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I' U.K :i. PJ.AINDEALER - LOUISA'S LETTER Dear Louisa, I read your letter about the working and non-working mothers with interest. I usu­ ally am not the type of per­ son to respond to these things, but in this case I felt compelled to write as I my­ self have been on all sides of the issue. I worked for 3 years full time as a profes­ sional nurse in the nursing education department of a facility serving mentally handicapped persons. At the time I had one small child. For 2 years after that I stay­ ed home completely and now I have two more children and have recently' started work­ ing two nights a week on the hospital ward of this same facility. I must point out that when I worked full time it was indeed a stimu­ lating and most fulfilling job. When I quit to raise a fam­ ily I found at first I was quite depressed--then I start­ ed looking at my new role with curiosity. During those two years I rediscovered my lost arts of cooking and sewing and I have discovered many new arts such as gardening, canning, refinishing and re- upholstering furniture. Dur­ ing these two years my hus­ band and I bought a big old delapitated house and this opened a world of decorating and designing to me. Because of this house and my freedom from a job I learned to hang Creative arts play strong role in development wallpaper, put on aluminum siding, how to refinish and repaint woodwork, some car­ pentry and believe it or not I've even done some minor plumbing. Presently, .^working two non-consecutive nights a week hasn't deprived me of being a fulltime mother and housewife. The point I want to make is that I think it is time for people to realize that a woman who stays home, with her family, is certainly as liberated, inter­ esting and fulfilled as the woman who works. When I first quit working I resented being called just a housewife--now I say it proudly. "Women's Lib" has done good as far as job dis­ crimination and equal pay, but at the same time it has inadvertantly made many women feel guilty because they feel more freedom and fulfillment staying home. My answer to the sister-in-law who wants to know which woman is doing the most for her family is this--as long as a woman is happy and contented with her role, she is doing the best that she can for her family and they most certainly will appreci­ ate her for all that she is. J.F.--Ia. Answer: Thanks J.F. for an inter­ esting letter. Louisa. Here at Adelphi University's Children's Centre For Creative Arts, students are provided with the challenge, opportunity and confidence to discover the joy of creating through various art forms. Creating something of one's own is a triumph, a self-satisfaction we deserve and can get no other way. To create is to release, to relieve, and because this is so, art experience has been recognized as therapy. It is an aid to growth, mental health, and learning. * When we use the word "art" here, it is inclusive of all the forms: music, dance, theater, visual art. Native abilities in these arts are apparent in early childhood, but when the actor in a six-year-old ap­ pears, he is told, "Don't be silly;" when a little girl dances to the music she hears, we say, "How cute! Now that's enough" or a parent seizes on these natu­ ral evidences and says "My child is gifted. I must give -him lessons." The lessons are concerned with development of skills and demand practice and time the child is reluctant to give. Sometime the les­ sons kill the natural inter­ est he earlier expressed, and nothing, except per­ haps dislike, comes of the expensive lessons. And so the artist within us is put down and forgot­ ten because the real busi­ ness of life requires practical skills and knowledge! If there were recognition that this power to create rests within all of us and, more than that, that it needs to be used, art ex­ perience could be part of every child's life. Instead, we find an atti­ tude on the part of many adults that art is only for the gifted and a waste of time and money for all others. Few see that developing the artist in each does not mean forsaking the practi­ cal, but contributing to and making the practice of the practical more effective. We find teachers who are not aware of the artist's existence in every child, who do not recognize the artist in themselves. How can they provide opportunities for children to express when they them­ selves are fearful of ex­ pressing? What can be done to change this condition? The obvious answer is a new attitude towards the arts, seeing them as a means to growth and development, not always an end in them­ selves; to see art as neces­ sary for complete education. Art is produced out of feeling, and the education available to our children is concerned with intellect. How can this be complete education when it does not consider the motivating force, feeling? Any kind of personal ex­ pression demands self-dis­ cipline, self-direction, imagination, concentration There must also be convic­ tion that the capacity to express exists. This demands a different kind of teacher preparation -- the opportunity for the student who would be a teacher to first discover his own artistic abilities. He should be