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fw: art and high school students

updated thu 31 jul 97

 

Tom Morris on mon 14 jul 97

Well, trying to resend it... hope it works *this* time.

----------
> From: Tom Morris
> Subject: Re: Art and high school students
> Date: Sunday, July 13, 1997 11:29 PM
>
> I strongly believe that art should not be displaced... see my earlier
> posting Re: Balance; Reply... the 3 C's. I am used to those who can draw
> having learned outside of school. How can we have students go into
careers
> without at least SOME experince in writing. How is it that teachers get
off
> snatching any drawings in school without even any admiration to them???
> Well, I guess that was a dumb question. Teachers are teachers... who have
> to put up with all the crap. Middle and high schools only offer art
classes
> as electives.
>
> Just saw a large box being unloaded into my high school that said
"SHIMPO"
> on it:
> Tom Morris
>
> ----------
> > From: Dannon Rhudy
> > Subject: Re: Art and high school students
> > Date: Saturday, July 12, 1997 8:47 AM
> >
> > ----------------------------Original
message----------------------------
> >
> > >----------------------------Original
> > message----------------------------
> > >Hello my friends on CLAYART!!
> > >
> > >I have a question for all of you out there. Do you think it is
> > important to
> > >teach all high school art students to draw realisitically?
> > >
> > >If so, why? If not, why not?
> > >
> > >------------------------------------------
> >
> > Numo,
> >
> > I think, yes, they should learn to draw representationally, and
> > for a number of reasons. The main ones are that it is generally
> > important to the students themselves to have that skill, and it
> > is a learnable skill just like writing or driving a car.
> >
> > In addition, it gives them an underpinning for later growth.
> > Much as musicians practice their scales and build upon that
> > foundation, so ought art students to learn drawing skills and
> > build upon THAT foundation. The earlier learned and more often
> > practiced, then the sooner those interested and capable will move
> > to abstraction, innovation and interpretation of their own.
> > But they need the foundation(s), and practice. I get rather a
> > lot of beginning drawing students who imagine that because they
> > can copy Spiderman comics they can "draw". Hard to get them
> > past that, sometimes. Often, in fact.
> >
> > Maybe the real reason I think they should learn representational
> > drawing, and the skills that requires, is that it would make my
> > beginning drawing classes easier......
> >
> > Dannon Rhudy
> > potter@koyote.com

trevor herceg on wed 16 jul 97

Just a little food for thought.... I have spent several years
teaching and doing graduate work. I am now about to finish my mfa and
am preparing to look for a job teaching at some level in education. I
have a degree in teaching and believe i will be good at it. the food
for thought has to do with my philosophy of teaching. I am not
teaching the students how to be artists. Not every student that
passes through the art room doors will become artists. But everyone
will become a consumer in the real world. So part of my job as an art
teacher is to pass on an appreciation for art products.. For example:
why a hand thrown mug at $8 is better than the one for $2 at
Walmarts. My other job as an art teacher is to try and help the
students to become life long learners. In the art room and in
creating art is one of the few places that all academic subjects are
applied. when setting up my art projects for students I look for and
then point out to students when they are using other skills like
math, science, english, and reading. These are the reasons why art
should be supported in public schools. It allows the student
practical hands on applications of the education they are acquiring.
You can fill students heads with knowledge, but if you don't supply
the means to apply it Then it is wasted!

Trevor Herceg
Wolverhampton University
England
D9670220@wlv.ac.uk

Sherry mcDonald Stewart on thu 17 jul 97

Trevor touched on some issues that I think are very important, as his
job as a teacher of art. The soul in this culture, is starved for
knowledge of what satisfies it. Art class is a place to learn more than
how to draw, throw, it is a place to nurture soul, to feed soul, promote
it, and by doing so, make our whole culture more whole. Thomas Moore in
his book, Care of The Soul, talks a lot about creativity, about
depression, and what it really is, about money, economics, disease, and
the soul. He gives a view of 15th century Florence, and a view of the
body as being very different, and more progressive it seems to me, than
our views today. Today, the body is a machine, we work out to get the
heart rate up, to build muscles, and to look a cdertain way, that is not
healthy.
When I was on the TX commisssion on the art, committees to express my
opinions about art in schools, I was adamant about the sacrifices they
wanted and were willing to make to get art in schools. I was against the
kinds of compromise they wanted to get there. I found that few had
thought about this at all. Art is not just expression, or technique, or
both, art is soul. Sherry

Dannon Rhudy on fri 18 jul 97


Oh, please. I have enough to do to find ways to teach skills,
suggest possibilities, open eyes and minds, encourage persistence,
shore up timidity, reward courage and daring, offer
possible paths to pursue, find ways to support students using
imagination, intelligence and personal discipline in pursuit of
their own vision, while they are learning to TRUST that vision,
and to take the risks necessary to personal growth. To show by
example that work can be joy and not drudgery, that technique
and content are mutually supportive in any work, and that it
is a good thing to be ABLE to produce what one can CONCEIVE
of producing. And, finally, to ask more questions than I give
answers.

