The new term begins next Saturday (May 17th). As a teacher for over twenty-five years now, I believe that this is the best way to improve one's teaching. This method enables you to see fresh meaning in the subject (s) you teach and in your own pupils. Whether you teach history, English, maths, biology, music, physical education, computer science, art -- whatever it is, you'll do it better as you learn how that subject puts together opposites that every pupil and every teacher wants to put together in our lives. "The world, art, and self explain each other," Eli Siegel taught, "each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." Find out what this means for the classroom at: http://www.aestheticrealism.org/Education_link.htm
Find out about the class in New York City where this method is taught at:
http://www.aestheticrealism.org/Aesthetic_Realism_Classes/brochure.htm#Education
And here is the information about how to register for classes in education, music, the visual arts, anthropology, poetry, and more:
http://www.aestheticrealism.org/Aesthetic_Realism_Classes/class-information.htm
Archives for: 2008
The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method workshop
Eli Siegel, Aesthetic Realism, and Ellen Reiss---more information
(To read about the teaching method scroll down to the bottom)
Introductory:
Aesthetic Realism was founded by Eli Siegel in 1941. It is based on the principle "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." Eli Siegel, who was a poet, talked about the meaning and beauty of poetry in such a way that his students felt he was explaining things they didn't understand about themselves, as he was discussing poems of the world. They asked him if he would speak to them directly about their own lives. He did, and that is how Aesthetic Realism lessons came to be. In a lesson, a person was seen in relation to the world, as related to characters in fiction, to world history and culture, as having a dimension and depth much greater than they themselves had seen. Aesthetic Realism consultations, which are given in person and long-distance, are based on Aesthetic Realism lessons. For instance, in my first consultation, my life was seen in relation to the Kafka short novel "The Trial," and to the character of Puck from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, also to the history of England. I began to learn how to see the world, including people, in a way that I could be proud of--and I began to learn how to criticise my desire to have contempt for the world, to make less of other things and people in order to feel like a prince. That, I learned, was the thing that had been interfering with my life.
I'm including these links below so that you can find out more about Aesthetic Realism for yourself. Some of them are links for teachers and parents about education:
Eli Siegel's Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? For visual artists and anyone interested in beauty.
One of my favourite links is to syndicated columnist Alice Bernstein. Her writing against racism has Aesthetic Realism as its basis.
Artist and teacher Marcia Rackow on 'Wonder and Matter-of-fact Meet': the Imagination of Beatrix Potter.
Injustice can certainly be based on race, but it can also be based simply on seeing another person's way of meeting the world as different from one's own, and therefore less valuable. And about this, a person can be monumentally wrong. A classic instance of this in literary history is taken up by Ellen Reiss in relation to the great poet John Keats. And she shows the immediate relevance of this mis-seeing to our own lives and time.
Read Ms. Reiss's critical observations about the poetry of Robert Burns (one of my favourite poets). She shows how relevant what Burns was writing about 200 years ago is to what is going on today. His poetry has the terrifically just way of seeing people that is needed by government leaders and every one of us.
See the amazing essay of art criticism, Simplicity and Complexity: Roy Lichtenstein's “Stepping Out” (scroll down). Also read articles about the opposites of Comfort and Justice, Coldness and Warmth, in a man's life, at union offical and Aesthetic Realism associate Steve Weiner's webblog--plus the essay "The Pleasure and Perils of Conceit."
The Aesthetic Realism Online Library has poems, lectures, reviews, essays, and selections from other major works by Eli Siegel. There are also articles in the press and media about the founder of Aesthetic Realism.
"The Dark that Was Is Here" is one of the poems I love most. some other poems by Mr. Siegel that have to do particularly with education and children are "Dear Birds, Tell This to Mothers," "Twenty-one Distichs about Children," and the remarkable, award-winning poem "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana." Aesthetic Realism: A New Perspective for Anthropology & Sociology is the website of celebrated cultural anthropologist and novelist Arnold Perey, PhD.
At Aesthetic Realism Resources there are articles on many subjects that concern people today such as love, self-expression, current events, economics, the arts, racism and much, much more.
The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known is the international periodical read by everyone who wants to understand what is going on in America and the world today. Edited by Ellen Reiss, The Right Of serialises lectures by Eli Siegel and shows how they comment on current events such as the unprecedented growth of personal debt as well as our own questions and hopes as individuals.
