| THE
NAMTA Vol. 24, No. 3 Summer 1999
Artistic Expression
and the Unfolding Self
Finding the Artist Within:
A Challenge for… |
| WHATlsNAMTA?
The North American Montessori Teachers' Association
provides a medium of study, interpretation, and im-… |
| THENAMTAJOURNAL
VoL. 24, No. 3 • SUMMER 1999
ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
AND THE UNFOLDING SELF
8
Jn aflilia1ion wi1h 1hc… |
| ARTISTIC EXPRESSION AND THE UNFOLDING SELF
FINDING THE ARTIST WITHIN:
A CHALLENGE FOR MONTESSORI ANS… |
| t ~ -----------------------
FINDING THE ARTIST WITHIN:
A CHALLENGE FOR MONTESSORIANS
by David Kahn
In March, 1998, NAMTA… |
| own creative lives as children. They had lost their vision of creative
possibilities for the classroom. Most did not trust… |
| The artistic indeed has a developmental perspective.Jean Miller's
and Elise Braun Barnett's music articles relate to… |
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The NAMTA Journal •… |
| ARTISTIC EXPRESSION AND THE
UNFOLDING SELF: EXPRESSIVE ADULTS,
EXPRESSIVE CHILDREN
by Olga Dantus
Ms. Dantus'… |
| staircase, but it was time to follow the loud music while the adults sang
and moved the children's arms and legs.
One… |
| credit cards, lasers and the ball point pen. We lived before
pan tyhose, dishwashers, dryers, electric blankets, air con-… |
| These technological changes have produced a radical alter-
ation in our way of revealing ourselves to others. As a… |
| These changes touch on all
of our cu I tures, and they accu-
mulate Ii ttle by little until one
day we can't recover… |
| opportunity. Soitseems we are at the verge of a vital moment in which
circumstances merge a series of factors never before… |
| value personal responsibility (ability to respond) in the context of a
community.
Montessori education is a part of this… |
| in the tropical forest. Everyone who shares with an open mind the
traditions of another culture will be contributing to world… |
| see creativity as the capacity to love, to find the right answer to
everyday problems, to innovate, to take risks, to re-… |
| your mind plays, there's always a benefit because your
mind is smarter than you are, and does more surprising
things,… |
| Art is a talent special to
human beings. It helps us un-
derstand and explore our own
inner world. When children
become… |
| Children, with their ability to adapt, enter easily into the evolu-
tionary process of their environment and get imprisoned in… |
| To touch a child is to touch the most delicate and vital place where
everything can be renewed, where everything is full of… |
| If you can't look him straight in the eye.
He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with… |
| The NAMTA Journal
19 |
| The Artist In Each Of Us
20
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 24, No. 3 • Summer 1999 |
| THE ARTIST IN EACH OF Us
by Florence Cane
Florence Cane's developmental view of the creative process is hauntingly
true… |
| Nature of the Creative Process
Naturally the first steps of the novice are to take up pencil or brush
to draw or paint.… |
| hands over them. As the darkness and quiet increase, the original
images become clarified, or new ones come surging up to… |
| There are other
ways in which
pairs of opposites
balance each other.
For example, the re-
lation between near
and distant… |
| Laurence Binyon, in Painting in the Far East, writes vividly of the
place rhythm holds in the art of the Eastern world:
A… |
| First, the child will touch and handle an object, try to break or bend
it in order to find out its possibilities. He may taste… |
| The creative faculty becomes more robust through the kind of
understanding illustrated in the following incident. A child of… |
| The child's interest in these first
crude attempts is usually very serious
and may hold his attention for a… |
| and demands more of himself. Each picture must satisfy not only
himself but his companions as well. The child needs the… |
| 2. CONDITIONS FA VORA BLE TO CREATIVE WORK
It is not so difficult to create as it is to maintain the
conditions from which… |
| Arrangement and Care of Materials
The arrangement and care of materials are very important, not
alone for the habits of order… |
| Inner Conditions
The inner conditions favorable to creative work can be fostered by
the teacher. But the teacher invites and… |
| porating in their teaching the study of a child's heredity, his social
life, and his own behavior in order to understand… |
| There isa third way-a middle path in which the teacher no longer
desires his pupil to excel, in which he no longer wishes to… |
| It is true that when the art-
ist is in action, he may function
in three ways simultaneously.
In teaching,
however,
we… |
| They fail to realize that the chief hope of change, the transcendent
function, lies buried in the unconscious and that only by… |
| rational consciousness, to that which can be known and measured
and defined. But life is made upof opposites, typified by the… |
| DISCOVERING THE ARTIST WITHIN
by Sam Hamill
With the intensity of a master poet, Hamill describes his personal artistic… |
| and a master of Zen. It gets awfully crowded in that ever-expanding
"within."
I was orphaned at the age of… |
| Here's a poem I wrote a year or so ago, remembering those times,
a Letter to Gary Snyder from my book, Gratitude-
LIVES… |
| nine bows to a friend
and teacher who encouraged
a lifetime's study.
The mountains are in my heart,
and all the rivers… |
| in some respects, it
deepens our engagement with
all that is human,
with all this temporal world,
plagued by all-too-human… |
| Listening to poetry is art unto itself.