As to soul feeding, nurturing, supporting: no. That is not my
job, and nor is it my job to "make our culture more whole". I
would consider it extremely presumptious of me to imagine I COULD
make our culture more whole. It is all I can do to make ME more
whole - perhaps, indeed, MORE than I can do.

People find ways to feed their own souls, if any, and if hungry.
Teachers - all teachers, art and otherwise - offer tools, perhaps,
ways to use them.

Dannon Rhudy
potter@koyote.com

----------------------------Original
message----------------------------
Trevor touched on some issues that I think are very important, as
his
job as a teacher of art. The soul in this culture, is starved for
knowledge of what satisfies it. Art class is a place to learn more
than
how to draw, throw, it is a place to nurture soul, to feed soul,
promote
it, and by doing so, make our whole culture more whole. Thomas
Moore in
his book, Care of The Soul, talks a lot about creativity, about
depression, and what it really is, about money, economics,
disease, and
the soul. He gives a view of 15th century Florence, and a view of
the
body as being very different, and more progressive it seems to me,
than
our views today. Today, the body is a machine, we work out to get
the
heart rate up, to build muscles, and to look a cdertain way, that
is not
healthy.
When I was on the TX commisssion on the art, committees to
express my
opinions about art in schools, I was adamant about the sacrifices
they
wanted and were willing to make to get art in schools. I was
against the
kinds of compromise they wanted to get there. I found that few had
thought about this at all. Art is not just expression, or
technique, or
both, art is soul. Sherry

Numo Jaeger and Michael Miller on sat 19 jul 97

Dannon,

Reading what you wrote sounds as if you do some soul feeding to
me...besides isn't it everyone's job to make the culture a little more whole?

H'mmm...your comment got me thinking about the difference between teaching,
instucting and educating.

What do you think about this? We teach the love. We instruct the technique.
We educate the innate. Just thinkging...

Numo


At 11:32 AM 7/18/97 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
>Oh, please. I have enough to do to find ways to teach skills,
>suggest possibilities, open eyes and minds, encourage persistence,
>shore up timidity, reward courage and daring, offer
>possible paths to pursue, find ways to support students using
>imagination, intelligence and personal discipline in pursuit of
>their own vision, while they are learning to TRUST that vision,
>and to take the risks necessary to personal growth. To show by
>example that work can be joy and not drudgery, that technique
>and content are mutually supportive in any work, and that it
>is a good thing to be ABLE to produce what one can CONCEIVE
>of producing. And, finally, to ask more questions than I give
>answers.
>
>As to soul feeding, nurturing, supporting: no. That is not my
>job, and nor is it my job to "make our culture more whole". I
>would consider it extremely presumptious of me to imagine I COULD
>make our culture more whole. It is all I can do to make ME more
>whole - perhaps, indeed, MORE than I can do.
>
>People find ways to feed their own souls, if any, and if hungry.
>Teachers - all teachers, art and otherwise - offer tools, perhaps,
>ways to use them.
>
>Dannon Rhudy
>potter@koyote.com
>
>----------------------------Original
>message----------------------------
>Trevor touched on some issues that I think are very important, as
>his
>job as a teacher of art. The soul in this culture, is starved for
>knowledge of what satisfies it. Art class is a place to learn more
>than
>how to draw, throw, it is a place to nurture soul, to feed soul,
>promote
>it, and by doing so, make our whole culture more whole. Thomas
>Moore in
>his book, Care of The Soul, talks a lot about creativity, about
>depression, and what it really is, about money, economics,
>disease, and
>the soul. He gives a view of 15th century Florence, and a view of
>the
>body as being very different, and more progressive it seems to me,
>than
>our views today. Today, the body is a machine, we work out to get
>the
>heart rate up, to build muscles, and to look a cdertain way, that
>is not
>healthy.
> When I was on the TX commisssion on the art, committees to
>express my
>opinions about art in schools, I was adamant about the sacrifices
>they
>wanted and were willing to make to get art in schools. I was
>against the
>kinds of compromise they wanted to get there. I found that few had
>thought about this at all. Art is not just expression, or
>technique, or
>both, art is soul. Sherry
>
>