To help our children succeed, we need to move away from the assumption that the first years of life are a time for intervention and that school readiness is synonymous with attainment of preliteracy and numeracy skills. Childhood is a period of rapid intellectual growth, but, because not all children learn in the same way or at the same rate, it makes little sense to have uniform, standardized curricula. We need to take a fresh look at an old perspective; play is a child’s natural mode of learning and self-expression. Play is a child’s work.  N’Art will be a place where children are exuberant about learning, a place where you will see a classroom filled with faces that light up with the awe of discovery, a place where artists are inspired by children and children are inspired by artists.

Over one hundred and fifty years ago, Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852), the German educationalist, urged educators to respect play as the, "highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul." Revolutionary in the nineteenth century, abandoned in the twentieth century, the Swiss pedagogue, Johann Pestolozzi (1746-1827) discarded the traditional methods of rote memorization and mechanical drill in favor of more active hands-on-learning. He emphasized, "things before words, concrete before abstract." Influenced by Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel invented "kinder-garten or "garden of children." He believed in starting a child’s education as early as four months, ‘at the mother’s knee,’ when children are acquiring knowledge at an astoundingly rapid rate. Froebel’s philosophy of education rested on four basic components: (a) free activity, (b) creativity, (c) social participation, and (d) motor expression. Free or self-directed activity fostered creativity, invited social interaction, and, learning by doing engaged motor expression. Through play, a child will develop physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

In the "traditional" classroom or day care setting, learning competence is by memorization, drill and practice, direct instruction, pre-determined starting points and achievement standards. There is one way to perform tasks, one correct answer and one appropriate response. Educational reform is defined as "improve by removing the defect," or "to form again." I can not remove the current system, nor is it my intention, but I can form again the progressive educational ideals and provide the children in my neighborhood an alternative approach, and additional opportunity for multi-sensory learning.

By exposure to sensory experiences, children effortlessly acquire social, language, motor and thinking skills. By exposure to traditional methods, children can link the concrete activities that engage them to abstract concepts. Truly innovative teaching involves making fundamental contexts visible, objects of discussion and expression to be taken apart and formed whole again. A meeting of the "isms."   N’Art can provide an environment in which children are encouraged to draw their own conclusions, experience and learn at their own pace; acquire personal and inner revelations; succeed without struggle or correction…a place where children can work at play.

N’Art will make full use of Froebel’s teachings to help each child lay an educational foundation during their early years. Froebel Gifts and Occupations are a system and set of ‘toys’, numbered one through twenty, for achieving this goal. Materials used in the first ten exercises are referred to as Gifts, to be used but not altered from their original state. Primarily wood forms for arrangement and design, Gift one to six represents solids (3-D), Gift seven represents surface or plane (2-D), Gift eight represents line, Gift nine represents point, and Gift ten represents point and line. They symbolize a logical progression from the whole (unity) into parts (complexity) and a return to the whole. A child never completes or is finished with a Gift. From recognition of basic geometric shapes to complex mathematical relationships, these Gifts provide endless possibilities for discovery for children ages 2 to 5 and up. The Froebel Occupations (Gifts 10 – 20), complementary crafts such as drawing, modeling clay, origami, parquetry, interlacing and weaving; invite controlling, modifying, transforming, and creating activities that are not returned to their original form. In addition to the use if the Gifts and Occupations, children play by being actively involved in games, songs, gardening, and story telling.

By observation, a record will be kept to track each child’s progress. Children naturally talk as they play. This dialogue will not only build vocabulary, but will reveal their internal thought processes. Social interaction, attention span, motor and cognitive development will be observed and documented through play. Teaching methods will be evaluated to identify those with the greatest success.

Another important component is working closely with the family unit. Since parents provide the first, most consistent educational influence in a child’s life, their involvement in the classroom will provide children the opportunity to interact socially in a familiar environment. Parent’s will rotate or take turns participating in the class, guiding children and learning by observation. Becoming familiar with the Gifts and Occupations, the activities can be on-going in the home. Workshops and lectures will be periodically given inviting parents and the community to learn more about Froebel’s philosophy of education and the use of the Gifts and Occupations.

At N’Art, pre-K classes will meet for two hours; two or three times a week, for twelve week sessions. After school programs for elementary children will be held Wednesday through Friday, 3:30 to 5:30 PM. Realizing parents’ work schedules and the need for full day care, scheduling must be flexible and responsive to the community’s needs. A survey will be sent to the three elementary schools and two day-care centers in the neighborhood to determine the best schedule and to determine how we can work together to provide children with the opportunity to participate.

I have a Masters degree in Fine Art: Art Teacher Education from the Maryland Institute, College of Art; and have taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and The Baltimore School for the Arts. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

More importantly, I live, work and educate my 10 year old son Nikolas in Baltimore City. Just as Jean Piaget developed his theory of cognitive development in early childhood by observing his own children, I know what has contributed to my son’s success. In Baltimore City, only 23.1 percent of the students achieved the state satisfactory standard of 70 percent compared to 40.3 percent for the State. Nikolas was diagnosed at an early age as having a learning disability, but is reading at grade level. Nikolas attends a private school. I attribute parental involvement, class size (14 students), multi-sensory approaches to learning, individualized and self-paced instruction, independent thinking and creative expression in art and music, to my son’s remarkable achievements given a competitive disadvantage in a highly competitive school. Many of the children living in Baltimore City, attending public school, are not provided with the same recourses. I have watched toddlers in my neighborhood grow into prostitution and teen pregnancy. I can list them by name, not numbers, but faces. These statistics are real to me.

In April 1998, I re-mortgaged my home to purchase a building for the purpose of providing co-op artist studio spaces, gallery and a classroom. I have been renovating this building, solely with the help of friends and family, for almost three years. It is within walking distance of my home, three elementary schools, and two of the primary day care providers for the children in my neighborhood. Student enrollment in these five institutions alone is over 1,400 children. N’Art can provide our children with the opportunity to learn through play, broadening their academic elementary and pre-school experience.

I can not balance Baltimore City’s budget or reform the educational system. I can, one child at a time, one parent at a time, one neighborhood at a time, make a measurable difference. If we can reach 150 children in one year, we can provide the same spark that influenced Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Josef Albers, Walter Gropius (Bauhaus), Johannes Itten, Peter Behrens, Le Corbusier, Buckminster Fuller and others…students of Frobelian education.