Calligraffiti in Dark Times
A nine-year-old's girl first attempt
When you have grown-up children, memories of kids’ birthday parties seem like a distant memory. But you still remember how exhausting such events can be. The noise alone requires a certain amount of “resilience,” as they say today. When a calligraphy workshop intersects with the format of a children’s birthday party, the Munich summer camp described above – for 9- to 11-year-olds – is a pretty good fit. The eight hours are broken up by play breaks, supervised by counselors. It’s fun, surprising, educational, exhausting, and also touching.
Friday, the last day of the Pentecost break. We are warmly welcomed as “guests” as part of a week-long day camp. Thirteen children, who – unlike is customary in Munich – have not gone skiing with their parents, want to be looked after and entertained during the day. They are brought to the school center at Königsplatz in the morning from all corners of the city. A full day of activities, games, and fun, food and drinks – all organized brilliantly and lovingly led, mainly by many young students in relevant fields of study. The classrooms are colorfully decorated, and the children, who don’t know each other, feel truly at ease.
My wife and I introduce ourselves as designers, which apparently commands respect, and then we get right to it. The tables are set, the tools are already laid out, and everyone writes obediently – first on graph paper, then we move on to wild scribbling with “abracadabra” – because it has so many “a”s. Everyone actually enjoys writing their own name, and since it’s going so well, we quickly develop a “logo” from their initials. For the really eager ones, there’s also a little text from "The Flying Classroom". Finally, we assemble everything into a stylish accordion-fold booklet that they can proudly show off at home.
The Serious Side of Life and Calligraphy¹
For the past six weeks, the war has dominated the media, and one wonders how this is affecting the youngest members of society. Can a little holiday magic chase away the evil spirits? Perhaps, because even though our writing activities are somewhat school-like, everyone is happily participating—probably because this is all about “art”—Calligraffiti is cool and puts everyone in a good mood. Of course, there’s no didactic goal; everyone is supposed to write real words based on individual letter shapes—whatever comes to mind. The children are lively yet focused. But there are also quieter ones, and shy faces hide behind the COVID masks. Later, my wife asks me if I saw what little Anna wrote.
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¹ The German text is translated below.
P.S.: I never would have imagined that I’d end up categorizing a summer calligraphy class for children under “War and Peace.” Until now, I had always addressed this complex from the perspective of a peaceful Central European. Is this historical reflection now turning into a real fear? There is actually no (literary) dystopia of the past that hasn’t already come true in some form, whether conceived by Orwell, Huxley, or anyone else. In many cases, reality has even turned out to be significantly worse. And yet we are still alive – and not doing too badly at that. But who knows how long this will last?
P.S.: By the way, here’s the full text by Kästner:
“The serious side of life doesn’t really begin when you start earning money. It doesn’t start there, and it doesn’t end there. I’m not emphasizing these well-known facts so that you’ll get a big head about it – heaven forbid! And I’m not emphasizing them to scare you. No, no. Be happy as much as you can! And have so much fun that your stomach hurts from laughing!”²
² From Erich Kästner, "The Flying Classroom"