2.09.2012

A Few Articles on Art & Advocacy

Posted by dsgran

As noted in a previous post, I've become a pretty active 'pinner' on Pinterest recently.  Somehow I know that statement is going to come back and haunt me some day, like admitting that I was a Trekkie,  or an 'edupunk', or something. However, while it doesn't have the organizational excellence of a bookmarking tool like diigo, Pinterest has been simply a great way of organizing images and ideas visually.  What would really be ideal (someone who knows how, steal this idea) would be something that works organizationally like diigo or Pearltrees, but operates more visually like Pinterest.




Anyway, I mention a few of the benefits of Pinterest along with Theresa McGee from The Teaching Palette in an article that we were interview for in Education World.  I don't know if I agree that it is 'taking over education', but its a good article about the inclusion of the website in the art classroom.

One of the things that I've used Pinterest extensively for is putting together images that help describe Nick Rouke's synectic trigger mechanisms from Art Synectics. This has been in service of the Student Creative's Surrealistic Me project which is featured in this months digital edition of School Arts Magazine.  You can download the article here, and once you are sufficiently enraptured with our nefarious plan for globalized art projects, register your class for the project here.

Now, just because I'm on the topic of articles about art education, and feel like indulging in a mini rant, here's an article from Edutopia that I have a few misgivings about. While I appreciate any effort to stress the importance of art education in the school curriculum, I can't help but become sad and frustrated when its explained in terms of its importance of bolstering other subjects.  I've never heard the argument that students should take social studies because it bolsters the critical thinking skills necessary for art making, or math because it helps with compositional skills. 

Paul Gaugin said that art was either plagiarism or revolution.  Art class, to me, is where we teach students to reach for that transformational energy in their own lives. 

If it also helps their math scores, great - but they have awesome math teachers who can do a much better job with that than I ever could.  I didn't become an art teacher to help my students with their geometry homework. 

   

Tags: Advocacy, Surrealistic Me, The Student Creative, Web 2.0

3 Comments:

1. OtterPop said...
   3:33 AM  
   While the defense that art making aids students in all other subject areas is the defense that, in the sad, backwards state I live in, keeps my job on the roster, I also disagree with that being its only defense. It infuriates me that that's how art teachers in my neck of the woods have to validate ourselves to parents, other teachers, some administrators (who are not nearly as awesome and supportive as the admin for whom I work), and even students who get "stuck" in art when they didn't ask for it.
   
   Thanks for all the article links and for a great blog that I enjoy reading! Makes me wish I was teaching high school or had the means to do more digital art at my middle school.
   
   I'm with you... I enjoy empowering students with that transformational energy. Even in middle school, they *get* that.
   craigr said...
   5:48 PM  
   You need to get back to school, David. Two recent postings on Pinterest? This paternity leave is getting the best of you. Pretty soon, you'll be using Pinterest to plan your daughter's wedding.
   dsgran said...
   2:07 AM  
   @Otterpop- Agreed. And I appreciate that Edutopia is coming to the aid of our struggling field, but I think there are much stronger arguments to be made- and arguments such as these may actually undermine our cause in the long run. Thanks for reading!
   
   @Craig - wedding? Pshh. You talk like my little girls are going to grow up one day.

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