Creative Approaches to Child Development

By Grace C. Nash

Book Overview

A wonderful collection of Grace Nash's creative approaches to child development using music, language and movement. Incorporates the philosophies and techniques of Orff, Kodaly and Laban. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0882840142
• ISBN13: 9780882840147
• Release Date: June 1974
• Publisher: Alfred Music
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.5" x 0.5"

Customer Reviews

covers a lot of territory--maybe too much

Although Nash is not the founder of a method of music education, she is creative in devising lesson ideas based on the principles of Kodaly and Orff. This book is chuck-full of such lesson ideas. Nash makes several statements without providing the necessary documentation. She suggests many ideas which are designed to enhance self-awareness, other-awareness, and various other lofty ideals, but which do not directly pertain to music. A music teacher might be more willing to use those ideas if their effect were proven with experimental groups and control groups. Otherwise, what would the music teacher say if the principal walks in and asks, "Why aren't you teaching music?" Probably in response to Kodaly's lead, Nash expresses aversion to the use of the piano in the elementary music classroom. She argues that it sets an example of the well-tempered system. If Nash is assuming that better musicians are more closely attuned to the just-tempered system, she is making a dubious assumption. Seashore (0486218511) cites a study in which the researcher recorded unaccompanied violin solos by concertmasters of metropolitan symphony orchestras. When researcher measured the pitches on the recordings, he found that they were likely to fall on the just-tempered pitch, the well-tempered pitch, or anywhere in between. On page 152, Nash asks the rhetorical question, "Does the long-rehearsed operetta, the two-month old Christmas program have any rightful place in the elementary school?" That would be an interesting question to discuss further. My misgiving about dramatic productions is that most students spend idle time while the teacher focuses attention on someone else. I wonder what Nash's opinion is. Also on page 152, she says, "It is a well-known fact that all learning ceases at the point when mechanical drill begins." If she could document that, it would help me win arguments with my supervisor.