Artistic activities as a pedagogical tool

The art of educating with art

by Rubens Salles

In Waldorf Pedagogy, art is confused with pedagogy itself. According to Zimmermann (1), “the art of educating, as a social art, encompasses all the other arts and needs them as a means”. The concept of education as a social work of art comprises the way the teacher acts among students, in order to promote the flow and harmony of relationships and the harmonious development of their human capacities to think, feel and want/act. Like all art, it requires knowledge, sensitivity and action.

Lanz draws attention to the fact that intellectualism is dominating education and scientific subjects. According to him, modern man, consciously or not, gives an exaggerated importance to abstraction, formula, quantification and technology, to the detriment of a broader approach, which includes aesthetic experiences and non-mechanistic thoughts. He maintains that “the children who live in this environment are shaped by its influence. Hence the tendency towards an atrophy of his total personality and a narrowing of his way of thinking.” For this reason, artistic, manual or bodily subjects, which stimulate the student to action and sensations, have great pedagogical and therapeutic value when exercised regularly, as he needs to be able to create something that is the result of his fantasy, using his will, perseverance, psychomotor coordination and aesthetic sense.(2)

The art of educating is based on the knowledge of the laws that govern the development of the human being, and must allow students to build a living relationship with the curricular contents. Clouder considers that the art of educating consists in the ability to awaken knowledge for life. The author maintains that even before the child begins to understand the world in a conscious way, he already perceives it through his feelings. “For her, the aesthetic meaning of the classes is as important as their content, and this should be considered an essential element in all education.”(3)

Thus, we consider that both the school and the classroom must constitute an aesthetic environment. The color of the building, the paintings and drawings of the students on the walls, the arrangement of the furniture, the teacher's drawings on the blackboard, the students' notebooks, the way in which the teacher presents himself and acts towards the students, all these elements arouse considerations. of an aesthetic order.

“Children look, observe and learn! Not only does the content of learning affect them, but also the overall experience. It is necessary to be aware that the child himself is an artist who constantly works on the development of his own body and its abilities. In the period between 7 and 14 years old, the child converts all interactions with the environment into an inner image and, therefore, the teacher must be able to respond, not only in intellectual terms, but also in artistic terms.”(4) Christopher Clouder

The realization of teaching with an aesthetic sense, and structured with artistic activities, passes through the artistic training of the teacher. It is a difficult process for some, already very hardened, but realizing how much working with art strengthens their self-esteem, the teacher comes to believe in the benefit of these activities for their students. According to Craemer, “the great obstacles to our social performance are our prejudices, our rigid way of seeing things, our hardened habits of behavior. Artistic practice has the power to set our internal rigidities in motion, to make us lighter, more flexible, more tolerant. Furthermore, it gives us pleasure and elevates our soul through beauty.”(5)

Therefore, the formation of a Waldorf teacher is also an artistic formation. Although in a Waldorf school there is a manual work teacher – who usually teaches sculpture, painting, woodworking, etc. the subjects.

These activities are essential for the teacher to be able to rhythmically organize his classes and make them interesting and meaningful. He needs to know how to perform a rhythm exercise, sing, recite a poem, paint with watercolors, draw on the blackboard, tell a story or stage a small theatrical play, in order to teach his students. Therefore, teacher training is essential so that he can be able to use these activities as didactic tools. Although the challenge is not small, the results it brings, both for the education of its students and for the teacher's self-esteem, are valuable and effective. Thus, teachers have their didactic repertoire enriched and learn to teach in a “live” way, which makes their work more pleasant and productive.

The Waldorf school teaches arts from both artistic currents – plastic-pictorial and poetic-musical. They have different meanings: while the plastic-pictorial works more towards the individualization of man, the poetic-musical works towards socialization, and precisely because of this they complement each other. When a child makes a painting or a sculpture, his individual will is being worked on, and when he performs or sings together with his peers, his sociability is what walks through art.

Next, we will discuss the artistic activities that children carry out at the Waldorf school.

Bibliography

1. ZIMMERMANN, Heinz. The Forces that Drive Education. 1997, p. 15.
2. LANZ, Rudolph. The Waldorf Pedagogy.1990, p. 116.
3. MCALICE, Jon and GÖBEL, Nana, et al (Coord.) – Christopher Clouder. Waldorf Pedagogy .1994, p. 34.
4. Idem op. cit., MCALICE, Jon and GÖBEL, Nana, et al (Coord.) – Christopher Clouder. for. 35.
5. Verbal information transmitted in São Paulo, 2008.

***