students to explore that which is often nonverbal and support them in claiming their own authentic personal expression.
We empower in order to explore so that we may express and again be empowered. It is a continuous cycle faciliated by a deep relationship with the creative process that can sustain all of us through our life lessons and help us realize and embody our true place in this world. Empower...Explore...Express.
"The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept." - John William Gardner
View more detailed information about our Educator Guidebook & Student Workbook , get a sneak peek at what's inside and learn about the history behind our curriculum.
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