GironaOne of the most special author newspapers of the year is back: the ARA edition drawn by boys and girls, which since 2013 has been published every November 20, coinciding with International Children’s Day. This year’s special issue will be about the use (and abuse) of screens and technology, a topic of absolute topicality, which appears continuously in the media, but often only through opinions or studies of families, experts and teachers, without giving a voice to the children and adolescents, mainly affected by this problem.
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In the competition organized by the newspaper for the purpose of the project, this year up to 150 students from 10 schools and institutes in the city of Girona, from 5th grade to 4th grade ESO, participated, who presented their drawings, stories, poems and stories. The awards were presented this Thursday, November 14, in an event at the Cultural Center of La Mercè, organized jointly with Girona City Council, the Provincial Council, the Educational Platform and Unicef. Next Tuesday, November 19, a group of students from Girona’s most awarded centers will visit the ARA editorial office, in the Raval in Barcelona. During their visit, the children will be able to learn first-hand how a written press works and will also draw on site new prints for breaking news to finish illustrating the next day’s special newspaper, which will be published without any photographs, only with drawings made by boys and girls.
“The talent of all the participants has surprised us greatly, both in the drawings, for their technique or level of abstraction, which could perfectly be regular newspaper cartoons, and for the texts, which are very interesting, at the level of an article in ‘opinion’, explained Mariona Ferrer, delegate of the ARA in Girona, in the presentation of the act at La Mercè. The newspaper has given a podium of three prizes for every two school years and the winners have received a batch of books.
Drawings and stories of a very high level
In the 5th and 6th grade story category, the first prize went to Clara Blanco, from Escola Domeny, with a text about the benefits of moving away from screens, written with constant references to the digital language and emoticons In this same age group, the winning drawing was that of Iria Hurtado, also from Domeny, who painted a street filled with elongated figures who are only looking at their mobile phones, without looking at each other. In the first category of secondary school, 1st and 2nd ESO, they shared the first award for drawing from the same two students from the Montilivi Institute: Etna Corominas, with a girl who forgets her toys to look at her mobile phone, and Jana Daunis, with a dying patient who receives technology via tube. Mercè Vila, also from Montilivi, has received the first story prize, with a piece that gives voice to a console to talk about addiction. Finally, in the category of the second cycle of secondary school, the winning drawing was that of Valèria Ferrer, from the Vicenç Vives Institute, about a girl who sees nothing beyond the screens, and the text, that of Laura Cruset, from Montilivi, on school bullying.
The ARA has also given three more awards: in the special education category, the Font de l’Abell Special Education Center took home two awards with a drawing about the tentacles of technology and a text about the difficulty of removing the trace of the digital identity, both created in a group. And the last award was the special award given to Guisla Fons, 4th grader from ESO del Vives, with a watercolor illustration about the distortion of reality seen through the optics of mobile phones.
“One of the author’s newspapers that we love the most”
The event was attended by Elisabeth Escriche and Lara Bonilla, directors of the supplement creatures, that this weekend will publish a selection of the winning stories. “It is one of the author’s newspapers that we love the most from the editorial office and that the readers love the most”, explained Bonilla. “We do it because we love to play and innovate”, added Escriche, recalling “the two obsessions” of Carles Capdevila, founder of ARA: children and education.
Gemma Geis, vice-mayor of Girona City Council, and Queralt Vila, councilor for Education, also took part in the event. “In difficult times like the ones we’ve experienced recently, with episodes like DANA in Valencia, it’s proven that social networks and videos and images on the internet don’t always finish explaining the reality and it’s the newspapers that really they serve to inform us”, said Geis, addressing the boys and girls in the room. Finally, Vila wanted to congratulate all the participating students: “Your involvement and your fresh, authentic, sincere and genuine look allows us to understand how you live and relate to technology and helps us better ground our ideas about the world that surrounds us”, he concluded. Next year the competition will be held again with educational centers in the city of Girona.
