Children Starchitects in Harlem

My good friend Michael Klein, co-creator of the Critical Educator Network (an amazing new organization that is tackling the achievement gap in the crucial arena of teacher training and development), invited me into his classroom at Harlem Link Charter School to do a series of lessons on architecture.



I set up the premise that we as community members did not design the neighborhood we live in, so there are probably elements that we do not like. Here is our chance to design a neighborhood that we can be happy living in. The students are designing our own homes, learning basic model building skills using chipboard and elmers and training them to think that they have the power to influence the environments in which they live, work, and play.



My internship at Yestermorrow Design/Build School helped me recognize how important it is for non-professionals to have an understanding of architecture and building. It does not take much training to be able to troubleshoot a domestic plumbing system or design and build an addition onto a house. Many people just do not have the confidence. Confidence is derived largely from our ability and the messages we receive about our ability, both factors that good teachers can change.

Who wants that confidence, though? We exist in a consumerist society that values being able to buy our way out of these problems. Knowing about plumbing if I am professor or a waiter does not help me achieve the dream. The problem here is that this disenfranchises us because we depend on "experts" or machines to make, install, and fix the things we depend on. Teaching children to be critically aware of the environments they live in is part of Descent Culture because it empowers us to know and to act.