Our journey began in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada during the early
nineties. Many families faced serious difficulties trying to get
adequate education and community support for their special needs children.
Jackie Trimper and Jim Roy at the Annapolis Valley Rehabilitation Center
in Waterville noticed that many of these families were socially isolated
and could probably benefit from meeting each other and forming a support
group. Families shared their grief and frustration with gaps in social
services and special education. We invited local educators to make
presentations to our group that might help us understand the situation.
We learned that there were not enough public financial resources designated
to implement exsisting special education and inclusive community living
policies in Nova Scotia, let alone meet our various individual needs.
It was clear more options needed to be created and it was daunting to realise
these options would have to be initiated at the grass roots rather than
implemented by government from the top down.
Kathleen Purdy and her husband, Kimberly
Smith knew their son Brendon Alexander responded well to painting, sculpting,
music, drama, stories, creative movement and nature. So they searched
for arts based strategies used in educating children who require special
care. They soon discovered Waldorf Education and the Camphill Foundation.
These models provided inspiration for a new option in Nova Scotia.
Read
about exploring a Camphill School
Learn more about Waldorf
Education and the Camphill Foundation
Exploring A Camphill School
Kathleen
Purdy volunteered to visit Camphill Beaver Run near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
USA in February, 1999 to see first hand what pedagogical strategies they
were employing. She was impressed by the way they integrated community
life with intensive arts based special education classes. Students from
primary to senior high levels came from all over North America to live
in small family residences on campus during the school year. They were
put in rich social situations that included academic subjects, various
art therapies, music, hand crafts, physical education and practical life
skills.
Kathleen
was very impressed with many aspects of their setting and strategies.
One strategy that she particulary liked was a form of theraputic creative
movement called Eurythmy. She returned to Kings County, Nova
Scotia to share what she learned. Many parents in the support group
liked what they heard. Why not bring these strategies to our community?
Read
about our first guest teacher
or
return to top
Learn
more about Camphill
Beaver Run
Our First Guest Teacher
Kathleen
formed a small committee* of parents and professional educators from The
Annapolis Valley Regional School Board and Acadia University to initiate
a series of workshops in these alternative teaching methods. They found
a remarkable teacher who was well versed in the special education techniques
used at Camphill Beaver Run. Truus Geraets, a teacher with considerable
skill and over thirty years of special education experience in South Africa
and the United States was invited to be their first presenter in November
1999. Ms. Geraets inspired and amazed teachers and parents
with the effectiveness of her approach. She worked with eight special
needs children over the course of three days, integrating storytelling,
puppetry, creative movement, singing and drawing. The
children responded to these activities with joy and enthusiasm. The
parents and teachers had never seen teaching like this before nor had they
seen their children flourishing in these ways. The overwhelmingly
positive response to these workshops encouraged Kathleen Purdy to organize
a small group of teachers, artists and parents to create an after school
program based on the practical teaching ideas they had learned.
*Original committee members were: Jackie
Trimper, Psychologist,John
Sumarah, Professor of Educational
Counselling,
Linda Wheeldon,Professor of Education, Grace
Moores, Resource Teacher and Kathleen
PurdyTeacher / Advocate.
Read
about the first Creative Arts Play Group
or
return to top
or go back one stepLearn
about The
Center for The Art of Living which Truus Geraets helped found in South
Africa.
The First Creative Arts Play
Group
and the birth of the Alexander Society for Special Needs
Dr. Hilary Thompson, PhD. Children's
Literature and Drama, had recently retired from Acadia University and was
so inspired by what she observed in Truus Geraets' work that she agreed
to join with Kathleen Purdy to design an after school program for special
needs children. Dr. Thompson had studied with internationally renown
educator, Dorothy Heathcote, and brought this perspective to the process.
Melody McGrath, a music teacher who did a practicum with Giant Steps in
Montreal, joined soon after. They launched the first Creative Arts Play
Group in March, 2000. A twenty minute documentary video describes
the process and the positive results. Parents and volunteers wanted
to keep this work going. The Alexander Society for Special
Needs was incorporated as a non-profit society on November 17, 2000, and
received Charitable Status on November 14, 2001. Alexander
means "helper and protector of humanity".
Read
about our accomplishments or return to topor
go back one step
See
Creative Arts Play Group videoLearn
about Dorothy Heathcote Learn
about Giant Steps
Our Accomplishments
Programs:
- On-going
after-school programs for children and teens with special needs since March
2000.
- Intensive
one-week summer programs since summer 2002.
- In-school
programs at all levels, for challenged students and their peers since fall
2003.
- Pre-school
Creative Arts program in conjunction with Acadia University's SMILE program,
fall 2006
- Inclusive
community building workshops using movement, music and theatre games to
inspire and have fun! since November 2005
Teaching with Arts Workshops:
- March 2001:
Art Therapist Marie Chartrand from Montreal, worked with special needs
children
and presented public workshops.
- October
2001: Marie Chartrand returned to give Intensive art therapy workshops
for educational assistants
who work with special needs children, and a further two-day workshop for
parents,
teachers and the public.
- November
2002: Musician, Veronica Jackson, from Camphill Nottawasaga, Ontario, worked
with children, their teachers and educational assistants over a period
of four days.
- October
2003: Speech / Language Pathologist, Louise Coigley from Sussex, England
presented Interactive Storytelling
workshops for special needs students, their teachers, educational assistants,
parents and social service workers.
- April
2005, Louise Coigley returns by popular demand to demonstrate more Interactive
Storytelling techniques,
and to present her One-Woman show "Back To Back with Frida Kahlo".
Inservices by Alexander Society Facilitators:
- October 2006: "Using Creative Arts with Special Needs Students in the
Schools". for Educational Assistants of
the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board.
- January 2007: "Exploring an Integrated Arts approach with Pre-Schoolers",
for teachers of Early Childhood Education Programs
through the Nova Scotia Community College, Kentville campus.
