An outside look at UCCC students
Below is a re-print of a letter written to Mr. Z from Gay Lorberbaum, the art & architecture artist from Washington University who worked with our children to create the art that decorated our gallery over the past couple weeks. A photo slide show follows at the very bottom.
Dear Steve,
This summer I was able to spend both every morning and afternoon inventing 2-d and 3-d hands-on problem solving projects to do with your students who are 3, 4, 5, and 6 years old. We worked with recycled materials to explore curriculum which we developed from the topics your teachers were doing in their classrooms - the topics of astronomy, kinesthetic variety, and architecture.
I wanted to write you to say enthusiastically how impressed I am with each of your teachers and your students and you.
I so admire your commitment to bringing to all of your students – younger and older ones - tactile, visual, kinesthetic exploration, and two dimensional and three dimensional problem solving.
Hitomi and I are grateful to work with your kind, knowing, and delightful teachers.
What emerges from your philosophy about life and education becomes very real with each one of the students we encountered -
- they are caring to one another with no prompting
- they are genuinely accepting of one another
- they are at one with themselves
- they are not hesitant to be who they are
- they are unafraid to be who they each are at any moment
- they laugh; they cry, they invent without inhibition
- they are confident and uninhibited in expressing ideas and questions and thoughts
- they are 3, 4 ,5, 6 going on…
- they understand intuitively because they have been allowed to explore and feel safe in doing so
- they know they are unconditionally cared about by their teachers and Mr. “Z” in his purple beret.
Thank you,
Gay Lorberbaum
Hitomi Inoue