You're thinking about taking an art class, eh? Well here's a little video that should push home some of the great reasons, and ideas that should make your decision an easy one:
Well that about sums it up, I think that should cover my blog post for this week, too. Looky their, introduced a future art student to the subject and knocked out my home work in 4 sentences and a video, not to shabby.....
Ok, maybe I should elaborate some more. I think one of the most powerful moments in this little art propaganda clip is when they make the following point in so many words. That is, that most of education seems to teach us that we need to find the right answer. Because of this we are so, so worried about being wrong. So worried that we stop taking chances. So worried that we live life playing it safe. Well in art, there is no right answer, at least not if I'm your teacher!
Future Student, I want you to hold me to it. Your success in my class will not be measured by whether or not you were right, but by whether or not you acted for yourself and created something you could call your own. I want you to hold me to everything in that clip, and I want you to enjoy every second of it. Or at least most of the seconds.
Art is hard. But that's because it is worth it. In art you will not only learn to take chances, but you will learn to fail. Then you will learn to pick yourself up and try again. Too many times we get so caught up in trying to never mess up that we can't just stop and enjoy making a mess! Life is not cut and dry, it's not black and white, and it's not going to care how many questions you got right on that test. It's going to care about what kind of person you are, and what kind of mind you have. If you put in the effort, art will make you a vibrant, alive, human being. It will expand your idea of what is possible, and thereby expand the inner workings of your mind.
So, yeah, you're thinking about taking an art class.. I think you should, too.
You are right we as a society are pushing the "right" answer to students. As you said, there is no right answer in life. I too will try to help my students see this by having them use the scientific method and the engineer design method to solve problems. They won't be graded on the success but the process.
ReplyDeleteAs a literacy person, I know there is a lot of research that says students' love of reading, and students' self-perceptions as readers and writers, decrease exponentially the longer they are in school. So when students are in Kindergarten, they almost universally love to "read" and "write" and create, but by the time they reach middle school, they tend to dislike reading more and they tend to view themselves as being not good readers and not good artists and not good writers.
ReplyDeleteI love schools. I love their potential. That's why I got my doctorate in education. But at the same time, I think that a lot of the institutional structures associated with schools (testing, grades) send the wrong message to students. They teach students to compare themselves to others. They teach students to look for the answer that is on the teachers' mind. They teach students to value what the test-maker says more than the passions in their own hearts and minds. I love that you are interested in re-igniting students' creativity and self-perceptions.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/pearson-education-115026.html
I love this video! It has great applications to all disciplines. It reminded me of a professor I had here at USU, he was the best math instructor I've ever had and I think about principles he taught and the kind of thinkers we developed into in that class nearly everyday I think about teaching. He said that math shouldn't belong to the college of science, one full of yes and no answers, but that it should belong to the college of art because it is truly and art form to manipulate numbers in a way that reflects truth about our world. His emphasis was always on the process rather than the answer, and many processes were accepted and integrated into the curriculum. What we brought to the table was valid and acceptable to him. I will forever appreciate that perspective when my discipline tends to be the first one that people think of when they think of teaching right and wrong. But I think that quote at the beginning of this film should go something instead like "The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution. There's so much [in the way] we teach in school where there is a right answer" It's not really in the nature of the discipline, but in the characteristics we choose to emphasize.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the inspiration! It makes me want to go out and create something today!