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Aesthetic Realism Foundation home pageTHE DEMING |
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The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method
In my fourth year of teaching, I can honestly say I love my job. I am fortunate to be learning how to use the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method, based on the philosophy founded by the great American educator Eli Siegel. This method has been tested in A science lesson I taught on light and color, and others like it, enabled my students, in the 3rd grade in East Harlem, New York, who had been angry and failing, to see that the world they were confused by has a sensible, wonderful structure: it puts opposites together. With this principle by Eli Siegel as my basis: "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites," my students learned that science is not a cold, complicated subject, but about a world they meet every day. My students come from many different backgrounds. I've seen them come to school cold and hungry because their parents didn't have enough money. I am furious at our cruel profit economy, which causes children across I saw that these children were making an understandable but dangerous choice: to feel the whole world is an impossible mess, and that they are right to have contempt for it. This desire to have contempt, to get an "addition to self through the lessening of something else," is, Eli Siegel showed, the biggest enemy of learning. Learning to criticize my contempt in Aesthetic Realism consultations was crucial to my life and my professional development. In September, students would call out during lessons and make fun of each other. John Banks looked ashamed coming late every day. Tyquane Williams, a strong young man, hit students. I have learned that the deepest desire in every person is to like the outside world. It is the greatest opponent to contempt. Eli Siegel stated: "The purpose of education is to like the world" (Self and World, p. 5). In the "Aesthetic Realism Manifesto about Education" there are these sentences:
A unit in the science curriculum is the study of light and color. We did experiments to see how rainbows are made. I wrote on the board: "Rainbows are one and many; hidden and shown." I asked if they saw what was hidden as friendly or unfriendly. Raynett Singleton said "Unfriendly." Manuel said, "Yeah, you think maybe it's bad when you don't see it." I asked them: "Do you feel what you don't know about yourself is friendly or unfriendly?" Shandell White said, "You may not want to know about that stuff—scary." I asked: "What is the color of light?" Jesus, who had never talked above a whisper, or smiled—raised his hand for the first time, looked at the light shining on the windowsill and said, "I think it is white with a little yellow." I asked, "Could there be other colors hidden in that light?" We read these sentences from "What Is Color?" by Neil Ardley: "All light rays contain color—the white light from the sun actually contains all the colors of the rainbow." We listed the colors they had seen in a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Scientists call these colors the spectrum. We saw photographs of rainbows. I asked: "Are we seeing many colors in the arc of one rainbow?" They said, "Yes!" I asked if they had anything in common with rainbows—"Are you each one person with many thoughts and feelings?" "Yes." "Is this true of other people, too?" They began looking at each other with wonder. To show how many colors are all within one beam of white light, I took a prism, a flashlight, and a piece of white paper and asked the class to watch closely and to write down their observations. I said the prism will represent raindrops, and the flashlight, sun rays. As I shined a flashlight on the prism, and moved the prism back and forth slightly, many students began to exclaim, "I see color!" "What colors?" I asked. Tyquane said, "There's yellow." Jerome White said, "I see orange." Raynette said, "There's blue and green too!" And Darrell who had been so angry, joined them eagerly, "There's red!" John Banks added, "Look, they're in the same order like the rainbows in the photographs!" "Yes," I said. And they were amazed to learn that the colors of every rainbow in the world are always in the same order. After the experiments, the students wrote their conclusions. John Banks observed: "I saw that all those colors came out of that white light from the prism." I asked: "Does the world look more friendly as you see that what is hidden in white light are these colors?" They all replied "Yes!" I asked, "Do you think what you don't know about yourself could also be better than you thought?" Darrell readily said "Yes!" Others agreed. Through the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method, the students were seeing the practical, beautiful answer to the question: "Education—What For?" It is to see meaning in the world. When I asked them to write why they thought learning facts about light and color was important, they were all eager to do it. Rochelle Saxon wrote: "We learned there can be beauty in what we can't see and what we can see in the world and ourselves." Manuel wrote: "I learned that all the colors of the rainbow are hiding inside the light of the sun." Children who had been so against learning were now so eager to know more because they liked the world more, and they became kinder to each other. To know more about the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method, visit www.AestheticRealism.org. |
Aesthetic Realism Foundation
A not-for-profit educational foundation