Like listening to jazz or opera, it
involves both a disciplined listening
and a deep… |
| and was honorably discharged, much to the Marine Corps' chagrin.
Producing Buddhist poets is not something one sees… |
| Poetry readings
against the Vietnam War
were everywhere, but
I was already a vet
and had become a C.0.
and still that… |
| you wrote a lover,
and I often think you, too,
are a long poem
whose gift is the gift of change,
of sublime transformation… |
| All of the poem-letters to poets in this book are run under the title
"Lives of a Poet." Because a real poet… |
| properly felt and properly understood under the conditions of educated
listening.
The sixth patriarch of Zen, Master Hui Neng… |
| always describing the physicality
of their world of pleasure and the dance
of Eros free of guilt or consequence,
so that, as… |
| What do we mean when we speak of
genius? What do we mean when we use
terms as abstract as "creative spirit"… |
| could be more difficult than skating along on a thin blade over hard
ice or learning the samba? People love difficulty.
I… |
| Loneliness already
planted with each seed in
morning glory beds
Three hundred years ago, another Zen poet, Basho, came upon… |
| as vicious as any racial prejudice in our society. To say that
someone is childish is an expression of the deepest con-
tempt… |
| POETRY AND THE EARLY ADOLESCENT
by Mary Jo Moore
The concept of teacher as coach is demonstrated by Ms. Moore'… |
| middle school. He could turn out poems of the Shel Silverstein variety
like breathing, then write a song for graduation,… |
| WRITER'S BLOCK
I have a case of writer's block.
I don't know what to do.
I've many great ideas,
Just… |
| mor seem more likely to be in the repertoire of boys than girls at this
age. I could get into a lot of trouble by making such… |
| Isn't the life that he should lead.
It's a nagging feeling inside him,
Urging him away from this.
Telling him his… |
| We're overflowed with opponents
Who we need to defeat.
We haven't the luck
A team needs to win.
But I feel the… |
| And here's one by her friend Romana:
THEY'RE STILL OUT THERE
The shapely models
are role models.
Stop the arguing… |
| LONELY TRAVELER
She runs
[n the pouring rain,
With no one to turn to
No where to hide.
She's running,
Running from… |
| lfsomething's going to have to bend for Beth Anne, it's rhyme, not
the substance of what she's trying to… |
| Neha is exploring and discovering here, I think. She is exploring
what a poem is and isn't, and discovering what she can… |
| LOVE
The sky gets darker
as days pass by,
the world looks bleak
as it's seen through my eye.
Violence and destruction… |
| Slashing like a knife.
Something so shocking
My whole body tenses,
That fateful day
When love touched my life.
Twelve-year… |
| As poetry coaches, it behooves us to avoid judgments about what
kinds of poems are good poems. Some will rhyme, some won'… |
| The NAMTA Journal
67 |
| Maria Montessori and Elise Braun presenting music at the International
Congress, Rome, 1932.
68
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 24… |
| MONTESSORI AND Music
by Elise Braun Barnett
With the sense of discovery characteristic of a first-generation Mon tessorian,… |
| Children do not listen in the so-called
"grown-up manner," sitting quietly. They
like to move with music.… |
| own creative way, with love for the child as her guiding principle. It
was this that led the first woman medical doctor in… |
| RUNS
AU.£eR()
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i CCCil W!~
AU.EGAO J. • .,J..,t,,, ,,.,.
foe M1'J… |
| is the necessary preparation for making music, and therefore daily
"concerts" are an integral part of the… |
| LITHVANIAN FOLK TUNE
SICO!ld luru piano
~:::: I :J: r;1I:1: ::r1 ::1 :J
PILLOW DANCE
"-LI.EGIIO
JOHAIIH STII.AIJ.… |
| Music is best introduced
during the morning. When chil-
dren are still "working," but
the teacher or adult… |
| Details of interpretation are given at the beginning of every rhythm
group. Tempi are indicated by metronome markings. I have… |
| • The music activity session should be planned to include about
eight to twelve pieces. The program of each session should… |
| SINGING
by Jean K. Miller
Dr. Miller's article combines curriculum breadth and philosophical context
with a series of… |
| form
composition
playing instruments
music history
musicliterature
different literary forms
writing
performing (skits,… |
| The songs should have simple melodies so they are easy to sing.
This means that the melody should have a short range of notes… |
| strikes the same bell every time to get the beginning pitch of a song,
some children will take notice and try to play the song… |
| understood that children learn and develop self-control (as part of
normalization) through repeated experiences of deep… |
| • Study of musical form
• Practice in reading musical notation
• Study of dynamics
• Study of melodic design
• Study of… |
| Songs may be chosen from a variety of sources, such as classical
music, folk songs, popular songs, etc., but they should be… |
| children begin to sing a prolonged note on the vowel
sound "o." it is a simple exercise but the children… |
| Change the words to fit the clothing someone in the class is
wearing: "Juan wore his baseball cap ... " You… |
| Other songs may be used in this same way. An example of a song
typically found in a children's music book is "… |
| . Hopefully, the end result of this slow, steady development will be
that children who wish to add words to their own melodies… |