Trimmers and tweens

Yesterday I taught an album-making class for five young ladies (aged 8 – 12 ) and one mom (I didn’t ask her how old she was.) What a blast! The girls did such a great job. They loved using the little trimmers (wee paper cutters) to crop their pictures and they quickly got the knack of focusing on the important parts but not cutting out too much. One young lady chose a photo of her dad holding her as a newborn; when she cropped it, she made sure to include part of the hospital bassinet to make it clear when the photo was taken.
If only I could fully describe the charm of the eight year old’s album page with her careful printing: This is me when I was eight months old…
There was one part I wish I had handled a bit better. I was suprised by how afraid some of the girls were to write captions for their pictures. One young lady was just sitting and staring at her page… and staring… and staring… I started to encourage her to resist perfectionism but then it occurred to me to ask her if she knew what the word “perfectionism” meant. She didn’t, so I explained it was being so afraid to make a mistake that you never get started. She kept staring at the paper. I was getting a little impatient — the class was running way too long and I was getting a bit peckish. Finally, I invited her to just tell me about her pictures. At first she was hesitant, but as she warmed up she launched into a delightful tale about swimming with her dad in the deep end of the pool. I wrote down what she had told me and showed it to her, and soon she was happily writing away. So I guess now I am a creative writing teacher.