Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Susie Pickering
Oak Lane Day School
137 Stenton Avenue, Blue Bell, PA 19422
Phone: 610-825-1055
Fax: 610-825-9288
Email: spickering@oaklanedayschool.org

Art as an Integral Part of the Curriculum at Oak Lane Day School

Oak Lane Day School is in the business of guiding children to learn and experience life through many mediums. Armand Mednick has taught Art at Oak Lane Day School for the past 47 years. Through his experience, he has observed that children are naturally creative and that the time between 3 years old and 6 years old is the best time to foster their sense of self as artists. Before the shyness of later years sets in, children create art with honesty and candor. When asked why he has been a teacher of Art for as long as he has, Mr. Mednick replies, “It is such a joy to watch their first experience. I believe that to know Fine Art is to experience the highest of human achievement. Fine Art has a powerful humanizing influence, and becoming familiar with it is essential to the development of a complete human being.”

During a recent Parent Education Evening, the Oak Lane preschool teachers discussed the importance of making and appreciating Art with young children. In the preschool classrooms opportunities for artistic expression are varied and plentiful. Daily, preschool children engage in projects from painting at an easel and drawing with crayons and markers in the morning to helping create a papier-mache Chinese New Year dragon as a part of their study of holidays. The use of artistic media is a staple of the curriculum at Oak Lane in the preprimary division.

Through Art, children hone their fine motor skills, experience cognitive growth, and begin using symbolic expression. Authentic Art experiences such as seeing Art history slides of major painters and artists and their work over the centuries and creating clay pots of their own provide the youngest Oak Lane students a taste of what it is to experience what Mr. Mednick calls a “well-lived and thoroughly examined life”: that is, a life in which the creation and enjoyment of Fine Arts play an integral part.

Oak Lane Day School Information

An independent elementary school, founded in 1916 and located in Blue Bell, Oak Lane Day School serves a diverse population of boys and girls. Oak Lane honors each child's unique individuality while fostering intellectual, creative, academic, and personal growth within a diverse community of active, engaged learners. Small class sizes and an atmosphere that encourages children to develop their academic and social skills are priorities at Oak Lane, where learning is a meaningful and joyous pursuit. Oak Lane's country-like property of 30 acres along Butler Pike and Stenton Avenue boasts a stream, pond, woods, meadows, and specimen trees as well as playing fields and playgrounds.

Oak Lane Day School is accredited by the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS), and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools (ADVIS).