My wife is a teacher in an inner city school where many of the students are from dysfunctional families (prison, drug addicts, and homeless families) and there is a need for some skill that these children can accomplish to give them a sense of competency. We are investigating juggling because of its relatively low expense and out-of-the mainstream activity that kids could impress themselves and others with this skill.
To obtain three (3) juggling bags (soft bags of equal weight and size) commercially would cost around $12US a set; beyond most of these student's means (and beyond the resources of Padishar Creel and Spouse). To crochet/sew such bags would cost considerably less per set, of course, IF we can find enough crocheters/sew people to make them in sufficient quantities. This is one of those things we would do for all the students that would participate or none of the students because of the culture of this school along with it just being the right thing to do anyway.
There are over 500 students in these types of schools in our area, so we would be looking at 1,500 bags to accomplish our goal of providing juggling equipment for every child. The local professional juggling community has tentively offered instructors at no charge to the schools.
What I am looking for are ideas of how we could do this as inexpensively as possible. Do any of you know of a group or organization that could crochet, sew, knit this many bags over the summer? I think our fund raising activities would be able to supply the materials and shipping expenses for such an activity.
Your ideas are deeply appreciated.
Chris 'Padishar Creel' Fanning
What are the benefits of juggling? Whatever a person's movement background, everyone can learn something from juggling. It is an ideal Physical Education and classroom activity which targets all three educational domains: Psychomotor: Juggling is a skill which requires timing, hand-eye coordination, and throwing and catching skills. These encompass both gross and fine motor coordination. Cognitive: To succeed in juggling students must understand the pattern, imagine and focus on a target for their throws, and comprehend the rhythmic cycling of the arms. Affective: Juggling is an excellent task for teaching goal setting, , tracking of improvement, perseverance, and delay of gratification.