brain, hands and the arts!

It has been a busy summer at ESSA with kids arts, and adult classes in a variety of subjects ranging from jewelry making to water color. We added a new opportunity this season, a special class for teachers concerning how to create classroom learning activities compatible with what we have been learning about the brain.

Schools, like most of modern life, have become left-brain dominant, and it seems that the arts, physical education and music are the keys to reintegration of left and right brains, restoring balance to the whole child. While this might seem to be a "no-brainer", there is actually a huge amount of evidence to prove the concept, and we are poised on the edge of an educational revolution, provided we can shake the common mindset and embrace what brain science has told us about how we learn. You can read more about the brain, hands and the arts class at Doug Stowe's blog, Wisdom of the Hands.

The class was taught by Dr. Peggy Kjelgaard, ESSA director, and Doug Stowe, woodworking teacher at Clear Spring School This was our first attempt at teaching a subject that balanced both academic and "hands-on" learning and you can see from the images above that we did our homework.