http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG6A71py9nE
Teaching middle school art today is very different from when I was young and just out of college. I remember the enthusiasm I had for teaching my first class in Fowler, Michigan. It was so exciting to be out of school and to finally get a job. I graduated in December of 1977. It was in the middle of the school year and there weren’t any jobs really available. I started working at Sugar Loaf Mountain resort as a hostess for the restaurant. It didn’t pay very much and I didn’t stay long after they wanted me to design wine labels for the same pay as the hostess job. I also found it very elitist in their attitude. As an employee we were not supposed to fraternize with the tourists coming to ski the mountain. I didn’t have a problem with that but they really didn’t want us to even go to the bar or restaurant. It felt more like the hired help wasn’t good enough to sit next to the wealthy establishment. I found the place rather stifling with their rules and expectations for the “hired help”. They found out I had an art background so they wanted to use that. Regardless of their motives I soon found employment at Kmart in the camera department. I really enjoyed working at Kmart as they put me in an area where I had a lot of expertise and they respected my intelligence. In the summer when I was interviewing for a teaching position the management was overwhelmingly supportive. I was given the time I needed to interview and people were very happy when I snagged my first teaching job. It felt like a family at Kmart as everyone was very encouraging of the young people that had gone to college and were looking for jobs in their fields.
When I arrived at Fowler I got right to work on working with the young students to create art. We had so much fun together. At the end of the school year I organized an art show while the gym teacher organized a dance and the music teacher had a concert. We had a great turn out from the community and this was established for each year until I left a few years later. I did manage to paint an eagle with two boys, with scaffolding, on the gym wall. What an experience that was for someone who is afraid of heights! I took a break from teaching and devoted myself to my art, making pottery and traveling to different art shows in Oklahoma and Michigan. For many years I was happy doing this but when my son started kindergarten I volunteered to bring in my pottery wheel and demonstrate for the students. I fired pottery pieces the students made and fell in love with the idea of teaching again. I decided to update my teaching credentials.
A lot had happened in my years away from teaching. Something called D.B.A.E (Disciplined Based Art Education) happened. I was out of the loop but I easily got back into the loop. However, teaching art has to be more about art production than anything else. The art history, aesthetics and art criticism are all important but working with young people today it is so important to actually get their hands on the art materials and help them experience what it feels like to produce art. In this age of text messaging and quick technology fixes I think it is more important than ever to develop creativity within my students. So many students don’t have a clue how things are really made and why we buy the things that we do. While art is all around them in designs that they purchase from their shoes, totes, mp3 players and phones so many of them are clueless about the thought that these items are purchased because of their interesting design concepts. Some of them think that a computer spits out the design. They don’t think about what person may have put the idea into the computer. I try to point this out to my students because there is vast ignorance from most people about these issues. Art is so important in all of our lives today whether we are aware of it or not. We are surrounded by art in many forms and we make decisions about art on a daily basis whether it is decorating our homes or buying a car. Art surrounds us in ways we don’t even think about!
I had an opportunity to review my art curriculum this year. I was able to add a document camera and a projector to my teaching tool box. This has resulted in a major change in my instruction delivery. When I would show students how to do things in the past they would have to look at a mirror placed strategically over my head. Now it’s projected. If I’m doing something very detailed I can even zoom in for the students. That student sitting in the very back of the room can now actually see what I’m trying to show them. I marvel at this new technology and how computers have snuck their way into the art classroom through art programs and even online galleries. Some people might think art is a thing of the past but art really is evolving and is the future. We, as consumers, will always be drawn to beauty and grace. Art will be in our future designs and really the creativity of our nation is dependent on the continued exposure to all the arts in their many forms. Without art we become a mass produced society, plastic in many ways, without a heart. It is art that nourishes our souls and completes our craving to be unique, to know that we are original beings and that we aren’t just one of many but one in a million!
When I was young and a beginning teacher I never thought about how teaching art might change. It was all pretty basic in my mind. You draw, paint, and sculpt; whatever medium you use art remains fairly unchangeable in its end result. However, now I realize that art and its medium is constantly changing. Today we have artists creating art through recyclables, computers, videos and much more. Art is never stagnant and never stays the same. Art is truly the most original thing that one can do. Art continues to allow our imaginations to soar and our creativity to flourish. Today there is more to art than ever as we search for new ways to express ourselves. The importance of art in this rigid testing structure of education cannot be overly emphasized. If we are to truly think, dream and imagine we must have art in our lives and we must nourish our souls with the making of art.
A video from our high school art teachers and the 2010 Scholastic Art Awards
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