As a teacher who believes that children deserve and should receive the finest education available in the country, I feel that people who care about education should know of the teaching method that can enable that to happen. 

That method is the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel as Teaching Method. 

I am a New York City junior high school teacher who for more than 11 years has taught students with severe behavioral problems. After nine years of teaching, and winning a teaching award from the American Heart Association and a graduate fellowship from the New York State Department of Education, I was burning out. I'm so glad that at a time when I was thinking of leaving teaching I attended a seminar on the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel as Teaching Method. After the seminar, I had new hope that I could finally help my students achieve their academic potential. 

I began my study and use of the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method in the fall of 1997, and it is my professional opinion that this is the world's finest teaching method. It has increased the success I have had with my students in ways that are far beyond my greatest expectations. 

After only one semester of studying and applying the principles of this great teaching method, my students began to learn more, classwork improved, homework was increasingly turned in and there were fewer classroom disruptions. Through the school year my effectiveness as a teacher continued, and in June I received the finest formal evaluation in my professional career. 

This teaching method is scientifically exact and kind. It is based on this landmark principle stated by Eli Siegel, the great American educator, and founder of Aesthetic Realism: "The world, art and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." 

When a teacher uses this method, students learn in a profound way because they see that the subject being taught has an aesthetic structure that can be understood and liked, and that this same structure is in themselves and in the world. 

Eli Siegel also described the main cause of all learning difficulties as contempt, which he defined as the "disposition in every person to think he will be for himself by making less of the outside world." When the teaching method is used, students increasingly choose to respect their subjects, rather than having contempt for the knowledge they are receiving and fighting with their classmates or teachers. 

As an example of how I have used the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method, I will describe a lesson I taught in the spring of 1998. Freedom and order are opposites and are extremely important in every person's life, particularly adolescents. A teenager can feel very uncertain about what it means to be free and orderly at the same time. 

In a junior high school physical education class I spoke about these in a basketball game. Before the game I told my students that for a game of basketball to be played well, players had to have freedom and order working in a good relationship. I explained that they had the freedom to make creative decisions about playmaking and individual moves, but had to play in an orderly manner; which meant adhering to the rules of the game and respecting the opposing players. 

I also spoke about the upcoming vacation when they would have much more freedom, but that they needed to act in an orderly manner to avoid getting into fights with other children, or possibly have trouble with the law. As a result of my talking about the opposites of freedom and order in a basketball game and in their lives the game that followed was thrilling, the level of play improved and the sportsmanship displayed was excellent. 

The Aesthetic Realism teaching method is taught in bi-monthly workshop classes at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation in New York City. I love attending these workshops, which are always exciting, vibrant and of the highest educational value. 

The success I am having as a result of using this revolutionary teaching method can be had by any teacher at any level who chooses to study it. I am convinced that this is the teaching method that will enable students to learn in schools throughout this country. 

I will always be grateful to Eli Siegel for his immense scholarship, and to the teachers of the Aesthetic Realism as Teaching Method Workshop for the increasing success that I am seeing in my students and the pride and excitement I am now having as an educator. Teachers everywhere would feel as I do, and countless numbers of students would be succeeding instead of failing in our schools, were this method better known. But the Aesthetic Realism teaching method, with increasingly important exceptions, has been boycotted by persons in the press and academia. 

You may learn more about the method on the web at: www.AestheticRealism.org. 

Jeffrey Williams is a special education teacher in the Bronx.

Jeffrey Williams played ice hockey for CCNY, and at that time he was the only black player in the league.  He won a graduate fellowship from the New York State Department of Education and a teaching award from the American Heart Association.  He has taught Special Education for more than 11 years (9 in the South Bronx).  A former union representative and current delegate for the United Federation of Teachers, he has represented the UFT in selecting mentors for new teachers for the New York City Board of Education.