The room is quiet except for an occasional plea for help and a brief discussion about design. The women in the Foundations class are busily rolling out clay, imprinting clay with rubber stamps, or in some cases fashioning shapes by hand. The assignment is to write a one-page paper on a woman from American history and then to make a ceramic plate to honor the woman and her accomplishments.

The class is made up of 12 women, ranging in ages from 19 to 50. The course is Women in Leadership: Remembering the Past. The teacher is Nancy Schwoyer, executive director of Wellspring House in Gloucester. Students have chosen, among other notable women, Sakajawea, Clara Barton, Rosa Parks, Georgia O'Keefe, Mary Cassatt, Susan B. Anthony.... You get the idea. Women in Leadership is a two-part course. The first part focuses on women in society today. The students learn about government and how it can affect their lives. They learn that they can have a voice and make a difference. The second part of the course teaches about extraordinary women in American history; this is where the plate project comes into play.

The students are given four weeks to write the paper. Once the paper is completed, the fun begins. One afternoon of class time is set aside to roll out the clay and do the decorating. Another is for painting the plates. And the final part of the project is the Women in History luncheon when the students and faculty of the program gather to share a meal. Each student talks about the woman about whom she wrote and shows her plate.

Foundations, a 17-week education and training program for low-income women in Gloucester, runs twice a year, once in September and once in February. It is a part of Wellspring House, a nonprofit organization that provides housing for homeless families, education, social action opportunities and affordable housing. Foundations teaching techniques are based on Popular Education as developed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Each student's life experience plays an important part in how she learns and constant dialogue is critical to the learning process.

Because every student has a different learning style, teachers in the Foundations Program make every effort to reach all students by using different methods of teaching. One very successful way is kinesthetic-tactile learning or using your hands.

Susan Hershey, a potter, is the program coordinator for Foundations at Wellspring House in Gloucester, MA. She can be reached at shershey@wellspringhouse.org