"Instant Art, Instant Culture:
The Unspoken Policy for American Schools"
By Laura H. Chapman>>
Thanks for the reminder, Judy. This book was an influence on me back
in the dark ages when I was writing the literature review for my
Masters thesis. Here is a Laura Chapman quote from that yellowed
document:
"Specialist art teachers are employed in about 18 percent of our
elementary schools but few have been given a teaching schedule that
permits anything more than 'instant' art instruction for large numbers
of children...these scheduling patterns place teachers of art in the
position of having to shortcut instruction in order to retain a
semblance of order and sanity in their work. Children may thus be
introduced to whatever the teacher finds easy to teach, easy to manage,
and reasonably attractive or appealing to youngsters. The result, in
far more cases than any of us may wish to admit, is MISeducation in
art. A steady diet of gimmics, short projects and other instant art
lessons teaches children--and not very subtly--that art is undemanding,
fun and without content that requires much thought."
This was the case in 1982. Where are we now twenty four years later?
We are still discussing the same issues of schedule and budget and
respect and so on. Art teachers were discussing these things in 1969
when I began my career. I believe that twenty years from now it will
be the same.
And so it seemed to me, as I wrote my thesis, that if this was The Job,
that it was incumbant upon us to find prosperous means of making real
art with students given these huge challenges, and my professional work
since then has been an extended examination, experimentation and
meditation on this.
Let's keep the discussion going! Thanks again Judy and thanks to Getty
for letting us have this discussion. It used to be pretty lonely in
the Old Days. (This connects to Pam's post also, doesn't it!)
