The Arts... In todays academic races to be the best, the focus on certain, specific aspects of curriculum such as science, technology, math and to a lesser extent language has become stronger and frequently to the exclusion of one or more of the arts... painting, drawing, music, dancing, etc.. Standardized testing typically focuses on the areas of Math and Language further narrowing the view of a students capabilities as a whole. In an authentic Montessori environment, not only do we value those very important more traditional academic areas and hold to standards set, but we consider the arts to be an important part of ones overall academic and personal development as well. Beauty is woven into the other areas of the curriculum with children encouraged to beautify their work (math included!) through the use of color, design and decoration. The arts become a natural part of the environment just as we hope the arts will be a lasting part of their lives far beyond the childrens formal educational years. When we guide the children, we never know if we have the next Bill Gates, the next Baryshnikov, the next Van Gogh, the next Pythagoras, the next Coco Chanel, the next Einstein, the next Jane Goodall, or the next Stevie Wonder sitting before us, so we must nurture and support all areas of knowledge allowing the children to explore and discover their own unique passion and purpose while ensuring that they have the foundation they need to be successful. We, therefore, raise the standard on our expectations for our students on their experience with and appreciation of the arts. In the video posted here, the students had received a lesson on music and became interested in composing their own music. Using symbols, they composed a piece with their instruments and then practiced and performed their piece!
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 15:43:48 +0000
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