Attempts to explain Claude Monet's obsession with water lilies in the last 25 years of his life through an interdisciplinary approach combining ideas from the history of landscape design, social history, and anthropology. Offers Monet's gardens at Giverny (France), his series paintings, and the railroad as some possible influences on his painting.…

Presents a workbook extract from the teaching resource kit entitled "Land and Landscapes: Views of America's History and Culture" that examines landscape paintings and photographs from the 19th century to the present. Explains that the main focus of this extract is to question how European American views about landownership affected…

Describes the objectives, methodology, and resources for a college German course, taught in English, that examines the concept of "outsider" and is aimed at fostering critical thinking, ethical relations, and understanding of contexts. It traces representations of cultural groups in literature and the visual arts. Students learn to question…

Describes an honors-level fine arts seminar that culminates in the creation of an 'unnamed' object. Stresses direct manipulation of materials leading to works free of conceptual pre-determination. Argues that naming follows creation; leaving a work unnamed allows artists to experience the dynamic of creation. (NB)

Describes the work of art titled "Aftermath" by Michael Olszewski, who has described it as the aftermath of intense anger. Includes background information on Olszewski. Includes activities in science and chemistry, art history, social studies/psychology, mathematics, visual arts, and language arts. (CMK)

The brain is a truly fascinating structure! It controls the body and allows everyone to think, learn, speak, move, feel, remember, and experience emotions. Although the brain is a single organ, it is very complex and has several regions, each having a specific function. These functionally diverse regions work together to allow for coordination of…

This article, which is a revised version of a paper presented at the XXIV World Congress of OMEP conference in Melbourne in July 2004, reports on a study that explored young children's (5-9 years) vision of their future environment in South Africa--as temporal dimension, illustrating their conceptual understanding of this concept. A sample of 320…

How can spiritual development be fostered in a manner that respects students from backgrounds of various faith traditions? The author describes a program that nurtures holistic growth in a school serving troubled students. Youth participate in a "ministry arts" program combining creative visual arts, music, adventure education, service projects,…

This case study focuses on one student as she engaged in a general education art course that integrated visual art, writing, and expressive movement. In the beginning of the semester, this elementary education major had little interest or experience in the arts. Over the semester, however, she moved from being resistant and fearful of art to being…

Ludwig Wittgenstein's thought embraces two complementary projects: what he called his therapeutic work which was aimed at treating philosophical questions as though they were an illness, and his reconstructive work which emerges from this therapeutic endeavor. Wittgenstein describes his therapeutic work as an exercise that involves destroying…

This article presents a series of experiential exercises designed to use visual arts and poetry in classroom settings to increase students' awareness and recognition of emotion--two key components of emotional intelligence. Drawing on the liberal arts in the manner described in the exercises provides the instructor with a context in which students…

This paper presents primitive states of mind in an adopted child, which had been engendered by traumatic experiences in infancy and early childhood. Vignettes from her therapy illustrate difficulties in learning, speech and interaction, which were inhibiting her relationships with her adopted family from developing. The development of…

Two linked courses examining conservation science and art history of 17th-century Dutch painting are described. The two courses have been taught on campus and, most recently, as study-abroad courses in collaboration with the Center for European Studies, Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands. The highly interdisciplinary courses are intense, yet…

The articles in this volume reflect a resolution passed by the International Society for Education Through Art (INSEA) World Council to provide children with opportunities to work in the arts so that the healing process that the arts can foster can be initiated. The lead article in this issue, "Heart Goes towards the Sun: Work with Children…

An ethnographic study documented and analyzed the idiosyncratic symbols kindergarten children employ to encode their experiences in the domains of mathematics, music, and visual art, in order to identify any patterns in use and meaning. In the area of mathematics, children were given common objects and asked to sort them. Four categories of…