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Almost a month and a half ago, more than 300 girls were taken from a Northern Nigerian boarding school by a group called Bako Haram, a Muslim extremist group whose name in the Hausa language means “Western education is a sin.” Northern Nigeria, namely Chibok, where the 15- to 18-year-old girls were kidnapped in the middle of the night, is a hotbed for religious-fueled terrorism, and many other schools had already been shut down for fear of students’ safety. Nearly 50 girls have escaped, but an estimated 276 are still in captivity and thousands of citizens have taken to the Internet (Twitter and Facebook, especially) to use the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag in order to keep human rights watchdogs trained in on Bako Haram.
Naturally, this didn’t get past Maria Pandolfi, the George W. Childs Elementary School, 1599 S. 17th St., art teacher.
“Every lesson I do is based on compassion, tolerance, and respect,” the 10th-year teacher at the school and resident of 17th and Mifflin streets said. “You have to be a global citizen. Just because it’s not happening to you or someone you love or someone in your community, you still have to help them.
“You can not do anything or you can try, and hopefully whatever you do has an impact,” she said Monday at The Pharmacy, 1300 S. 18th St., as she joined members of Neighbor’s Invested in Childs Elementary (NICE) and Circle of Hope, 1125 S. Broad St., at the Newbold community space for an art auction, education benefit and children’s art show.
The show drew inspiration from A World at School (AWAS), an initiative from Theirworld, a nonprofit created in the United Kingdom in 2002. As an effort by AWAS to call attention to the necessity of childhood education, they named June 16th Day of the African Child, and NICE’s Jen Norwood got the ball rolling when the organization contacted her to participate in her community.
“I got an e-mail from A World at School,” Norwood, a resident near Broad Street and Castle Avenue, whose two-year-old daughter, Eleanor, will fall into the Childs catchment, said. “I asked them to create art with the Bring Back Our Girls hashtag about how art can influence society and change.”
Residents in attendance at the show and auction purchased raffle tickets and dropped them into the bag of their favorites. The money from ticket sales would go towards a NICE grant initiative to provide arts funding for classroom teachers and up to $300 of the money would go to A World at School.
Norwood, a material scientist and engineer for Du Pont, is committed to public schools and saw the work of NICE as inspiration to get involved. When members procured a much-needed library for the resource-hungry building, she volunteered.
“After they did the library project, I was really impressed that someone was doing something and getting stuff done,” she said. “And once I saw the results and I saw that these people are really accomplishing things, I really wanted to get involved and help. The easiest and fastest way to improve a community is through the kids, and it’s a shame the way the schools aren’t getting the money that they should.”
“These are some deep concepts,” Atiba Ellerby, a resident of 25th and Tasker streets, said as he and his sister, Mecca, looked to learn and contribute.
A series of silhouette art was on the north wall, depicting violence and aggression, while a special project, crafted specifically for this art show and executed by a select 10 students, hung on the south wall using #BringBackOurGirls explicitly.
Many in attendance praised Pandolfi’s efforts both in the investment she’s made in her community (she’s said to spend thousands of her own dollars on her classroom) and with the student teachers who helped execute this collection and auction.
“A lot of teachers probably wouldn’t have allowed their student teachers to come in and teach political lessons,” Emily Gleason, a recent University of the Arts graduate with a masters in art education, said.
The West Philly resident and Roxborough native believes children are capable of way more than we give them credit for and these kinds of projects are evidence.
“Children are done a great disservice when their angers and frustration isn’t acknowledged — that’s one of the most valuable elements of the arts. You give them a voice,” Gleason said. “So, I’m not surprised at all that kids can express feelings that are really deep and multi-faceted and represent adult experiences.”
One of those artists is Paige Oliver, a 15-year-old student finishing eighth grade who lives blocks away.
“I think it’s just a terrible thing that they do for attention. They don’t know what to do so they do terrible things to other people,” Paige said.
The young pupil takes pride in her work and noted that she cares “more about my education than the people who I interact with.”
She felt empowered working on the project and as if she were making a small difference.
“It felt like sort of making an impact on what we can do in order to bring them back and just try to make the world a better place. It’s way worse everywhere [else],” she said with the grave admission that young girls’ rights are far more endangered outside of our borders.
Unfortunately for Childs, they’ll be losing Pandolfi to the new Linc School in Kensington, a school funded by the Carnegie Foundation. But as Megan Rosenbach, a longtime NICE advocate noted, her great career move helps Childs’ weakening budget.
Rosenbach, a resident of the 1500 block of South 15th Street, is optimistic that NICE will help keep the arts alive at Childs and that projects like #BringBackOurGirls work will live on in her absence.
“There will be efforts at the school to make sure that classroom teachers are incorporating art into their classrooms in the void of an art teacher. We’re really committed to keeping the arts alive whether it’s in the building or off-site,” Rosenbach swore.
She also expressed confidence that Pandolfi wouldn’t be gone for good.
“I know that Maria will be committed to this school and these kids no matter where she’s teaching, and I know she’ll stay involved in NICE,” Rosenbach said. She’s leaving her teaching position but she’s not leaving her community.”
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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