School on the Move was here

It is still dark in the morning as I pack our van parked in the hotel yard with my fellow teacher on the move, Minna Turtiainen. After a short drive we find the intersection we were looking for. We gather are in the right place since we pass tired-looking students on their way to school. We turn on the flashing light on our car roof and music, with school as its theme, starts to flood from the loudspeakers into the grey morning air. School on the Move has arrived in Jämsänkoski!

NUTRITIONALLY BALANCED ART

At the school we are met by our contact person, Paavo Keskinen, art teacher. This time, the boys who help us carry our bags are extremely swift. Excited, we wait in the vestibule as the students noisily occupy the assembly hall benches. The music gradually dies away and we know that we must step up and get the show moving.

We present the schedule through art works. We can see that our audience is stunned. What do two feathers attached to a coat hanger have to do with biology or even art? How is a bar consisting of blue and grey blocks related to mathematics? This mystery is solved when we start the home economics class by presenting a food pyramid consisting of works from the Kiasma collection. A strict representation of the national nutrition board performed by Minna seems to stir uneasiness among the audience. ”She is not pulling our leg is she?” students’ expressions tell us. But later even the final students cannot help smiling and bursting in laughter when their task in the biology class is to distinguish the hoot of the endangered eagle owl from voice samples of a museum worker.

To our surprise, after our one-and-an-half hour pedagogic performance, our audience does not rush out but stays to look at the video works. The most common comment is: ”Is there any sense in that?” After one video ends, however, the audience always wants to see more. Simultaneously, they wonder can one really call video works or computer games works of art. Finally, the teacher has to usher the students out. And actually, we are also in a hurry since Class 9 C is already waiting for us to decorate the van black-board with a giant snake figure and flame ornaments. During lunch, teachers who have seen our performance enquire about our tour. The teachers seem to be surprised as much as students. The lesson was fun and still there was substance! According to the principal, everyone now knows how an eagle owl catches its prey.

COUP IN THE HISTORY LESSON

The topic of the afternoon workshop is the Power of Image – the Images of Power. The students arrive in class looking slightly bewildered. ”Do we have an art class?” ”No, you have history as it says in your schedule”, we answer. The puzzled expressions become even more so when the class is divided into two and we ask our students to engage in an intrigue: how to win a power struggle over the throne between Queen Päivi and Pharaoh Minna? My subjects win because they shout our own warcry louder than the other group. I ask my students to make official portraits of me to accompany the portraits of presidents hanging on the wall of the history classroom. But suddenly, a group of rebels led by Minna invade the room. They tear down the symbols of my reign from the wall and tie me up with masking tape. The rebels celebrate their victory. The students are more than happy to follow the orders of the new ruler who tells them to tear my portraits into pieces. I have to submit to their sanctions and I start to make a mosaic work out of my portrait bits.

We return to our former role as teachers of the School on the Move and ask our students to write a story describing what just happened. We read the stories aloud and our students observe how widely different the stories describing something that has just happened actually are. We discuss the subjectivity of history writing and the symbolic value that rulers’ portraits have. One of the students becomes excited when he realises that just recently Saddam Hussein’s portraits were torn down. The clock chimes and noisy students burst out of the classroom. When we carry our things to the van, the boys we met earlier call us by our names in the corridor. ”We do have mathematics tomorrow, don’t we?” Satisfied, we start our drive to the hotel and start to get ready for the next school day.

Päivi Matala