The CEMREL Aesthetic Education Program
In the 1960's, the federal government funded several initiatives to improve public education in the United States. One of these initiatives was the CEMREL Aesthetic Education Program, aimed at increasing sensory awareness and artistic understanding in elementary school children in order to help them become sensible, thoughtful citizens.
CEMREL, the acronym for the Central Midwestern Regional Education Laboratory, researched the validity of such a program, then created both a curriculum and educational materials for elementary classroom teachers to use. The program was tested in schools across the United States and found to be both effective for learning, and enjoyable for students to use. Budget cuts in the 1980's led to its eventual demise, yet the curriculum continues to be pertinent to today's classrooms.
To help you better understand the program, I have included some images of the original materials created by CEMREL.
CEMREL, the acronym for the Central Midwestern Regional Education Laboratory, researched the validity of such a program, then created both a curriculum and educational materials for elementary classroom teachers to use. The program was tested in schools across the United States and found to be both effective for learning, and enjoyable for students to use. Budget cuts in the 1980's led to its eventual demise, yet the curriculum continues to be pertinent to today's classrooms.
To help you better understand the program, I have included some images of the original materials created by CEMREL.
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1. A booklet to teach children the about body language, characterization, and expression. The CEMREL program integrated all art forms; visual arts, music, dance, theater, photography, and film making into a form of multi-sensory learning.
2. Pictures and objects used to teach the children about the sensory, formal, and expressive characteristics of art.
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3. Games were an important part of the program. The bus stop game is similar to the jigsaw strategy used for cooperative learning groups.
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4. A series of booklets focused on helping children understand the concept of shape. Here are several images from the first in the series.
5. Student use of cameras was an important part of the program. In this booklet, students learn about point of view, how to use a camera, and how a camera can express a person's point of view.
Despite the quality of CEMREL's program, it was perceived by some classroom teachers as too difficult to implement into their teaching. The issue of integrating the arts into general education classrooms continues today. In reflecting on this problem, I wrote a short illustrated fable. Can you guess the moral of the story?
To help you imagine the possibilities, I have taken CEMREL's first level of aesthetic education and written an outline for what it might look like in a kindergarten classroom today.