Judyandharry- "We are no longer allowed to consider effort or
participation, count extra
credit or grade any "practice' type homework."
"We are to grade solely based on state standards--and using 4,3,2,1,0
scoring it is nearly impossible to fail--even if a kid does one
assignment, they can usually pass with a D. Oh, if you use percentages,
the lowest score you may give is 50%--even if the work was not attempted.
Talk about grade inflation! I don't think kids should fail Art--but some
do pitifully little, or even nothing."
KJODesign- "Man, that's a hard thing! Effort and participation is the main
aspect of art. Art is not always about the end result. It's often about
the journey."
- - - -
I am in agreement with you KJ...art is a journey. Fifty-five percent of my
grade is how the student makes use of their classroom time. Work ethic,
attitude. In my thinking, if a student is applying themselves regardless
where their work is at developmentally, that is then the life's lesson
applied where they will see cause and effect pay off. To work and
accomplish what one once thought not possible is to see beyond future
barriers and into greater possibilities. Synthesis.
To NOT hold kids accountable for their participation is to thwart and bypass
the discovery potential of capability. To not help kids understand the
value of having and holding to vision experientially and pragmatically in
attaining goals and reaching passions.
My goodness, what are we teaching kids when we demonstrate to them they
cannot fail, and that something carries so little inherent value that it
does not matter?
If I shared this idea with the near 56,000 artists part of the Wetcanvas.com
community whose life passion is to develop and grow as artists that
education has come to this cross road, a point in time where we suggest one
cannot fail in how one thinks about art, life, passion, the compulsion to
express...goodness, well...it would be taken as a very tragic joke!
Education of the arts would be judged really out of step with the needs of
community, mankind, and what it is that artists live and do.
I failed three students last year in one class alone. They for the most
part did nothing. They were class management issues, and failing drives
home the point for others that there will be consequences. That does not
mean I lacked compassion for them, but rather I had passion for where in
life they are heading if they do not receive a wake up call.
Are we to prepare young people for adulthood to believe there will be no
consequences for their behavior and actions as an adult?
The day I cannot grade students for how they work and use classtime, or hold
them accountable is the day I know longer consider myself a teacher. A
facilitator at best, but no teacher.
As a teacher...we do more than teach a subject, we prepare students for
life. As art teachers, that means we prepare life long appreciators of the
arts as well. Students will never fully understand what it is that artists
do or what it means to be an artist if we cannot hold them accountable to
engage and endure, and without such they will not be true appreciators.
Without the accountability and mandates to experience, engage and endure, to
what then truly do we imagine them able to appreciate in the lives of
artists?
Its also not always about achieving necessarily in that attempt to endure.
I like the quote of Winston Churchill who said, "Success is going from
failure to failure without losing enthusiasm!"
For this to be true it is required to always hold hope that one will one day
overcome whatever obstacles are holding back.
Of course then there is that quote that says, "One never fails until one
quits trying!"
Life is difficult and part of the coping skills is an enduring spirit that
never gives up. If we cannot hold it over kids heads to make every attempt
and effort, they will not learn these life lessons to carry over as
confident functioning adults. They will be co-dependents for life.
You know...about every 6-8 years a new twist in philosophical approaches to
art and the teaching of art comes in. Those old enough have gone thru the-
"art as units" where the teacher was a skilled artist, to "DBAE" where a
teacher talented in art was a potential threat to broader diversity, and a
facilitator having little skill was preferred and talented art instructors
were weeded out; this to PBAE...where it was okay for teachers with talent
again to instruct art to assure outcome of students, and now this "no
accountability for use of time spent" thing (meaning now we've gone from not
being artists but rather teachers, to maybe artists but not a teacher).
Goodness, what next?
