A circus show at Barrio Mosconi, a public school

I read Pavel’s entry, and I was thinking about how extracurricular learning environments work here. Clubs obviously exist, but access to them is limited by how much money families have. Pavel suggests in his entry that people tend to look for alternatives outside of the educational model because it hasn’t kept up with the world’s development. For poverty stricken communities in my country, it’s the opposite: kids are falling out of the educational system because they can’t even keep up with its basic demands. That’s due to the fact that their needs are unmet.

Many things are being done against this trend. As far as institutions go, all public schools and some private catholic schools provide meals for the kids. For most of them, it is the only place where they can get something to eat. So schools become not just spaces to learn but also dining halls.

Then there are also political associations that work to address these needs. Usually a group of people go inside slums and spend a whole morning giving school aid to kids, or organizing different artistic workshops, like dance classes, etc.

Finally, NGOs are also trying to give new hope to young people from impoverished areas. At the NGO where I work, there is a program called the Moving Circus. The project offers circus classes to kids in poor neighborhoods, and it travels from town to town.

During the opening meeting for the circus comeback in Barrio Mosconi, a poverty-stricken neighborhood in the district of Ensenada, a lot of interesting things came up. We had managed to arrange a meeting with the head of a primary school, the head of a secondary school, the coordinator of a co-op called ‘Futuro Ensenadense,’ and the director of a sports club in Mosconi along with some primary school teachers. They agreed their main challenge is figuring out what to do with kids after school hours. Since the mornings are taken care of, many projects focus on finding extracurricular activities for students in the afternoon. Children and teenagers in this neighborhood don’t usually have a proper home to go back to after their school day is over. Their parents are either working or not looking after them, so they spend most of their free time in the street.

Later, it was the kids who took the stage...

Luis, the head of the sport club, told us how he tried to keep kids off drugs through sports. He managed to put together a football team, and a lot of the boys in the neighborhood joined. Liliana, the head of primary school, told us how they managed to bring together some volunteers who formed a readers’ group for first and second graders.

“But we couldn’t have that for long,” she said, “Because the young women in charge were very willing and enthusiastic, but they were not trained tutors.”

Truth is, skilled people’s qualities are a must when dealing with kids that come from poverty-stricken homes – and usually little ones don’t find the emotional support they need.

The moving circus in this sense was part of a solution for giving kids something to look forward to in the afternoons. But was it really? I wondered: the dire situation is so overwhelming sometimes: Is this just a drop in the ocean?

But it turns out it did make some impact in this community. Liliana told us that they had put up a small circus for the end of the year concert, and the kids had a chance to show teachers and parents their new skills. This was a total surprise to the rest of the team and me – real proof that something had changed here.

Getting involved is the most important thing...

In her article, Kathrin mentioned Germany’s clubs where young people have the opportunity to attend courses they’re interested in – to learn something new or pick up additional skills. I found the topic really interesting because I also try to find ways of getting extra education in my life.

In any generation, there will be young people with no desire to study. However, among people I work and communicate with, the majority are eager to go on and get a degree. The problem is that the conventional model of education can’t fully satisfy their needs as it hasn’t kept pace with the world’s development.

For most people, school, college or their jobs just aren’t enough – people have a natural need to experience something unusual or new. That can come by way of a hobby or courses that go beyond school or university. For instance, I had drawing and piano lessons as a kid, but after several months, I realized that it wasn’t my cup of tea. After all, a parent’s wish to educate a child may not coincide with what the child likes! My sister, on the other hand, continued the first course. Now she is a good artist and studies design while I have favored languages and economics.

...whether with music...

The thing is: about three decades ago we used to have a state youth organization that organized summer camps and was mostly responsible for giving teenagers stuff to do in their free time. That may sound promising. But the downside was that the state wanted to have so much control over citizens’ lives that there were practically no societies apart from the state-run organizations. Now the situation is just the opposite. The choice of private courses is quite enough (though some are available only in big cities), but not every family can afford them. The best solution is if you notice the lack of something you are interested in, go and organize it yourself, and share it with your friends, who will share it with theirs and so on.

That is how my friends started a bookshop, which has had regular lectures on art, literature and poetry or small concerts and masterclasses – things a typical school doesn’t always provide. Thanks to this club I found people with similar interests and broadened my outlook, gaining some new skills along the way. It’s marvelous to spend a cozy evening absorbed in board games or reading the works of some promising writer (but not well-known in Russia) among friends.

...or at a game night.

Of course, those activities are mostly about one’s mental development. As for the physical side of things (and that is necessary for building a balanced human being) – you have a good choice of clubs if you can afford a course fee. For instance, I think motorbiking or auto racing could be popular among teenagers as there are Russian drivers in well-known car-racing championships, but the infrastructure – at least in our region – needs expansion.

 The more clubs a city has, the better it is for its teenagers and students! It results in an open-minded generation that is used to different situations and can more easily find solutions

Around the campfire...

When I think back, I’ve learned a lot outside of schools or universities: swimming, gymnastics, playing, dancing. They’re all activities I learned together with other children in clubs in Germany during my free time. Since classes ended in the early afternoon when I went to school, we had the afternoons off. When we were kids, we could meet just to play, or we could go to those club activities in our town. My friends and I had a great time going to our local sports club – whether by playing a sport together or doing things like camping trips.I met a lot of great people in the clubs, so I always felt very much rooted in my hometown’s community. I feel like you often read that children of socially disadvantaged families don’t participate in sports or music clubs as often as those from better situated families. But you can learn so much in clubs – not only about culture, sports, nature, or politics, but also about how to get along with others. There basically aren’t any entrance requirements for becoming a member in German clubs of this sort – unlike schools where you may need a certain grade point average. In clubs, you have the opportunity to create a community connecting different social classes and national origins. Often member fees are cheap or can be subsidized if families have financial problems.

The scouts take young people beyond the curricula in schools.

Today, many clubs criticize that fewer children are signing up to take part because the children have classes in the afternoon nowadays. Some clubs offer their soccer or music classes in schools now. Others try to find enough members with their traditional programs, like the scouts.

Some of my friends are scouts. Recently, their troop celebrated its 80th anniversary. In the morning, they took part in a church service. Afterwards, they had coffee and cake and watched a photo show with pictures of decades gone by. Again and again, you could hear someone asking with shining eyes: “Do you remember when…?!”.

Many memories were revived – memories that connect the group members. An upcoming night with a barbecue and camping will become part of their collective memory, too, and strengthen their team spirit. And some young scouts will keep it in especially vivid memory because it is the first anniversary camping they participate in.