> the pencil issue is not a priority. For you it might be more important.
However, my philosophy, in both my teaching and mothering, is to pick your
battles. IMO, if every little thing becomes an issue, then the really
important issues get lost. I suggest figuring out what issues are worth
investing time and getting control.
I don't provide pencils, I do all I can to get them off that limiting point.
If they are breaking, abusing and forgetting the pencil then maybe we
ought to look to what they don't forget or abuse. The pencil to me,
signifies all the stuff we have such a hard time letting loose from.
We spend so much of our time with concerns that Betty has expressed - kids
that come from backgrounds that so severe and so un-understandable -how much
can a pencil be of concern to them?
I always thought, my philosophy - is that the bottom line of of art teaching
and art making is making a place free from the the rules and constraints.
If they don't have a pencil then they use a twig a feather a finger and
you teach that - no matter the what is forgotten there is another way to do
it .
I can hardly get uptight about materials. These kids face uptight all the
time, everyday. I have too many kids out of school because they are too
stressed to come to school. I have kids that have so much to remember
everyday, kids that carry book bags heavy enough to cause pain when they
innocently bump, kids that have parents that don't know how to parent
kids that see the mendacity and just don't know what truth is
this is such a hard time for kids
a pencil who cares?
The issues are so big
make your art teaching about issues if a pencil is an issue than turn it
into an art lesson
That's the power that art has some simple issue can be art making
I'm thinking today, on a snow day, when I have time to think, I'm thinking
of polling my kids to see what issues they are most concerned about and
gearing my lessons to their concerns not my concerns ... Only way I know to
engage them in the process of art making
