Hi Henry, A little background: Last year was the 1st time since 1993 that
my school had an art program. When I came on board 5 years ago, I found
that only a couple of the teachers were doing a bit of art with their kids
and had had DBAE training in the late 80's (like I'd had). I taught the
bilingual kinders for 2 years and regular 2nd for 1 year before I became
the visual arts teacher last year. I still find DBAE very useful. But after
immersing myself in this VCAE dialogue, I realize that I've been doing
that, too. I don't think that they necessarily have to be seen as
incompatible. But then, I'm not a purist anything.
I, too, find my 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders doing better portraits than some
of my 4th and all of my 5th graders. Since I had many of the 4th graders
either as kinders or 2nd graders, I'm thinking there's something to
teaching conventions. I also think there may something Piagetian about kids
able to "get it" easier at an earlier developmental stage, or at least
before they reach the tweener-self-conscious-I-don't-risk-anybody-laughing-
at-me stage.
As to going against the grain of originality, I believe that they have to
know the "rules" before they can break them.
BTW, que' significa tortolita?
Susan In OR
> First and Second graders are doing better
> > faces than the 4th and 5th graders over all now. >
> > Building that liberty is a very important goal and one that wasn't
> > addressed in my art ed program. Kids grow initially it seems by moving
> > from new convention to new convention. I does seem to go against the
> > grain of original art to teach that way tho. You have to balance one
> > against the other. Having a decent convention will allow the transition
> > to originality to flow more smoothly I think. We'll see.
> >
> > cheers
> > -henry
