I should actually retitle this entry to Yo y los ninos de Berkeley oeste.

Today was an interesting day involving eleven 9 year-olds in oversize green smock t-shirts, colored pencils, tarps, and makseshift cardboard clipboards. For one of my classes this term, my partner and I needed to plan a children's parks design activity with kids from a local bilingual after school program. We carried out said activity today in Northwest Berkeley.

I learned two things today. One is that I am better with kids than I previously guessed. The other is that kids nowadays aren't the generational time bomb I have been fearing exists for the last 10 years. They are pretty much like I was when I was a youngin', except that they have better technologies, tend to speak more than one language (Espanol in this case), and live within very protective and more nuturing environments than I did.

The concept of an afterschool program is new to me because I NEVER did anything like that as a juvenile. I was a latch key child. Literally. Next to our front door there was a small shed with our water pump. Inside the door of the water pump shed hung a key. My sister and I used the key to enter our house (which was on a small farm) where we'd be alone from 3pm until 630pm. We did this from when I was 6 years old and on because my mom couldn't afford a babysitter. And we didn't like babysitters. So the situation was satisfactory for all parties involved. My sister and I would plan our own activities, though, much like an after school program does. However, our activities were probably a little more intense and hands on that what they are doing down in West Berkeley (feeding horses and ducks, cleaning out stalls, hauling 5 gallon buckets of water to the barn, sewing clothes, playing on the roof of the utility shed, digging holes, exploring the swamp at the edge of our property, games of speed and agility-building with my sister where we'd dash onto our neighbors property and steal something interesting from their barn and dash back, and baking things - all unsupervised!). But enough about my glamourous childhood and back to the kids of Berkeley.

I snapped some spectacular photos of us in action with the kids drawing and doing group idea sharing. I would post these gems, but I am quite fearful of being sued for putting a picture of a minor on the Internet without permission. So you will have to use your keen imaginations for that, ok?

Maybe I can scan one of their drawings and post that. I am assuming they aren't going to claim proprietary rights to them. But who knows. These kids are pretty damn smart today.