For the creative learner, life is an ever-unfolding and interrelated process that leads to a greater understanding and experience of being human. The Rossi approach stimulates, develops and nurtures this process in teachers and students alike.
We believe that three of the most important characteristics of a successful human being are a well developed sense of ethics, the ability to think independently, and the desire to deeply understand oneself.
Rossi’s methods were designed to develop these characteristics by improving skills, cultural awareness, character, and psychological health. The integration of these elements creates the unique gestalt that lies at the heart of the approach.
The Rossi method is founded on the following understandings:
- good teachers teach how, not what, to think
- teachers should model their creative and life experience
- teachers must be in a personal state of inquiry and creativity in order to transfer that state
- creating a mutual learning relationship through mentoring is a very effective way to teach
- strengths-based education, responsive to the student’s learning style, provides a very effective way to learn.
This method stimulates teachers’ creativity so they are able to teach from the same perspective from which they want their students to learn. As a driving force in the creative process, teachers become mentors and guides, providing students with supportive relationships that build trust and a sense of belonging. These relationships are beneficial to all students. They can also provide the turning point for at risk students by freeing their innate desire to grow out of their cocoon of isolation, self-consciousness and fear of failure. Teachers hold students to the highest standards possible while accommodating diverse learning styles, abilities and needs.
This method also helps teachers and students jointly discover the areas of student strength, thus ensuring the early successes that promote further creativity and motivate further study. Inspired by progress and guided by mentors, students develop their abilities and learn to apply these to other life areas.
The following example imparts some of the flavor of the approach.
Imagine a student and teacher together at the piano. The teacher is 100% present with the student, concentrating fully on the music and sensitive to where the student is at that moment. A teacher working with this orientation is so involved that he almost hears the music the same way the student hears it. He’s listening, tapping, placing his hands at the keyboard next to the students’ to express an articulation or a rhythm, or a phrase for the student to respond to, sometimes playing the exact phrase or an accompanying part.
The student begins to move with him, and for some time they’re moving and playing together. It’s at that moment that real learning begins. Not from the teacher showing, explaining, or outlining the theory involved, but from the experience of doing together. The student has jumped into learning the next step, and her awareness has been expanded in such a way that she will not only grasp the skill of playing but also the musical principle involved.
At this point the teacher can teach the principle (or theory) involved by relating it directly to the where the student is, giving the student a very meaningful and practical way of “getting it”. What’s needed for that moment to happen is a high degree of sensitivity on the teacher’s part. It also requires that the teacher jump in and “get wet” with the student, not stay in the safe role of teacher.
When the teacher participates in this way he actually re-experiences the music and re-experiences the principles of the music, so he’s able to transfer that experience with a freshness and newness that are exciting for the student. This vulnerability and healthy, creative expression allows for a feeling of positive relationship that many students today need so badly.
Endorsements:
The Rossi Approach has been recognized for excellence by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Paul Allen Foundation and many others. The programs which Bill Rossi developed and managed for almost two decades thrived in Seattle, WA, Albany, NY, and Chester County, PA in such diverse locations as city art museums, homeless shelters, therapeutic treatment facilities, peer support centers, and after school programs. With this experience and success it has established itself as a best practice for challenged youth and adults.
Mary-Helen is Business Director at Merge Education.