See photographs with moving commentary and technical insight at Len Bernstein: Photographic Education Based on the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel
Important writings on economics, history, the questions of women, art, literature and more can be seen at Lynette Abel: Aesthetic Realism and Life.
The website of Aesthetic Realism Consultant Miriam Mondlin is here: Aesthetic Realism Encourages Self-Expression
For teachers especially, I suggest you get to know the work of noted educators Rosemary Plumstead and Donita Ellison. They are two of the finest teachers I've ever known.
More articles for and by teachers--The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method
To see what Aesthetic Realism is--and what it is not--see the website devoted to accuracy, honesty, justice--the plain truth!: Countering the Lies.
How I Learned about the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method -- plus resources
I remember, as a very new and rather frustrated teacher, attending the Aesthetic Realism teaching method workshop for the first time. I saw myself as an educated person but I had never heard anyone talk about English, maths, biology, history, music, and other subjects, with such passion and at the same time such knowledge and care for detail. Thank you, Benedicte Caneill, for telling me about this workshop and urging me to go! Merci!
I had some very good teachers at school, including dear Hubert Moore, who taught me so much about Shakespeare, and who encouraged me to think for myself. At Oxford I was aware of being in a place of great knowledge and tradition, but either because of me or my teachers, or probably both, I never felt inspired to love the subject. On the contrary, there was a great deal of restraint and lack of passion.
But in the workshop I attended early in 1982 the teachers talked not only about the subjects, but also about the education of children with a conviction, kindness, and understanding I had never seen. What they taught was based on this principle by Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism: "The purpose of education is to like the world."
I was sceptical, and I had never heard of Aesthetic Realism before. I had also spent a number of years feeling that I was more sensitive than other people, and too good for this world. This, I learned, was contempt, the building up of myself by making less of other things. I got a false sense of importance from denigrating other things and people, and it stopped me from seeing things truly. When the teachers at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation talked about contempt as the greatest interference with a child's learning I could relate to that because I realised that contempt was the biggest reason why I wasn't more thrilled by the subects I studied at Oxford, and couldn't remember much of what I read.
Then they explained that every subject is aesthetic -- it puts together opposites, the same opposites that are one in a beautiful composition of music! That's why we should learn anything. The principle they quoted is "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." For instance, they showed that in an algegraic equation like
7x - 6 = 15
there is what we know, 6, 15, and the fact that 7 is multiplied by a certain number to make 15 -- and also the unknown. x! The process you go through as you solve the equation involves going from the unknown to the known, the solution. (I don't remember if that was the equation they used). Doesn't great music always have the known and unknown? -- something we can count on, a rhythm, key perhaps, and also something unexpected? Even if you've heard it 50 times before, there is still something mysterious, something that does something to us. This is very swift and rough and does not do justice to what I heard that day, but I hope you get the point.
Every English sentence is a thrilling oneness of rest and motion. The noun represents rest, the verb, motion. Take the sentence "The skinny black cat chased his brother all over the house." "The skinny black cat" isn't in motion on his own. Think of that phrase alone and you can see it's sort of stuck. The "chased" (with the words that follow) brings him to life and gets him into action. This is true even with sentences that don't use "action" verbs.
For examples of how different subjects put together opposites I am going to give some links to the work of different educators who use this teaching method. Included are links to the Aesthetic Realism Foundation's education website and also articles I wrote on biology and history.
Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method workshop
Lessons and articles that demonstrate this method
Science teacher Rosemary Plumstead
Flutist Barbara Allen on Music and more
Leila Rosen on English -- including Poetry, Reading, and more
Alan Shapiro writes on Music Education
Christopher Balchin on Vivaldi and what Aesthetic Realism is
The website of Ann Richards and myself-- education articles
Lecture by Eli Siegel, "Educational Method Is Poetic"
"Aesthetic Realism Can End Racism"
Benedicte Caneill -- Geology and Life
Lauren Phillips -- elementary education -- Listening, Reading, & "Charlotte's Web"
Helena Simon -- elementary education -- Sunflowers & Density (physics)
Professor Edward Green -- Music, Composition, & much more
And this is a link to the kindest and deepest work about children that I have ever read: The Child, by Eli Siegel. See for yourself.