The above images (click for bigger) were created by the students in grade four of Carpenter Elementary School (in Deer Park, Texas) over the course of three hours (split over two days). They were all hand-made with markers, pencils and map pencils and a few were created digitally. While most of the children hail from Deer Park or Pasadena, some are from as far as Mexico and the Philippines. They are all aged between nine and twelve and as you can see the artworks are as diverse as the children themselves.

“My name is Megan Hutchison and my partner is Ken Coleman, between us we share two classes of fourth graders.” With twenty students in each class, the pair tag-team teach, both of them take each class for half the day. As diverse as the students and the artworks are, their teachers are no exception. “I’ve been an academic tutor since I was eleven,” says Hutchison, “Being something of a slacker at heart, the first job ever to motivate me was when I became an aide for a special needs student about ten years ago. It was the first time I’d ever felt that the job I was doing really mattered and made a difference, and I knew I’d be doing it forever”

Ken Coleman began as a music major - tuba, piano and organ, then began teaching band and choir. Taking a break from teaching, Coleman became a chef and now teaches math and science.

“We showed [the children] the work that had been done thus far,” says Hutchison, “and explained that you were trying to count as high as you could through art and cooperation.” The children were each given one sheet of blank printer paper, their choice of markers, crayons, or map pencils and assigned their numbers (Megan requested a block large enough to cover the class) “after that, we showed them some of the previous contributors’ work, explained how they’d be displayed and let them loose. There are few kids in the world,” she says, “that are unhappy when you put a blank piece of paper and a box of crayons in front of them and tell them to go nuts.”

The idea to have the kids involved came to Hutchison “on the spur of the moment.” Being an elementary teacher for the past four years has given her insight into the school year, “at the end of the school year, there’s a lot of hurry-up-and-wait, leaving us bunches of little pockets of time to fill,” she says. “I thought that this would be a wonderful “sponge” activity to soak up some of that time and talk a little bit about the connectedness of the worlds of science, math, and communication.”

Beginning “a little unsure,” the children all became excited to be a part of the Count High project “After seeing the website and looking at some of the samples, they’ve been very excited. Every one of them is convinced that, ‘Now we’re FAMOUS!’ and ‘Hey! Should we send them autographs too? Because if they have our art and our pictures, they need us to sign stuff.’ They REALLY wanted to autograph something for you, since they’re big, important celebrities now.”

(click for bigger) The children, in fact, everyone at the school have done excellent work. The most important thing is their artworks show that anyone - even you - can create something when you’re given an opportunity. Here is that opportunity. Email today for your number and your chance to create.

Are there any other schools or organisations who would like to get involved? Simply email with a request and you will soon be a part of the Count High project.

Posted by Adam R. Box on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 7:51 am.