This reprint of a 1938 article presents a plea for art education by American artist Grant Wood. Wood says that all children need the opportunity to express themselves in drawing and painting in order to be happy. He explains the importance of teaching expression through art rather than teaching art techniques. (SM)

This case study describes Rosemary Crossley's facilitated communication method, which enables certain autistic people to communicate via an electronic device. Controversies surrounding the method and challenges to assumptions about autism are explored. (SK)

Describes how the author, influenced by Celtic, Trajan, and contemporary alphabets, created his own alphabet. Discusses the developmental drawing process, color determinations, and how he created his final large scale letter forms in plywood. Outlines how students can adopt these ideas to develop their own alphabet. (KM)

Describes how a second-grade class used large templates to draw and paint five-digit numbers. The lesson integrated artistic knowledge and vocabulary with their mathematics lesson in place value. Students learned how draftspeople use templates, and they studied number paintings by Charles Demuth and Jasper Johns. (KM)

Outlines the life of Henri Matisse and how he created his paper cut-outs, which were reproduced in a book. Discusses the importance of artists' books. Suggests some creative activities for all grades in book making and paper cut-outs that could be worked in conjunction with a language arts program. (KM)

Of 100 child psychiatric inpatients (ages 6-12), those who reported externalizing their anger rated their families significantly lower on accord and reported poorer social support, whereas children who reported holding in their anger rated their families higher on pride and cohesiveness and reported more available social support. (Author/JDD)

Argues that the pedagogy of self-expression is conceptually confused and internally inconsistent, insensitive to class and cultural differences within American society, and a symptom of the malady of postmodern emptiness. The author uses fieldwork vignettes to introduce a Japanese approach to dealing with children's expressions of feelings.…

Four class activities for French language instruction are described, including a crossword puzzle exercise emphasizing French culture, use of films for developing a variety of language skills, techniques for helping students discuss others' ideas, and an exercise promoting discussion through photographs of older adults engaged in various…

Teacher ratings of the social skills of 98 preschool children with learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, or normal achievement on the Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory indicated significant group differences on the express, comply, and prosocial factors, but not on the disrupt factor. (Author/JDD)

Discusses how gifted students can experience the musical and pictorial magic of language through storytelling. Techniques and activities to be used in the general classroom or gifted pull-out programs are presented for sharing personal expression, the joy of language, and new styles of thought and expression. (CR)

This qualitative study investigated the lived experience of depression in 10 gifted adolescents. Analysis of in-depth unstructured interviews revealed the gifted adolescent's absolute need for knowledge, for communion, and for expression. The gifted adolescent is at risk for depression when any or all of these needs are stymied. (Author/DB)

Explores student motivations for reading and how school library media specialists can facilitate long-term reading motivation. Discusses extrinsic and intrinsic motivations; media center-sponsored book celebrations; library instruction; curricular integration; and self-expression. A sidebar relates the experiences of an elementary school…

Describes a fourth-grade art activity inspired by Cochiti Pueblo Indian Helen Cordero's Storyteller figures and also gives historical background of the figures. Explains that students created a personal storyteller figure that told about ideas or things important to them. Provides an understanding of the artmaking process from idea to product.…

A 1996 study attributed adolescent remedial readers' low comprehension to poor motivation, lack of experience, and egocentricity. Secondary teachers can help by connecting reading assignments to real-world learning experiences, providing self-directed activities, and inviting collaborative learning and varied self-expression. A San Diego program…

Gilligan's work at Harvard University has centered about the study of female thinking and moral decision making. She and her colleagues tried to repair the omission of girls' voices from the psychological literature. She is currently studying boys' narrowed self-expression and wants schools to amplify children's voices. (MLH)