Please forgive me while I stand on my soap box for a bit today.
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| I never wear shoes like this but maybe I should :0) |
It's that time of year again. Your kids have either already started back to school or they will be there shortly. Does your child's school still have an art program? More and more schools across the nation are eliminating arts and music programs. If they replace them with anything at all it is sometimes with pseudo art instruction performed by an unqualified classroom teacher.
That statement is not meant to disparage classroom teachers, it is just that they are not trained arts specialists. The major justification for ending arts programs is almost always budget. School districts are constantly complaining that they don't have a enough money for basic programs, so first on the chopping block is usually what administrators and parents see as the most extraneous and unnecessary programs- art and music.
Here are some of the common myths and justifications for deeming art as unnecessary and thereby eliminating it.
Every child is not a talented artist
Every child is not going to be an artist
Training children in the arts has no application to real world (job) success
Art is meant to help children "express themselves"
Here is what arts education really gives to your kids:
The number one most valuable thing that art education provides to your child:
It teaches them to THINK critically and innovate. It teaches them to TAKE RISKS and to see the BIG PICTURE.
Making art is not just about making pretty things or providing some slapdash approach to "self expression" devoid of rules and structure. There are rules in art- Elements and Principals of Design- which provides a framework for making good art and once understood, provides a vehicle for creating good art while breaking those rules and learning to innovate.
Art history provides a cultural framework and point of reference for history and innovation throughout time. Children without skill in creating art are still given an understanding of the cultural heritage of art, get exposed to great thinkers and artistic creators (ex. Picasso, Matisse) who broke from the mold of realistic art making to devise a new way of SEEING and creating.
Art is not always about the end product. The value of art education is more in the processes of creating art and learning about it than in the outcome of making a pretty picture.
Most other disciplines only work on finding right or wrong answers. There is no room for thinking out of the box or for creating a new paradigm. Children who are only being educated in these limiting disciplines will grow to only seek the correct (predetermined) answer, never being able to consider another option and will accept as irrefutable that which is spoon fed to him as fact.
We need to keep raising generations of Picasso's, Da Vinci's, Van Gogh's, Louise Nevelsons and even more Andy Warhol's, whose art was not just pictures of Campbell Soup cans, but a shrewd commentary on our massed produced society as a whole, a concept seen through an artists ability to view "the big picture."
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| Louise Nevelson |
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| Louise Nevelson- Royal Tide IV-Assemblage |
The world needs both kinds of thinkers, both right brain and left. Here is a perfect example:
Steve Wozniak, a left brain tech head computer guy who, left on his own would probably have had his own small company or gone to work for IBM or Microsoft or Oracle or any other computer giant out there at the time.
Steve Jobs, a hippy dippy, right brain college drop out with an understanding of business,training in art and a devoted sense and love for beauty and good design.
It is the combination of these two very different types of talents that brought us all of the elegant and beautiful Apple computer products which many of us enjoy and other companies try to emulate.
The marriage of these two divergent genius brains resulted in something of a lightening strike which created (in my opinion) one of the greatest tech companies ever.
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| Steve Jobs (standing) and Steve Wozniak (at keyboard) |
Is your kid going to be the next Steve Jobs or Picasso or Frida Kahlo? Maybe not. If given the benefit of a meaningful art education, what they can be is a well rounded human being who can think outside of the box, challenge the status quo, consider various answers to the same problem, create something from nothing, use the tools at hand in new ways and make cross cultural and historical connections.
Oh, and they may come home with a nice painting sometimes, too.
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| Frida and Me- © Karen O'Lone-Hahn |
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Valerie Strauss has an article in today’s Washington Post about a big problem facing the state of Indiana. Evidently, educators aren’t too keen about teaching there these days. According to Strauss, the problem has become so acute that some schools have had a difficult time finding teachers to cover classes for the new school year. She noted that some state legislators want a committee to discuss the teacher shortage.
In addition to Indiana, teachers are also leaving others states as well. Strauss provided the reasons for the teacher shortage in some parts of this country:
What’s going on? Pretty much the same thing as in Arizona, Kansas and other states where teachers are fleeing: a combination of under-resourced schools, the loss of job protections, unfair teacher evaluation methods, an increase in the amount of mandated standardized testing and the loss of professional autonomy.
I think Strauss is right.
Strauss pointed out one of the things that happened in Indiana recently. She said that Governor Mike Pence and the Republican leadership “showed their respect for teachers by working very hard this year to strip power from Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, a veteran educator who won election to the post in 2012…Oh, by the way, she is a Democrat. David Long, the Republican president of the Indiana Senate, said while explaining why the legislature would want to remove Ritz as chairman of the state Board of Education: 'In all fairness, Superintendent Ritz was a librarian, okay?'”
Perish the thought that a veteran educator/media specialist who won teacher of the year awards at two different schools should have any power as the Superintendent of Public Instruction!
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I worked at The Learning Community: a public charter school in Central Falls, RI from August 2007 – June 2009, which is when I lived in Rhode Island with my husband. I had the privilege of watching The Growing Readers get its start under the direction of Christine Wiltshire Alves, who is one of the [...]
I worked at The Learning Community: a public charter school in Central Falls, RI from August 2007 – June 2009, which is when I lived in Rhode Island with my husband. I had the privilege of watching The Growing Readers get its start under the direction of Christine Wiltshire Alves, who is one of the [...]
[Jpegs taken from CHAC Valentine's Day showings, 2010 or prior years.]
This first piece doesn't begin in a "heartfelt" fashion, but bear with.
There's an adage about Life being the cruelest teacher: first it gives the test, then it gives the lesson.
