Sensory Alphabet

The women used the Elements of Form mindset throughout their careers. Susan Marcus even drew on the Elements of Form when she created the Sensory Alphabet as a set of observational touchpoints for creative growth.

Marcus co-authored this book, The Missing Alphabet, with Susie Monday and Cynthia Herbert. They wrote this book about 30 years after Learning about Learning came to an end, and it illuminates LAL’s legacy. The book shows that each child has resources and infinite creative potential, and that we are all mutually dependent. The core beliefs that Marcus, Monday, and Herbert embraced have not changed since their time with LAL. 

The New World Kids Program Book, also written well after Learning about Learning’s end, demonstrates the development of LAL’s central ideas and just how original and innovative they were. The book, which Cynthia Herbert wrote, details the theories behind the New World Kids Program, which she co-founded with Susan Marcus. Again, you might recognize that their core beliefs have not changed since LAL: they believe that learning should be learner-centered and focused on the development of individual potential. Also, creativity is basic and the sensory alphabet is a powerful language for learning. This educational approach, created in the 1960s, is still compatible with more modern innovations in education, namely the theories of multiple intelligences and the tenants of differentiated instruction that developed in the 1980s. 

Click on the book to look through and find the similarities between this book and The Missing Alphabet!

The continued prevalence of the sensory alphabet highlights the sustained influence of Learning about Learning and the significant innovation in education that occurred because of Wagner and each co-founder.