helped to see that techniques and mastery of an art form are not es­ sential for the lay artist. Creativity is born in us. It is a common need to impress the self on the environment. If our early efforts to impress by self-expression are discpuraged, scorned, we withdraw, we stop mak­ ing the effort, because the fear of scorn or disapproval is greater than the need Did some grown-up look at the picture you drew when you were six or seven and say, "What's that?" Did a music teacher con­ ducting chorus rehearsal say "Who is that singing off key?" Did you forget your lines in the assembly play? The idea that the lay per­ son, in order to express, must be a skilled craftsman should be scrapped, and the idea that the making of a poem, a song, a dance, a sculpture, is possible for all t-- on one condition. The barriers of fear and inhibi­ tion must be let down. How do these barriers come down? The first step is to recognize what put these barriers up: shatter­ ing failures of all kinds, efforts to express discour­ aged by adults and peers. Second, somebody's con­ fidence that they are re­ movable, and somebody providing the challenge to try again. Then the oppor­ tunity to discover the joy in creating. Because creation does not demand technique, but rather effort and self-disci­ pline, the child or adult would be able to transfer this self-mastery to aca­ demic subjects. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1»7 , His success in the area ol expression would give him confidence to face up to the less attractive forms of learning. (Grace M. S tanis tree t . author of th is ar t ic le , i s Educat ional Consul tant lor The Chi ldren 's Centre Foi Creat ive Ar ts , Adelphi Uni vcrs i ty . Garden Ci ty , New York .* . REMINISCENT OK KAZZMA -JAZZ Reminiscent of the jazz age -- cuff trousers, varsity sweaters and bow ties. And even though that was ages ago in the eyes of today's grade schoolers, they're go­ ing back-to-class or. young men. It's all part of the ne^- separates look for him. MorF sweaters, shirts and sports jackets to layer as fashion dictates and put him out front in fine styles. LOSE THE W E I G H ! Y O U H A T S New cl in ical tests at « major unuesi ty hospi ta l pre , e that t he ODRINEX Plan wi l l help you lose excess weight quickly ODRINEX contains an anwn * hunge r t amer t ha t s j p j r t r . f - appet i te. Enjoy i f ree pood mt-.- i ls fe ' da . as the t iny ODRINEX - target helps you eat less wi thout being hungr, With fewer calor ies, yoi i f w d.-wn Sale taken as directed wih n - make you nervous. Look better, (eel bet ter as y o u s t a r s l immingdown todav w i th ODRINEX Satisfact ion guaranteed or money back MAY'S REXALL DRUG STORK 4400 W. RTE. 120 MAIL ORDERS TILLED Children given the opportunity to explore Biculturalism and bilin- gualism may be big words for small children but chances are that soon both words -- in two languages -- might become part of ev­ ery youngster's vocabulary. Bicultural Children's Tel­ evision, a non-profit organ­ ization based in Oakland, Calif., has produced a 26- week series of dual cultural shows. The shows will evenly blend English and Spanish as they joyfully explore the cultural diversity that forms such an important part of the nation's history and heritage deepening the child's understanding and appreciation of his own cul­ ture. In addition, the series will contain a carefully re­ searched and tested curri­ culum that will offer chil­ dren ample opportunities to develop their mental abilities. Sequences will be filmed in Mexico, Puerto Rico and other parts of Latin Amer­ ica as well as in many areas of the United States. Each of the show's themes is designed to be a means of exploring science, nature, language, music, art, arith­ metic, general concepts, reading and social organi­ zation. College and university administrators have real­ ized for a long time that because of freshman cur­ riculum structures, many students waste time on sub- jects that have already been learned, in depth, dur­ ing their final years of high school. One of the most fre­ quent cases they cite are foreign languages. Perhaps now, with the early emphasis on bicultur­ al and bilingual education paralleling accelerated "in class" instruction, young students will be able to suc­ cessfully accomplish a far greater range of studies. The program is funded by the United States Of­ fice of Education through the National Center for Ed­ ucational Technology and with the Division of Bilin­ gual Education. The daily half-hour pro­ gram is intended for airing by Public Broadcasting Service stations across the country. BEGINNING & ADVANCED Pottery Classes • WHEEL & HAND THROWING TECHNIQUES • GLAZES AND KILN FIRING, ETC. STARTING SEPT. Call 385-8687 CLASSES: TUESDAYS WEDNESDAYS WEDNESDAYS 7 PM TO 10 PM 9 AM TO NOON I PM TO 4 PM CLASSES LIMITED IN SIZE ^asfiLon <SL Final Summer Clearance SALE! AU SUMMER MERCHANDISE THE FASHION SH0PPE 1007 N. FRONT ST. McHENRY (815) 385-7747 DC0S. EQC38G0S PANT* E N T I R E M E N J - W O M E N J » C H i L D f l E M S aasorai CHILDREN S WOME N S MEM'S FAMOUS NAME BRAND *>3 0 A A 0 • # • •• V 0 0 a a o o 35* LRDSTDNE p f 1219 !\orth Green St. Phone 385*0182 MeH enry , I l l ino i s t