Claudia MacPhee on sun 20 dec 09
When I have the after school pottery group I often have parents dropping=
=3D
by and trying out clay work. We have lots of younger women in our communit=
=3D
y with substance abuse issues and I always try to encourage them to come in=
=3D
and make things. It really helps them feel better about themselves when th=
=3D
ey make something nice. Usually I get their own kids to teach them. I even =
=3D
have some of the little ones teaching their grandmothers.
The worst people of all to come by and try to make things are the teache=
=3D
rs. They never ask the kids to show them. Even though I keep telling them t=
=3D
o watch the kids they never do. And they drive me crazy by constantly askin=
=3D
g me "Are you sure this is the RIGHT way?" I always say no=3D2C there are a=
s =3D
many ways to do this as there are people=3D2C experiment and find the one t=
ha=3D
t works the best for you. They are terrified they might fail.
This Fall we had a new LA that wanted to come and learn to throw. I spen=
=3D
t all my time with her....it wasn't instant (we all know how that goes) so =
=3D
she went on to hand building. The Kindergarten teacher came by to kibitz an=
=3D
d watch the show. She could see that my usually infinite patience was runni=
=3D
ng out and was trying to keep from laughing. Finally she piped up and said =
=3D
"Come by tommorrow and watch the K-4's=3D2C you'll learn everything you nee=
d =3D
to know about making pottery". Don't think she got it=3D2C but we had a goo=
d =3D
laugh. Except it was true. If those teachers paid some attention to the kid=
=3D
s learning they could learn something themselves.
Claudia MacPhee Tagish=3D2C Yukon
www.paintedbyfire.blogspot.com
=3D20
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Windows Live: Make it easier for your friends to see what you=3D92re up to =
on=3D
Facebook.
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3D3D9691816=3D
Dannon Rhudy on sun 20 dec 09
Claudia wrote:
........Kindergarten teacher came by to kibitz and watch the show. She
could see that my usually infinite patience was running out .......she
piped up and said
"Come by tommorrow and watch the K-4's, you'll learn everything you need t=
o
know....
It is quite literally true that we can learn things from watching
children. A famous American psychiatrist -Milton Erickson -
got polio when he was an adolescent. He was unable to move
for a very long time, and spent much of his time lying on his
stomach on a bed, head hanging over the end. He'd nothing
to do, and began to watch his infant brother (or maybe sister)
as the baby struggled to learn to scoot, and then to crawl and
then to walk. Erickson decided he would copy the baby as
nearly as he could......and he did. It took months of relentless
effort, but by dint of following the baby, doing (or trying to do)
what it did - he eventually taught himself to crawl and then
to walk and finally to run. Apparently it surprised everyone,
but when he wrote about it later in life he was very matter-
of-fact about it. He believed that if he'd not had the
example of the baby, he might not ever have walked again,
as no one seemed to think he would; they tried to put him
on crutches to start, and that did not work. He needed, in
his opinion, a visual example of what could be achieved, and
it needed to begin at the beginning - so to speak.
It is also true that beginners in any area are often afraid to
"make a mistake". The most laborious and time consuming
thing for me when teaching drawing was to convince the
students that it was ok to make a "wrong" mark. It embarrassed
them, and it took a lot of practice for them to realize that
mistakes are in fact how we learn. If we do something right
without any effort or any error - we have not learned anything
at all. We are merely replicating what we already know.
regards - and Merry Christmas.
Dannon Rhudy
Arnold Howard on mon 21 dec 09
> "Come by tommorrow and watch the K-4's, you'll learn
> everything you need to
> know....
------------
Children are remarkably perceptive. They stay that way into
adulthood when given encouragement and respect. When my son
was small, I conversed with him the same way I did with
adults.
Sincerely,
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com
Vince Pitelka on tue 22 dec 09
Arnold Howard wrote:
"Children are remarkably perceptive. They stay that way into adulthood when
given encouragement and respect. When my son was small, I conversed with hi=
m
the same way I did with adults."
Arnold -
My own dear father was an Eastern European disciplinarian, and he was prett=
y
much the master of the house in every way. I learned a lot from him, often
from his mistakes. When we were raising our son, Morgan, he was always an
important participant in dinner table conversations, and his opinions alway=
s
mattered. When my dad was visiting, this drove him crazy. One time he too=
k
me aside and said "You need to get your son to keep quiet when adults are
having a conversation." Of course I disagreed. We did everything we could
to encourage his curiosity and inquiry. Later, when my son became a
confident, smart, personable grown-up, he got along great with my dad. One
day my dad actually brought up that earlier incident, and admitted that he
had been wrong. I wish he had realized that 25 years earlier, but since I
did learn from his mistakes, I shouldn't complain.
It will be fun to see what becomes of Kelly's kids. That's a perfect
example of kids raised in a household where knowledge is fun and curiosity
and inquiry are always encouraged. I have really enjoyed her tales of
exploits with her kids over the years. I would love to have been a kid in
her household. Is it too late?
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net; wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka
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