Being the time of the year whereby students study for their exams, it was not surprising to see students gathered in every nook and corner of the library. However, there are still a few who are keen to take their minds off the stressful textbooks and find relief with other type of books. Thus, this special pseudo bookclub was held in the VAT room, a cosy and comfortable room located on the 4th floor of the library.
To whet the youth’s interest in this month’s theme, the facilitator, Karen, played several brainstorming games with the youths. The games session was one that killed two birds with one stone. Firstly, it managed to break the ice amongst the youths who did not know each other, creating a less tense atmosphere. Secondly, it allowed room for creativity and vivacious interaction. Chattering away in excitement, the youths had a short reading session with a special selection of books related to September 11. This was followed by an enlightening discussion session whereby the teens gave their two cents’ worth regarding the disaster.
“A lot of lives were lost. Many heroes also died, including firemen who went into the twin towers to save lives… It was indeed something very sad,” Mewleng, a secondary 1 student from a local school contributed, while Engjue and Isabelle, 2 other students, nodded their heads in agreement. “It was a clash of ideology…”
The discussion then led to the recent IMF in Singapore, and the youths definitely had a lot to share regarding this particular event. “This event has caused quite a lot of inconvenience to the locals… However it would probably increase the number of visitors to the country, bringing in much-needed revenue,” Elizabeth, a student from an international school said matter-of-factly.
In the cosy teens room...(itz not always a all girls event...oops sorry Kaiwen forgot that we've got you there too...haa...)
Karen then proceeded to introduce the September 11 project to the youths. This particular project was spearheaded by the National Library in conjunction with the International Literacy Day Campaign. In this competition, youths are encouraged to express their views about the September 11 disaster through poems, podcasts, audio and visual works. To encourage the submission of works, participants are given trendy wristbands with each piece of work sent in.
The youths then started on their mini project, penning down their thoughts on paper using drawings and poems. Some others decided to make use of multimedia to express their feelings, and set out to create powerpoint slides for submission. Despite it being a short amount of time spent on this project, it was indeed a learning experience for each and every participant.
At the end of the session, the participants were given cute wristbands compliments of the library. Eunice, one of the participants, exclaimed as she left the VAT room,“I look forward to more pseudo bookclub events held here at the library! It's just so fun and interesting!”
Video of the event! http://youtube.com/watch?v=SN3npIpdQC0
For more works for the September 11 project, go to....
youth.sg & www.theseptemberproject.org
