Video: Student Produces Creative Animation
Zen Marley Mello – a 16-year-old CedarBridge Academy student – recently created an animated video that not only demonstrates his exceptional video production capability, but also offers his thoughts on the community service requirements in Bermuda’s schools.
Zen has been experimenting with video production for about six years making home mini videos with his two younger brothers and he then moved onto using animated video software, and a year ago he started using his own drawings.
The talented teenager aims to work in the video production field and is already working on building his brand ‘Zenimations’ where he plans to create commercials and jingles for local businesses.
“My husband and I are incredibly proud of Zen. He continues to blow our mind with his talents,” his mother Aisha Mello told Bernews.
“What we love about the video is not only is it funny and smart but it’s also a conversation starter. We’ve always encouraged him to be a leader and use his voice. We’re just thrilled that he’s doing it in a fun, creative, and positive way.”
Bravo! As a teacher, I am DAILY frustrated by things that are enforced by rote because they were devised by someone in education, without any real regard for educating people. While you cant make education easy for everyone, you can certainly make it more purposeful for students and useful for guiding them into adulthood for the rest of their lives. As someone who was told it is best to have as many o levels as possible (lie- none cares about them once you leave high school and enter college) and that colleges care about extracurriculars (lie- they care about your ability to pay) among other things we constantly mislead students about…I am tired. Zen has done what we hope to see students do- think about why we do things. There may be official “why” answers to what we do in education today, but they don’t hold up for today.
Plus it’s good to see that he has an independent mind. One of my biggest pet peeves with the education system is the way they try to mold every student into a uniformed replica of each other. It’s like all kids are brainwashed to think a certain way and heaven forbid that a kid thinks for him/herself.
This has long bugged me. I don’t like the term ‘community service’ for school kids any more than I like the term ‘lockdown’ that is used in schools, a term that originated in prison. Then educators wonder why kids act the way they do. That’s why my friend who runs a charity signed off on my son’s sheet even though he didn’t do the hours and no, I don’t regret it. He was already maxed out with school, sports, tons of homework and needed time to study. I was sick of the autocratic ways of the school system plus he’s studying law anyway so I figured he may as well get a head start on the lying and deceit. I figured that I’m preparing him for the real world.