The DIAMOND KITE Project

The Active Education Approach for

Full Inclusion in the Social-Educational Field

EDUCATION IN EMERGENCIES

The DIAMOND KITE Project FILES

Reference: I AM for ARABIC

ACTION CARPET
Providing A Creative Alternative to Difficult, Unfitted Behavior

Action carpet is based on a sort of “drama activities” actually carried on a carpet (or in a
marked, limited space), unrolled in the middle of the circle of the classroom, at definite, scheduled
times (within the school hours, for example: once a week).
In a definite space, acting is a way to recognize and play with aggressiveness, rage, even
violence which normally are not dealt with properly at school, but only repressed and sanctioned.
The Action Carpet provides an opportunity of letting the rage cool down.

A carpet is spread on the floor, all the

participants take off their shoes and sit around
the carpet.
In turns, or called by the teacher, the
children (one at a time, or in couples or small
groups if they mime “slow-motion” fights) step
on the carpet and can act of their own free will
their strong emotions or can react to the
teacher’s request, for example, “Please, show us
a really angry child” or “Pretend you are really in
a fit of rage” or “Let us hear a very powerful
scream”.

As long as they move on the carpet, the children can shout, kick, bang, bump around, but
when they are stopped (at a signal or when the action appears complete), they step out of the
carpet and calm down.

The Action Carpet is one – among many1 – possibility to consider a student a “whole child”
from head to toe, not only for her/his intellectual abilities.

Everyone has emotions or what our feelings mean to us.

Emotions are really subjective, experienced by each of us as a very personal trait.
All emotions are legitimate, as they belong to human nature, only the way they are
expressed needs sometimes to be questioned.

1
Traditionally teachers who do not want to use repression against “bad behavior” try to calm down the child, discuss
with her/him, let the child think about what happened (alone/in a corner/ suspending other activities/ sending the
child somewhere else…), think of ways to repair, amend, restore the previous calm state…

1 Lucia Biondelli and Daniele Bianchi for EducAid NGO, Italy – The DIAMOND KITE Project FILES (2015)
The Active Education Approach for Full Inclusion in the Social-Educational Field
 The whole range of emotions – good and bad ones – can co-exist and have a right to be in
every child (“I AM many colors” L.B.).
Of course, children’s emotions have an influence at school, and pretending they do not,
does not help with school lessons, especially if the “disturbance” persists2.

These are the rules for The Action Carpet:

 regularly, at an appointed time (so it is like a ritual, it is not left to the teacher’s
whim) there is the possibility, for all the children - not only for the terrible ones -
to express strong emotions in front of others;
 there are turns, to be respected;
 when on the carpet it is allowed to misbehave: shout, kick, cry and even say bad
words;
 once out of the carpet, every unfitted behavior must stop.

Like in many other games, it needs practice to go and stop with self-control.
By helping the child’s self-awareness of emotional states, we are recognizing her/his
unique identity and her/his right to feel or, in other words, her/his right to be her/himself.

The Action Carpet will not solve all trouble with unfitted behavior, but it makes the
children feel recognized and accepted, fully, not only when they comply with our requests. It has
to do with <being understood> a powerful force to run the risk and try to change.

The Action Carpet is a way to teach the children important lessons:

 all emotions are acceptable (and recognized), but not all the “expressions” of these
emotions are
 there is a place and a time to “recognize” these emotions (or receive help by the others to
recognize them)
 there is the possibility to express these emotions
 there is a community, ready to witness and assist – maybe sharing we have a lot in
common and often similar impulses
 there are occasions/places/times which are appropriate and others which are not
appropriate to express strong emotions
 it is possible to learn how to deal with strong emotions, how to control their expression
(on the carpet and only there/ with physical movement / with the voice...).

2
Every child has a right to be what s/he is. Maybe her/his family situation is so difficult or disrupted that the child’s
poor efforts are the maximum we can ask from her/him – all the same, we choose not to send anyone away, we work
with the children we have.
When confronted with a challenging behavior, or other "disturbing" ways to take part in the lesson, we can start our
search: what's disturbing the child right now? What happened immediately before of the outburst? At the same time
we have to deal with the “outburst” : especially if anger or rage are expressed in an uncontrolled, sometimes violent,
way. Repression, maybe with punishment, is a temporary remedy, but it does not “solve” the problems.

2 Lucia Biondelli and Daniele Bianchi for EducAid NGO, Italy – The DIAMOND KITE Project FILES (2015)
The Active Education Approach for Full Inclusion in the Social-Educational Field