some of what i have to say may have already been touched on. I havent
followed this entire discussion . . .
when I student taught, I saw MANY kids who were frustrated by art. Their
teacher was an "originality" fascist. she would not allow students to copy
from photos. she would not even allow two students to do different work on
the same subject (ie., two kids who wanted to draw a basketball player--no
way). Folks, we're talkin' about 6th graders here.
We are also talking about every student in the building--not just the
"talented" and
"artistic" ones. At that age level, many kids are so self conscious and have
such a limited idea of what they really can and cannot do that I felt her
approach was counter-productive.
That teacher retired and I have replaced her. The way I see it, 60 percent
of my students are in remediation, not because of my predecessor or any other
teacher but because of time. Think about this--what if public schools taught
math the way art is taught in elementary schools. Math teachers on carts,
visiting classes once a week for an hour at a time. And then, when the kids
are in middle school, we allowed them to take 9 weeks of math per year . . .
By allowing kids to draw from photos, at this stage, I am offering some kids
the chance to see that they have more ability than they thought (I hear this
from students every day). Do they trace? NO, but they learn to draw a two
dimensional image from a two dimensional image, and I think that is a good
early step. Even the kids who already draw pretty well can sharpen their
skills this way.
I use a progression that is similar to Mona Brookes ("Drawing with Older
Children and Teens")
-doodle
-flat styled drawing (with 7th grader, we use logos--they love it)
-shaded drawing from a photo
-figure drawing (from live model)
first I get them comfortable working within the 2D plane, then I ask them to
take what they see in 3D (from observation) and translate that into the 2D
surface of a drawing. With my students I have found it helpful to walk
before asking them to sprint.
I suppose I teach art in a fairly grammatical way--meaning I am teaching
basic "reading and writing" skills for the visual language we call art. Will
some of my students become visual poets? I think so and hope so. Will all
of them? No, but if they see the value in visual expression, that's great.
If all they remember is having a good time with art, well, at least that's
something--many parents I talk to recall hating art.
