Juvenelia

I taught Wuthering Heights at Black Pine Circle for many years as part of my traditional English literature survey.  Eighth graders love to hate the characters in Wuthering Heights, and they love the drama in the plot even more.  (As my partner puts it, “Every night is 8th grade drama night,” as a comment on Andra Marziano’s fantastic production with our graduating class every year.)  I never found a way to shove Jane Eyre into the curricula, though I am still trying.  This is all to say that I was thrilled to be able to see the exhibit, Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will, at the Morgan Library recently.  

This exhibit was created to honor the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth.  It was a treat to see the original manuscripts, first editions, portraits, etc.  However, I didn’t expect to be so taken by the juvenilia on display.  Brontë illustrated and painted as a young teen, but she also doodled fashionable ladies and dashing men.  In some cases, the young Brontë made a copy of another artistic work, but in many cases, she created her own unique pieces.  She created imaginary worlds with her siblings and made tiny magazines or books, with microscopic lettering.  Museums don’t typically show off the juvenilia of famous artists or writers, and I was struck by how similar her juvenilia was to the products that our middle school students create at Black Pine Circle.  

A different Charlotte, my eighth grade student, has been writing stories and drawing since the age of six. She doesn’t confine her work to class assignments--rather, she finds writing and illustrating fun.  While her parents are not writers, she points out that she was exposed to arts at a young age in her grandmother’s studio.  I was talking to Charlotte about the advantages of being dedicated to this kind of art at a young age, and she said, “Children can be more creative.  They are not as influenced by culture and they have more to explore in their minds, which is a catalyst.”  She doesn’t like that it is hard to convince adults that her work is good, because they sometimes “dismiss [her work] as childish.”  Still, she continues to write.  Charlotte is a voracious reader, and finds that the act of writing helps her understand authors better.  As her English teacher, I have found that she has a deep understanding of authorial intent and literary concepts, which she proves in our Socratic seminars.  I am confident that what we do in the classroom informs her art as well.

Recently, I heard from our science teacher and K-8 STEAM coordinator, Cris Mytko, that a seventh grader, Elan, one day decided that he didn’t have turn signals on his bike.  After the weekend, he showed Ms. Mytko the results.  He is a programmer, has been using Arduino for years, and he has built a drone as well as a pedal car out of PVC.  Elan is a maker through and through, and I appreciate how he advocates for this kind of learning by going to events to represent our school.  Certainly, his juvenilia is different from that of Brontë’s, but he is still imitating and using pre-existing designs as well as creating his own unique pieces.  His performance of mastery is exciting not only because of what he is able to accomplish in his youth, but also because of his dedication and joy in these works.

Parents and educators know that learning comes from both imitation as well as independent creation; both Charlotte and Elan are proof of this, and their energy  The exhibit about Brontë’s juvenilia reminds me that students are creating all the time both in and outside of school.  The teachers at Black Pine Circle facilitate this for the students by giving contexts and questions to inform their passions.  The Masterworks program, implemented by former faculty member, Nico Pemantle, is one of the best examples of this process.  8th grade students create a capstone project of their own choosing, and faculty members serve as advisors.  The students just confirmed their projects, and the field is wide-ranging, including: reporting on homelessness; studying and exploring solutions to child labor in chocolate production; studying immigrant stories; creating a role-playing game, a podcast about innovation; and building a surfboard, a wooden bike, a brainwave-controlled helicopter, a bomber jacket, and more.  This project will take many months and requires student commitment, resilience, cooperation, and communication with faculty advisors, but the results are always stunning.  I look forward to updating this blog with the progress with their juvenilia.  Who knows--maybe you’ll be seeing their juvenilia in a museum one day!