"Bottom line, a student will remember his/her art work and
effort put into the project.. The student will not
remember the teachers effort and prep/set time a teacher
has put into projects... includes showing of slides,
pictures of other artists, history shown and told..
Former students of mine have come to me telling about the
art projects they worked on and produced.. not what we,
as a class discussed"
Hi
I would like to respond to this. What level do you teach?
I teach high school, and so my former students are those
that come back from Parsons, Pratt, School of Visual Arts,
FIT, Ringling, and what they tell me is contrary to what
yours are telling you. They ARE thanking me for
introducing them to the notion of "thesis statements" in
writing, they ARE thanking me for having my Tuesday
evening Art History slide 'club', they ARE thanking me for
the criques we do as a class, and the 'artist's community'
these critiques and 'talking' produced. And in fact as a
'class' of advanced students spread across the US, they
stay in touch with each other, and in fact moments after
the Sept. 11th tragedy, they all emailed the student who
was going to the School of Visual arts at the time, then
they emailed me to let me know they all were ok.
Perhaps it is because those 'projects' we do are considered
'experiments' and not 'masterpieces', perhaps it is
because I try to encourage the broader picture of what it
means to be an artist in society and in history, perhaps
it is because I think art is 24/7/365 and teach it as
such. My students do not seem to differentiate between one
project and another as being the defining moment in their
art experiences in high school. And lastly, perhaps it is
because I have the luxury to teach in a high school that
has 8 different art classes, so that when they reach the
final class and prepare to go to college, they have moved
through all superficial reasons of "why make art", and
have come to realize they have no choice.
