Therapeutic Arts School Creates Affordable Model That Meets All Children’s Needs
The Autism News | English
By Jordan Lake School of the Arts
With one in one-hundred and fifty children diagnosed on the autism spectrum, education must change. Intervention programs range from upwards of $40,000 per year and are not inclusive. Jordan Lake School of the Arts is a pilot program that has developed a curriculum and arts based approach that is relevant to today’s family with a child on the spectrum at the most affordable rate in the country. We have compiled and implemented the best educational and therapeutic ideals in one program that can serve as a model to others in the new age of autism. With autism being diagnosed in epic proportions recovering children cannot be accessible to the wealthy alone.
“Inclusion is about living full lives – about learning to live together. Inclusion makes the world our classroom for a full life. Inclusion treasures diversity and builds community. Inclusion is about our ‘abilities’ – our gifts and how to share them. Inclusion is NOT just a ‘disability’ issue” (Asante, Shafika).
Local artists show work in class space to inspire, connect, and join with students and educators in returning art to the classroom. Artists participate in workshops with students while displaying and selling work commission free in return. Kate Ladd is the first artist to participate in sharing her incredible paintings and talents with the school. Katherine Ladd has a degree in Fine Art from the University of Cincinnati. She has shown and sold her work in Chicago, Boston, Santa Fe, and in the Triangle area of North Carolina where she now resides. She is a member of the Chatham Artists Guild and has participated in their annual Studio Tour for over 10 years.
“Young artists are big thinkers. They work with their whole selves, and they are able to see the whole of a piece, a concept, a piece of work, as well as the details. Arts students learn to work well with others. The high level of responsiveness, sensitivity to others, and coordinated interaction is very clear in a theater piece or a string quartet. All members of an ensemble know that the success of the whole depends on the productivity of each member. Age, sex, country of origin, or ethnic group doesn’t matter; the quality of the work does. This aspect of art training is mirrored in the recent interest in cooperative learning in the classroom as an effective way for heterogeneous groups of students to learn (Perrin, Stephanie B).
Many schools have become places with no time or space for those who march to the beat of their own drum…we like the music better over here.
Source: www.jordanlakesa.com
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