A little while ago I read an interesting article in The Australian about Sydney’s (allegedly) most notorious public housing block. The article painted a shocking portrait of life in public housing, highlighting the violence, crime, and despair associated with that environment. There were also allusions to small rays of hope for the future.
Consistently with my project to kick-start my students’ creative thinking by providing story starters, I have taken this article and come up with some suggestions for how it could be used as inspiration for short stories in a selection of different Areas of Study.
How could a student use this article as inspiration for an AOS Belonging story?
There is a tendency for students to assume that belonging is always positive and beneficial. This article could be used as inspiration for exploring the darker side of belonging. Perhaps the narrative could start with a depiction of a drug deal occurring in the shadowy corners of the block, positioning belonging as a transaction fueled by money and addiction. The narrative could then spiral out, shedding a light on the different relationships of belonging facilitated (or thwarted) by the players in the original transaction.
How could a student use this article as inspiration for an AOS Change story?
The article suggests that the experience of people in this particular public housing block has not always been as bad as it is now. Perhaps, then, a student could craft a narrative in which the changes in that particular block (both in terms of experiences and relationships) are charted through the experiences of multiple generations of the same family or a series of tenants in the same apartment. In that sense, the experiences of the individuals are used as a barometer for measuring community or social changes.
Once uPUN a time... 
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