 Students at South Mountain Community College have constructed a labyrinth as part of a class project. (VICTORIA BUCKNER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Path to peace, learning |
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South Phoenix A formal labyrinth of flowering sweet-pea vines at South Mountain Community College holds several layers of meaning, say the students who designed and grew it. It's a metaphor for education: On the convoluted path toward your goal, you may not always know where you are, but if you keep moving forward, you'll get there. And a symbol of pluralism: "The flowers are all different colors, and that stands for the cultural diversity here," said Laura Taylor, one of the students. And an invitation to enter: "We want this to be a peaceful, appealing way to welcome the community onto the campus," said another, Jocelyn James-Smith. And a place of stories: Participants in the college's distinctive Storytelling Institute weave tales of labyrinth-solving heroes and will use this site during a public festival in April. But mostly, it's a hands-on manifestation of about 20 students' enthusiasm for learning about mythology and anthropology in courses that Liz Warren teaches at the college. "We've learned a lot about the labyrinth and what it means for so many different cultures," Taylor said. "It's the idea of growth and transition and understanding." James-Smith has included labyrinth myths, such as how the Greek hero Theseus bested Crete's Minotaur, in storytelling she's done at neighborhood elementary schools. |
"We want this to be a peaceful, appealing way to welcome the community onto the campus." Jocelyn James-Smith
Warren said labyrinths have been created by cultures throughout history and all around the world, including labyrinth traditions in European cathedrals and among the Hopi and Tohono O'odham Indian cultures in Arizona. Students in her courses wrote research papers about labyrinths in various cultures. Some have worked with Warren after classes and on Saturdays to plant and tend the one on the college's lawn near the comer of 24th Street and Baseline Road. Five hundred feet of flower beds form a concentric-circles pattern 60 feet in diameter. One trait that distinguishes a labyrinth from a maze is that there are no dead ends in the winding path to the center, Warren said. The sweet-pea vines planted in November are now blooming abundantly. Students more recently planted other flowers and some vegetables in the beds to fill in after the peas pass their prime this spring. The students are already planningto replace the flower bed labyrinth with a larger, permanently landscaped one of desert plants next year. South Mountain Community College, 7050 S. 24th St., will host a Labyrinth Week and Storytelling Festival on the campus April 22-25. Wednesday, March 27, 1996 Guy Webster  |