“Boundary, Boundary, Boundary,
Bright in the dark and in the light
Nothing passes through this line
unless they be friends of mine.”
We used to play this game in kindergarten and grade one. Pretending there isa bigcircle of light keeping us safe inside. Repeating the same theme almost every day during morning tea time. Every child likes repetition because it serves as the avenue for perfecting a particular skill. A mental, physical and metaphorical skill.
In each day the circle becomes precise and wider. Savoured each time a circle is drawn on the pavement with chalk. I feel the circle forming inside my heart. The essence of the archetypal form lives above physical reality.
Yehey! It’s a beautiful circle today. We all cried out.
The unbounded properties of a circle is grasped not with too many words. It offered the fullness of perspective that is not relative to something or someone. A world that is whole.
The paradoxes of inner and outer space marked by a line creating polar conditions that germinate extraordinary potentials. Inner conditions that is awakened by outer conditions/forces. Outer conditions that change as a response to inner forces. It is the play of these forces that eventually brings out to light the creative possibility of any child. The truths of our potential are often revealed in a paradox.
Space outside and Space inside offered a different experience of fun and excitement. Then the limits and potential of parallel realities begin to unfold. The relationship between inner and outer forces. The weaving of energies which is essential
in understanding physics came to a forefront. Participating with all of Life uncut rules a child’s active life. Breathing in and breathing out. Expanding and collapsing inward was a lesson on life’s dimension.
Space and Sound is a beautiful reality. I liked the sound of laughter as it resonates in the hallway. The louder the better as we feel ourselves fill the space around us. Counting. . . . counting as my voice travels the hallway.
Space teaches security in enclosure and vastness of open. What is collective and singular became apparent. It raises your consciousness as it heightens your awareness of what is in and what is outside. Yet as the games begin and roll, a child manages a multi-sensorial experience and find balance to safely secure her position in the circle.
The significance of inside and outside. Learning to hold still while inside and learning to reach out to take what is inside from the outside.
Play is a way to learn. Moving our bodies in space and time enhances the relationship between spatial and intellectual sense awareness that provides a good foundation for understanding higher abstract reasoning. Learning activities must be fun and simple. To speak in the language understood by children is to restore Play in the child’s world.
Children at play recreate their own realities. Their troubles and fears, joys and successes are seen through games. Children must be able to play at all times. It is the prelude to adult life. Life skills are learned through play. A child sees life spontaneously unfiltered by rose coloured glasses.
Playtime is a creative space for every child. These are precious moments where new
discoveries are born and new avenues of Creating Art are invented. Bridging the artistic, the creative and the scientific is a matter of play.
At times we become so convinced with our own methods that we fail to recognize what children have to offer. In respecting ingenuity then we must give liberty a space to thrive. Freedom that is purposive.
We are always looking for the innovative techniques to bring in fresh knowledge. We search for concrete achievement that we tend to focus on the perfection of measurable outcome. We encourage our students to recreate a given project equally superb and tend to forget that Art cannot be a replica of something because it ceases to become Art.
In the absence of variety everything is a monotony – a regurgitated form of the previous one preceding your project. What a child need is the space and time necessary to emulate the creative process.
A valuable work has the capacity to stand alone.
Education that leads to inner freedom is to liberate the child from leaning on old and worn structures which may not be appropriate to him or applicable in his time. Education evolves into something. It is also best to remember that we can only be a teacher up until a certain extent.
As educators, knowledge simply passes through us, it cannot be contained. __________________________________________________________________
Maria Lourdes de Vera is the award winning author and artist of the book “Arts and the Creation Stories” She is a Registered Nurse and Licensed Secondary Teacher who gives lectures in different Schools, Colleges and Universities.
In celebration of the National Teachers’ Month and the World Teachers’ Day, Marielou was invited to give a lecture on “Finding Arts in Teaching, Finding Teaching in Arts” at University of Sto. Tomas, College of Education. The 2015 Lecture Series celebrating Teaching and Learning Across Disciplines was sponsored by the Metrobank Foundation, Incorporated, Network of Outstanding Teachers and Educators (NOTED ) in cooperation with University of Santo Tomas.
Marielou was among the distinguished Educators in their own field of practice who shared their experience in teaching.