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Lesson Plans


Re: second revision of files/themes today C:

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
kirby140
Mon, 6 Apr 1998 09:23:27 -0400

Bunny rabbits at Easter, pumpkins at Halloween, Santa at Christ-
mas, Turkeys at Thanksgiving...It all is getting so redundant isn't it?
When I was in school we had no art teachers and the
classroom "marme" taught the typical holiday stuff. But now why
do we continue to remain so transparent and continue such trite
images? How about Picasso on Halloween, O'Keefe on Easter, Pollock
on Thanksgiving and Eva Hesse at Christmas ? that makes more
sense to me. respond if you dare.

On Sun, 05 Apr 1998 17:14:11 wendy sauls <wsauls> writes:
>At 11:29 PM 4/3/98 -0500, xxxxxx wrote:
>>why are many postings tied to holiday art? Aren't we at the end of
>the
>>twentieth-century
>>trying to free ourselves from "holiday art" and the like. Let the
>>classroom teachers dish
>>out that stuff. It ain't for me. How do the rest of you feel ?
>>
>i'd like to hear more about this, too. one one hand, i definitely
>don't
>want to be stuck making bunny ears or crosses out of construction
>paper
>this easter. lame holiday projects are the pits. i've also read
>about how
>using holidays as the only time to introduce traditions from other
>cultures is implying the cultures' only contributions are fun and
>games/frills type stuff; this criticism makes sense to me. i have also
>been
>appalled, in the past as a student and now as a teacher, at how others
>assume everyone is Christian and wants to celebrate Christianity.
>
>on the other hand, though, holidays can be lots of FUN and it
>sometimes
>seems we are lacking in this at school. at our school last year
>(middle
>school) halloween was "banned" - no costumes or make up were allowed
>supposedly because it was too distracting. i thought this was a huge
>bummer. i have also been intrigued to learn about and share the
>origins of
>some holidays with my kids. st. patrick's day, for example - everyone
>wears green, but does anyone know why? to me its a little disturbing
>that
>we all participate in something few of us understand or bother to
>think
>about. holidays pose a little critical thinking opportunity...there
>are
>some excellent web resources for "real" holiday info.
>
>in addition, i feel like a dazed moth in my strong attraction to cool
>holiday art traditions from non modern mainstream usa. some examples
>are
>the art of pysanky, sort of like batik engraving for eggs (awesome web
>sites!), the dias de los muertos figures, chinese new year dragon
>costumes...
>
>i would love to hear if/how others struggle with these issues and what
>solutions have been found!
>
>wendy
>
>
>Wendy Sauls
>Art Teacher, Kanapaha Middle School, Gainesville, FL
>Doctoral Student, Art Education, Florida State University
>wsauls
>home page: http://grove.ufl.edu/~c4930cqs/home.html
>

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