Actually, there's something just as cruel that's omnisciently administered in U.S. public schools, that's called the pre-test. Those of you sans children or who've never personally benefited from this experience and don't know how lowly it can make children feel, well, don't despair; at some point in your remaining life you or yours may yet undergo the uplifting rigor of a pre-test.
Why test children--even five-year-old kindergartners--on something they know little to nothing about? For the sake of the BASELINE, a word teachers and students come to know as well as their daily schedule.
A schoolchild's progress (or lack of) and effectiveness of the teacher's skills (ditto), you see, justify the expenditure of millions of dollars and sustain thousands of jobs for "academic" number-crunchers and bean-counters whose existence depends on providing DATA to politicians, education corporations and administrators with the justification for cutting teachers, jobs and closing public schools so charter schools can be opened.
Even Colorado's entry into Obama's Race to the Top includes monies to be used for software, hardware and more numbers-people to cure our academic incompetence in international teaching standards. The thinking is that, if we're behind countries like Singapore, China and Denmark, it must be the teachers' fault.
Those millions of dollars and thousands of jobs might instead have been channeled into classrooms to teach children. Maybe with more teacher assistant paraprofessionals--try raising the educational level of 32 third graders by yourself all day long. Or more education specialists instructing in the classroom--try finding time to give differentiated one-on-one to a special ed kid in that same third grade room. Or more office staff to support teachers with children's behavioral problems and counseling--yeah, try teaching while one kid is hitting others and then being informed, "He's your fault and problem."
But our society doesn't believe in spending money in something so obviously beneficial because its targeted scapegoats are the teachers. The final solution is DATA and the obligatory pre-test.
In my case, for the sake of whatever self-esteem my first graders might salvage from such gauntlets, I regularly tell them that an answer of "Right now, I don't know." is acceptable. Thus I get many pre-tests with such responses. After all, how much would a six-year-old know about an index?
So, this week this teacher gave one of those pre-tests. Among other questions, was the following:
"Explica lo qué es un diagrama." ("What is a diagram?")
A few students had
We shall now all bow down in homage to the great King Fitial. Anyone who defies his wishes shall be banished from the kingdom. We shall follow his lead, whereever he shall take us. He is our King, and may he declare emergencies, issue proclamations, and assume the rightful command of all lesser agencies, departments, and beings, for lo, he is most powerful.
Governor Fitial, an elected official, asked the Board of Education, elected officials, to postpone the start of classes from September 8, because of the problems the government/CUC is having with providing electrical power.
The BOE, after due consideration and input from teachers and concerned citizens, decided to open schools as scheduled. They had already postponed the start of school by ONE MONTH because of the increased costs in power.
And our Governor, who is not one to respect other elected officials, looked for any way he could to
SHUT DOWN OUR SCHOOLS!
Ah, yes, the reason--excuse given: The Division of Environmental Quality tested the water a while ago and found e coli. That could be a basis for closing schools. Never mind that each of the schools already addressed the problem by cleaning their water tanks. Never mind that some of the schools replaced the bad water FROM CUC (yes, the same operation that can't provide reliable electricity to the schools, businesses, and residences in the CNMI) with CLEAN water from a private vendor. Never mind that the water in the tanks is either reserve water in case of emergency, or used simply for the toilets.
And never mind that DEQ had not yet returned to test the water, a situation over which PSS has no control, so we don't know whether there is any on-going problem.
King, I mean Governor Fitial issued an urgent order on the night before schools opened shutting down 3 schools and 1 head start.
You can read reports at the Marianas Variety or Saipan Tribune. They show our new Commissioner and the BOE scrambling to handle the situation as professionally as possible, with the students' interests in mind.
The Governor's action, in stark contrast to the BOE and PSS, is disgusting. I'm very glad my daughter is not attending MHS (but is rather at SSHS). I'd be tempted to sue.
Tina Sablan has it right when she characterizes the Governor's actions as blatant and outrageous abuses of power. But what worries me more is the comment made in response to the MV article--that PSS better watch out. The Governor might issue an emergency directive and take over it, too!
Wow, the innocence and creativeness of youth. I suspect F.... will go far. I'm with you in the hope for her future!! As always, you so well articulate the feelings of so many of us. Thanks for sharing.
A heartfelt thank you for sharing this with us. I'm smiling thinking of F's confidence in her answer and reminds me of E.B. White's advice about "if you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud." I agree with Alice and suspect that F will go far as she has you for a teacher.
damnit, this is worth waiting all day to read it. felicitas, or whatever f....'s name might be, got the answer right, no question about it. and if the test-makers dispute that they do not know what they're doing.
Using a pre-test as a diagnostic tool is what great teachers use to support children to extend their learning.
Medical doctors use baselines, scientists use baselines; it may be in your best interest to reconsider the position noted.
an experienced educator
I have to laugh at Anonymous--nothing personal mind you. Completely misses the heartfelt point. Head. Heart. Head says, "use the baseline data to index a child's longitudinal growth and design and manage an individualized learning plan." Heart says, "love these kids and do no harm." Head&Heart says, "this test sucks, wonder at the beauty and infinite possibilities of this child, who flunked the test."
Thanks for your posting, Rudy. It made my day! I see the consequences of a lifetime of such testing when students get to college (with scores on standardized tests high on the admissions criteria...) I see students whose only eager participation in college classes often consists of: “Is this going to be on the exam?”
As your posting shows, creativity is what first gets lost on those scores. But children are fast learners... By third or fourth grade most will have learned to opt for “safe” answers and to study “for” tests instead of persevering in asking and understanding “why...” There goes their innate curiosity and experimentation. Then we wonder what is wrong with the way we teach our children...