Knitting in North Lawndale

It's been awhile since I've blogged, but it's definitely not because nothing has been happening here at Better Boys Foundation - quite the opposite, actually! It seems as though each department expands and changes daily, so it can be hard to keep track of things at times. Project LEAD, our elementary-age program, has been holding monthly fundraisers to supplement their budget, including a very successful Haunted House for Halloween. BBF has been selected to be the lead site for an Illinois Governor's initiative to stop neighborhood violence. And upstairs in YouthLAB, where I spend most of my time, our apprenticeships are in full swing.

This fall, BBF is offering six paid apprenticeships that youth can participate in. Half of our apprenticeships are through a program called After School Matters, which was started by soon-to-be-out-of-office Mayor Daley's wife; the other three are run on the same model, but solely through BBF. Currently, we offer apprenticeships in film design, beginning tap dance, advanced tap dance, literary magazines, bike repair, and knitting. I teach the knitting class.

11 high schoolers (2 boys, 9 girls) and myself meet twice a week to learn how to knit. I've been knitting off and on since around age nine; it really picked up my freshman year of college, however. I've been able to use the skills I developed with this hobby to teach my high schoolers a wide variety of skills. None of them had ever knit before, and the first few sessions were a struggle, especially as I attempted to spread one of me, giving individualized, hands-on instruction, across an entire classroom. We're now in the final month, and the improvement is absolutely amazing. Every student has finished their first project (a "dishcloth") and has moved on to their choice of a second - a hat, a scarf, or a pair of wristwarmers. They chose their own yarn, worked with me to choose the correct pair of needles, and are working on learning to read patterns and pay attention to detail. The improvement is truly astounding, but what strikes me most is their eagerness not only to learn but also to teach.

As I mentioned, the kids get paid for participating in this program. I assumed that, as high schoolers, they'd be primarily interested in the money, not the skill - but of course, I was wrong. I frequently have students coming into my office to sit and knit outside of class time, and about half of them knit through the breaks they are given. Many have asked me for needles so they can practice at home. I tend to play a movie or the radio to provide some background noise, yet I never have any problems with keep the kids on task, and they knit while they talk or watch or listen. More than that, they are eager to help each other. When I am teaching a new skill, I often have kids who already know it asking to do the teaching. Some of them have begun recognizing where mistakes have been made in each others knitting, and helping to correct them. Even with the most complicated projects, when one student calls my name, asking for help, another often has solved the problem before I get there. I had high hopes for my knitting class, but I expected to only be teaching the physical skill of knitting. Turns out, I'm teaching a lot more than that, without even trying.