In partnership with UNICEF Venezuela, the Piensa en arte/Think Art educational platform of the Fundación Cisneros, developed a workshop for reflection and the closure of the first year of training for a group of teachers from Petare in order to promote the development of cognitive skills to solve problems in school and the community.
(Caracas, July 15, 2010)— Elementary School teachers of Presbítero Manuel Aguirre of Fe y Alegria from La Bombilla schools in Petare successfully finished the first training stage in the Piensa en arte/Think Art educational initiative of the Fundación Cisneros. This initiative, driven by UNICEF Venezuela, was conducted as part of a community program to prevent violence among teenagers and promote their development. The Cisneros Group participated as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility strategy.
This first phase, which began last March, was carried out with a group of 15 teachers of fourth and fifth grade from that school, as well as with two teachers from two community classrooms coordinated by the Fundacion Luz y Vida. This non-profit organization, designed to promote community participation in the defense and protection of children’s and families’ rights, was also a partner in the development of the teacher training.
The implementation of exercises and discussions related to Piensa en arte/Think Art, which is based on the premise that the inherent dialogue between a work of art and the viewer provides a model for developing cognitive abilities in solving key problems, was consistent with prior diagnosis made in the educational community which revealed that all teachers have faced some kind of manifestation of violence, against the students or themselves within or outside the school.
Suhail Rengifo, one of the participating teachers, was grateful for the experience she had with Piensa en arte/Think Art, “In my group the students are quite violent, and the possibility of talking, of listening and thinking about situations that make them react in certain ways greatly strengthens the communication between them”, she said. “That little box that I used for specific situations and even at the time to organize the classes, is very useful to be used with the students and for my personal life as well,” she added.
María González, Curator of Education at the Fundacion Cisneros, expressed her satisfaction with the results, and talked with the teachers about the benefits they get in the classroom with the tools suggested by Piensa en arte/Think Art. "Our goal as educators is to make students become independent learners, thinkers and observers aware of the multiplicity of perspectives that exist, ahd have the opportunity to promote, to resolve any question on a specific situation that can emerge,” she said.
The certification ceremony for the first group of teachers was held at the Museo de Arte Popular of Petare "Bárbaro Rivas" and included the participation of Carmen Sofía Leoni and Morelia Ramírez, Director and Education Coordinator of the museum, Nadya Vásquez, representative from UNICEF Venezuela; Mireya Morales, Assistant Director of the Presbítero Manuel Aguirre of Fe y Alegría school; Gloria Perdomo, Director of the Fundación Luz y Vida; María Ignacia Arcaya, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for the Cisneros Group of Companies, and representatives from the Fundación Cisneros.