Art Education in Contemporary Classrooms: Issues and Practices

Art is important to teach as a core subject for many reasons. Much of the world is made up of art or references to art, artists or specific pieces of artwork. In order for children to indulge themselves in this major part of society an understanding of art must be developed; "the study of art is essential for an educated understanding of the world." (Day 39) Usually the teaching of art to children involves only the children making art or crafts. A more informative approach to learning about art, however, is to have the children not only make art, but discuss it, observe it and read and write about. It is this way that the topic of art will become more wholly understood. The creativity and uniqueness of subjects addressed in an art class is different from other core subjects. Children are able to express themselves creatively and individually unlike those subjects of math and science where only one definite answer is accepted. It is important for teachers to set time aside in the curriculum in order for children to embrace all these mentioned experiences. Art needs to be treated as a separate subject with sufficient supplies, space and an informative instructor so children can gain a strong sense of art and benefit all the characteristics and knowledge that come with learning art.

To allow children to fully experience the benefits of learning art, the instructor must acknowledge the individual skill level (Day 46) and children who come from cultures that may be unfamiliar to us Canadians (Day 54). If these conditions are achieved successfully the children will, hopefully, continue to express themselves in some sort of art form, developing their own style as they grow older and influencing other students, smaller children and adults alike. It is noted that we can all learn from each other, no matter what skill level, age or background we come from.

Puzzle Time 1

Brenda started our puzzle by separating the colors. The basic color scheme of our puzzle is the man picture is blue and the background is red. The picture is of a man's face made up of other smaller pictures. I found it interesting that Brenda's first notion to solve the puzzle was to separate the colors. I love to do puzzles and when I do, my first act is to turn over all the pieces. Then i find the border pieces to put together so there is a frame of reference to make the inside of the puzzle easier to establish. Brenda eventually started looking for the border pieces while I continued to separate the colors but I found it interesting that the other members in the group only took a small pile of puzzle pieces from the bag at a time, whereas I would have dumped the entire contents out first.

Ps. Thanks to Brenda for purchasing our puzzle!

Understanding The Learner

Discussion Questions
5. As an educator, I must create a holistic portrait of learners in the classroom. To do this I must research and learn as much as possible about the background each child is coming from. This includes family status, cultural influences and the learning style that is best suited for the child. I need to ask the students many questions in ways that are not intimidating for them, but so they feel proud to talk about themselves and their individual differences. I must encourage the uniqueness of each child and allow them to realize that their individuality is special. I need to encourage them to be themselves and help them to discover who "themselves" is.

6. Knowledge of holistic development is important in providing appropriate instruction for my students because it is vital to acknowledge different abilities of different children and to realize all aspects of development influence how a child learns and presents themselves through art.

Childhood Preconceptions

The biggest preconception I hold about children is the range of their ability. I have a hard time recognizing what a child can and cannot do and a lot of time I find myself underestimating their abilities. This misconception of children has now been discarded since reading Sylvia Kind's article about children's art entitled, Windows to a Child's World: Perspectives on Children's Art Making. The previous notion of underestimating a child's capability would affect my teaching in ways that would be disadvantageous to the child since the work provided would most likely be not challenging enough. The problem with this is that children would easily be bored and different skills, not only involved in making art, but in all aspects of learning would be left undeveloped. Sylvia Kind described an art-making environment where a teacher needs to be aware of a child's intention and encourage their creative ideas. i realize as a teacher, I need to be conscious of every child's individual ability and recognize how each child learns. I need to understand "what art making means to [each child]" (Grauer, K. & Irwin, R.L., 16).

Early Art Experiences

One of my best experiences with making art, was not in school, but in high school I went on a school-based trip to Ottawa called "Encounters with Canada" for a week. While on this trip there were various activities we took part in that had to do with the "arts and culture" theme of that week. One activity we were required to take part in involved using pastel crayons and water color. We had to draw a picture with the crayons in a certain shade and then paint over our drawing with the opposing shade (ie. draw in red, orange, yellow and paint in blue, green, purple, or vice versa). This art experience was memorable to me, because it was the first time I was able to express myself though an art activity being taught to me versus me simply coming up with an idea on my own. I remember expressing my morbid side by drawing an autumn tree with yellow and orange leaves and branches amongst red human limbs and spots of blood, painted over in a dark blue shade representing the night sky. It probably seems strange that this daunting scene is my most memorable art experience, but it was the first time I realized there was no outline of required elements to art making and any subject matter is accessible.

In school, art was not my favorite subject, I think because I was not challenged with the notorious craft-work teachers provide that allow for little or no creativity. It was not until high school that i began to take interest. I never really had a negative experience with making art, but over the recent Christmas break, my mom (a Grade 5 teacher) was making Christmas crafts with her kids and the school had brought in a special lady to teach the grade 5's how to make a photo frame with "JOY" written inside. Although the activity was meant to be a craft, the lady (who I cannot remember her name) really irritated me with the rigidity of the craft. I was helping three girls and one of them did not want to put sparkles on her frame so I told her she did not have to, but this lady came around and said the little girl needed to have sparkles. Another child did not want to have the white border around the words "JOY" so again, I told her she did not need to have the border until the lady imposed and insisted she did. The whole experience really bothered me and this craft lady and I definitely clashed. I could not believe the solid structure she imposed on the kids, especially because the children were around ages 10-11 and I think were hitting that point where they are craving to be a little more creative.

i love james and the giant peach