Alexander Wenger read for us the book by Elena Makarova «How to fashion a snort»
“Elena Makarova is very talented: writer, artist, sculptor, historian. But above all, a teacher. She teaches children to sculpt, draw, become themselves and live in our not very comfortable world. More than twenty years ago, my five-year-old son also studied with her. I still remember how happy he was when he fashioned a horse out of plasticine. He did not become a sculptor or an artist, he is a biologist. So did he need those modeling lessons? Creativity is necessary for the development of every child — and this book «How to fashion a snort» is about this.
Elena Makarova talks about trust in children’s ideas, about the ability of adults to open the world of art to a child, without imposing any specific, “correct” way of depicting. And about the ability to follow him, only sometimes slightly pushing him forward when the child stops in confusion. The stories of Elena Makarova add up to a bright creative mosaic, a stained glass window. The comic side by side with the serious, the funny side by side with the sad, and by the end of the book tragic tones become dominant: the last part of the book is devoted to the fate of children and educators — prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp Terezin.
From stories, the author moves on to History. Documents, eyewitness accounts, letters, photographs… The protagonist is the artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, who was engaged in drawing with children in Terezin and died in the camp. She left no book on «how to love children.» This is told by children’s drawings that have survived since then, and now the book of Elena Makarova.
In recent years, many parents have been involved in the early development of children, and it is not easy for them to believe that teaching kids «school tricks» brings more problems than benefits. After all, preschool age is a time when it is important to develop the child’s abilities, and not to provide him with knowledge that he will have time to acquire later. And the development of abilities is achieved through drawing, modeling, construction from blocks, children’s games, writing — in general, those «frivolous» activities to which this book is dedicated. Read, have fun and try to give your children the same joy that the little characters in the book experienced.