TALK AND DISCUSSION with Steve Sagarin
Friday, April 8th, 7 p.m., at the Ithaca Waldorf School (Free and open to all)
Did you know that creative teaching strengthens students' understanding of a subject? It is possible for all academic topics to be explored in an artistic, creative manner, the result of which is more fully engaged students. The arts and their teaching need not be considered as solely subjective or expressive, nor the sciences taught as strictly abstract and objective. How can a “hard science” like physics be taught both scientifically and artistically, objectively and subjectively? Why is it important to hold both a scientific and an artistic relationship to technology in education and in the wider world? Dr. Stephen Sagarin will answer these and related questions in a wide-ranging talk that explains Waldorf education principles and methods as they are relevant to students’ and families’ lives today.
Also Following on Saturday:
WORKSHOP
Saturday, April 9th, from 8:45-Noon, at the Ithaca Waldorf School
(Free, although space is limited so please RSVP)
8:45—Registration, coffee, tea, and snacks
9:00—Welcome
9:15—Academics, Art, and Adolescence
Starting from the principles and methods outlined in Friday evening’s talk, Stephen Sagarin will examine the ingredients for a thriving, rigorous, and developmentally appropriate artistic curriculum for adolescents.
10:15—Break and snacks
10:30—Artistic Workshop: Drawing Platonic Solids in Black and White
As part of a study of solid geometry, Waldorf school students study and construct Platonic solids: those solids constructed entirely of regular polygons. After constructing the solids in three dimensions, students draw them in black and white to develop skill in drawing and an understanding of perspective. This workshop will introduce Platonic solids and offer an introduction to drawing them, with a focus on the artistic teaching of adolescents.
11:30–12:00—Closing remarks and Q & A
Stephen Keith Sagarin, Ph.D., comes to us from the Berkshire Waldorf High School, where he was a cofounder and is currently Faculty Chair and teacher of math, history, and English. Dr. Sagarin is Associate Professor and former Director of the M.Ed. program in Waldorf Teacher Education at Sunbridge Institute, New York. Dr. Sagarin is the former editor of the Research Bulletin of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education. He writes, lectures, mentors teachers, and consults with Waldorf schools on teaching and administration. He has taught history of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, human development at the City University of New York, and United States and world history at Berkshire Community College. Dr. Sagarin is the author of The Story of Waldorf Education in the United States: Past, Present, and Future
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20160405124707202