Describes a project for preservice art educators where they design their ideal classroom and then build a diorama expressing this vision. The students' ideal schools go through an evolutionary process involving decisions, modifications, and visual risks. Eventually, the dioramas come to express individual philosophies. Includes several…

Assesses the creative writing of 23 black seventh graders enrolled in a weekend science enrichment program to determine their thematic choice, self-expression, career interest, racial/gender identity, and evidence of parental influence and expectations. Analysis revealed few examples of racial or gender issues, but many expressed keen interest in…

This volume presents a collection of 14 articles, written by professionals active in teaching dance to the handicapped. Different approaches, techniques, and philosophies are presented in the following papers: "Dance for the Handicapped: A Mainstreaming Approach" (C. D. Crain); "The Science of the Art of Giving Directions" (M.…

The concept of liberty has been in the forefront of the minds of African Americans ever since the beginning of slavery, and its importance continues to the present. To cope with the inability to achieve complete freedom, and with the oppressive state created by a lack of liberty, they developed ways to express their feelings about the elusiveness…

Educators, dance professionals, and parents express their opinions about the role of dance in the educational curriculum for children and adults. Chapter I discusses the personal, social, and cultural aspects of dance, as well as a justification for including it in the curriculum. Educators are urged to eliminate stereotypic attitudes toward dance…

Composition teachers who ask students to express something worthwhile and then deny them a true voice in which to say it--preferring instead the stiff, empty classroom language of "Engfish"--are to blame for student dissatisfaction and despair. Teachers should begin a writing course with the proper subject--the student--who learns to express…

The existential Gestalt approach to facilitating the human growth process is discussed, from somewhat different vantage points, in these papers. Two seek to elaborate the basic principles and facilitating "techniques" of Gestalt therapy, while maintaining that one can truly understand only by experiencing. The use of Focus Groups, in which a focal…

It is one thing to lament the financial pressures put on universities, quite another to face up to the poverty of resources for thinking about what universities should do when they purport to offer a liberal education. In "Powers of the Mind", former University of Chicago dean Donald N. Levine enriches those resources by proposing fresh…

Self-expression is a key component that adolescents at a certain stage of development (eighth grade) need to be aware of and understand. Students are undergoing dramatic change during this time of their lives--they are moving from Erikson's Industry versus Inferiority stage to Identity versus Role Confusion stage. Poetry is a literary genre in…

Examines a visual art program for at-risk students that attempts to increase self-esteem, stimulate inquiry, and develop critical thinking through art criticism and self- expression. Summarizes the responses of 11 at-risk students and 35 general education college students to the question, "What is art?" (MJP)

Discusses the educational philosophy of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and its impact upon the women of Nigeria and Ghana. This religious instruction allowed them to attain a liberated means of self-expression and leadership faithful to their cultural heritage as African women and their formation as Christians. (MJP)

Traces the development of artistic ability in a six-year-old boy with autism and mild mental retardation. Addresses questions concerning autism and artistic development including whether intellectual realism is a necessary precursor to visual realism and whether a two-dimensional photographic memory is used as opposed to three-dimensional…

Reviews the work of neurobiologist, David Marr, concerning artistic ability and autism. Summarizes Marr's theory of perceptual vision illuminating the relationships among object, observer, perceptual process, and image. Briefly reviews the cases of four autistic people with extraordinary drawing skills. (MJP)

Describes a class project that combines Native American culture, art skills, and cooperative learning. The project involves assigned readings on the history and purpose of the totem pole. Students are then given a set of visuals and work in small groups constructing their own totem poles. (MJP)

It is generally supposed that a curriculum should engage students with worthwhile knowledge, which requires an understanding of what it means for something to be worthwhile: a substantive conception of the good. Yet a number of influential curriculum theories deny or undermine one or another aspect of the key assumption upon which a meaningful…