Inside Magic

Ed Majian

Recently, I had the opportunity to conduct an enrichment program for the Bradford Academy in Montclair, New Jersey. The program was sponsored by the local PTA as an after-school bonus for the attending students.

I was contacted, through a family member, by the school and asked to design a course, which would be comprehensive, fun and yet educational for students in the third to fifth grades. This was the first time I?ve ever taken part in such a program but because of my love for youthful minds, I immediately felt it to be a great opportunity. My initial feelings proved more than correct. The Bradford Academy didn?t provide too many guidelines. As a result, I was given a lot of leniency.

However, since I?ve never even written a lesson plan, set up a course or even settled on a course objective, it required a great deal of thought. Eventually, I decided that my objective would be to teach and/or reinforce the values of practice, determination, and confidence.

Ed Teaches Confidence and Joy

As a magician, I also felt the responsibility of addressing ?impossibility? and taking this chance to reaffirm that not even the sky is the limit. After all, in the clear eyes of my students, aged from eight to ten, this is a world of endless possibility. Going into this class, it was my hope that the students would realize some of the lessons touched upon later in their lives ? as they mature and develop their own ambitions ? when they?re faced with obstacles and limitations.

These students are a part of our future and their limitations may very well be ours. With these thoughts in mind, I designed a course, in which I would teach three different performance trades. These trades would function as a vehicle into the above concepts. I taught a combination of two very simple magic-tricks, juggling and balloon sculpture.

Each time we met, I?d cover a different topic. The students would have the following week to practice and think of anything to ask me. Not all students were required to learn everything we covered. Naturally each student took a liking to a certain aspect of the course. One week isn?t quite enough practice to exactly master anything so when their performances were judged, they were judged on overall knowledge and understanding not on simply their performance value.

The following week, the students performed whatever they worked on during their week away. If performed well, they?d receive a metallic-star sticker on their magic wand (magic pencil). The beginning of each class, starting with the second class, was a short Q&A session regarding the previous week, progress reports from all the students about their week and the aforementioned short performance by each of the students.