Elementary Art - Teaching Methods that Promote Learning

I believe the best teachers use multiple methods of teaching, and adapt those to the individual classes they teach.  Not all students will respond in the same way to different forms of teaching, however, I feel that the best approach is to try to be as varied as possible from the beginning, to keep students engaged.

When I was in college for my undergraduate degree, I had to take a few World/American history courses (not Art History, those came later), and in high school and my first history classes in college, it was my least favorite subject.  Most of the classes were focused on the politics of the time, or general dates and facts of the people at the time, and all of them "taught from the book."  We had to read about these times in our text books, which were almost exactly what was reiterated to us in the lectures.  We listened, gathered the facts and then regurgitated them back to our teachers and professors by way of tests.  I was looking forward to the day I no longer had to take history classes.  That is until I took a history course with a female professor (her name unfortunately escapes me at the moment), who taught the class in a completely different way.  The course was on American history from around the 1500's until early 20th century.  We did have a book, but instead of having us read and then listen to a lecture practically verbatim, the professor would come in and just talk off the top of her head, and tell stories about the historic times we were learning.  She would interject with personal anecdotes, and I would sit and listen fascinated by her story telling abilities.  Instead of asking us to read and memorize a list of dates and facts, she had us watch movies about the topics we were learning about (the Salem Witch trials, or slavery, for example), which reinforced visually what we were learning.  She also had us take the topics we were most interested in, do research outside of our text books by reading interesting historical books that were written about the topics, and write papers that included not just regurgitated facts, but also our own opinions and thoughts about the way things were.   She employed a multimodal way of teaching that completely changed my view on history. History became one of my favorite topics and still is to this day.  Although I went on after that class to take art history classes that were similar to the ones I had taken before, I was able to start to think more critically of what I learned, and was more interested in doing further research beyond just memorizing dates and names.  Not only did my professor teach in a way that made me excited to learn, about a topic I had previously had NO interest in, she actually taught me ways to be a better teacher overall, long before I even thought about teaching.  She taught me about being a connoisseur of a topic, taking all of the elements of something and knowing them fully, so that you can combine the aspects to create a dynamic and unforgettable curriculum. 

As I am learning to be an art educator, I find myself remembering my own learning experiences and trying to teach in a way that is both engaging, memorable and will connect to the students who are not just interested in making art, but also those who think that art is a waste of time.  My undergraduate professor did that for me, with history, and even though I don't consider history a large part of my career, it is something that continues to fascinate me and interest me and informs what I do as an artist and in my life in general.  If I can get students to feel that way about art, for those making it a career and those who are not, I truly feel that future generations will be living happier, more fulfilled and well rounded lives.

Elementary Art - Lesson Planning Using Traditional Media

"Learning how to manipulate materials is an important part of developing a sense of self in relation to the physical world.  The use of a variety of materials can help young students to begin to understand that they can make their own mark on the world.  In learning that they can create something, they begin to develop a sense of the power of humans in general to create their environments, and their own power as individual to make a contribution.  In this way, students can develop a sense of their relationship to visual culture, including an understanding of the specific ways in which they can contribute to it." - Boughton & Freedman

As I mentioned in my previous post, I truly believe that knowing the origins of something, not just reading about but actually partaking in the actions, materials and ways of doing something that is considered "old fashioned", "obsolete" or "traditional" is very important to the development of artistic ability and also appreciation.  It creates a respect not just for the ways things were, but also for the new technology that we have, which makes thing so much easier and accessible.  The very act of "getting messy" with materials ignites all of the senses, and connects on a deeper level than just using a digital or computerized tool.  New technology can sometimes separate us from what is created as if we are surgeons performing a delicate procedure through a curtain.  The traditional methods of art making give us the opportunity to know creating at the most base level - through touch, sight, sound and smell (and taste?).

During my time as a clinical teacher, my fourth graders first project was to create a collage (or assemblage) out of several materials including magazines, stickers, sequins, ribbon, glitter and more.  They used glue to assemble their works on canvas boards.  At one point, one of the students poured some glitter onto her canvas board that had glue and let some of it spill off onto the table and floor.  She expressed some concern about the mess.  I came up and said "Making the mess is part of the fun, isn't it?" She laughed and relaxed a bit, and agreed.  It was fun to give them a safe space to make a mess, because that can be a huge part of the creative process.  Sometimes neatness and order are necessary for a calming and productive environment, but the opportunity to create without fear of keeping things "clean" can lead to greater risk taking and more meaningful art.   Of course, I would still encourage students to clean up after themselves, but not to worry about the proverbial "staying within the lines." That tactile experience of feeling and working with materials can lead to "more state mindfulness and broader attentional focus (Kaczmarek, 2016)." Those are working skills that are not just beneficial to creating art, but also throughout other school subjects as well.  This speaks to the interdisciplinary aspect of art, as well as combining things such as visual culture within the school curriculum.  The more interested the student is, the more focused and aware they will be and willing to learn.

References:

Boughton, D., & Freedman, K. (n.d). Chapter 1 – Introduction to Art Education. In Elementary art education: A practical approach to teaching visual culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Stanko-Kaczmarek, M. & Kaczmarek, L. (2016) Effects of Tactile Sensations during Finger Painting on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Scope of Attention, Creativity Research Journal, 28:3, 283-288, DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2016.1189769 

Elementary Art - Creating with Newer Media and Performance

Technology is constantly changing.  There always seems to be a new device, a new app or a new way of creating every year.  How can we keep up with the rapid growth and flux of new and emerging media?  Although we can learn about it in school, it seems that often once we learn something fully, it becomes obsolete.  We are therefore, constantly learning, alongside our students and even often from them.  This does not make the educator obsolete, but rather redefines our role in the classroom.  We become a mediator, a facilitator and a collaborator.

Learning happens everywhere, and doesn't stop when a student leaves school.  Humans learn throughout their lives from each other and their experiences, and having the strong foundation of confidence in your ability to harness that knowledge into new forms of seeing the world can provide you with the tools and skills to live a more successful, productive and happy life. This foundation starts with the teacher, and these life skills are taught in the classroom.  It is our job as art educators to open up these opportunities for our students.  Using new technology is one way to help them cultivate their skills as both artist and scientist.  It combines creativity with the newest forms of tools at our disposal - tools that they will not only see in their art room, but also use throughout their lives.

Although I am a strong advocate for newer technology, I think that having the knowledge of what has gone before is really important when implementing it. If we only learn to write by typing on a computer, if it breaks, are we unable to communicate?  We need to crawl before we walk and walk before we run.  This creates a deeper appreciation of our tools and a fundamental knowledge of the way things work.  When I was in college, I went from using film and a dark room, to film and a scanner with Photoshop, and shortly after graduating, technology changed again and I had to buy a digital SLR camera.  Film still lingered, and does to this day, but mostly in a nostalgic or hobby sort of way.  It has a certain aesthetic that is slowly but surely dying, as the people who are learning today were born at the time that digital was emerging as the primary way of doing things.  However, I do think it is important for students to learn about film and USE it, to see it on its most basic level, so that they can truly wrap their minds around how the new technology was built.  To not be able to instantly see what photos they are taking, and to gauge lighting, and focus and depth of field and shutter speed based on their knowledge, rather than what the camera tells them is "correct." To experience the mistakes that inevitably will happen; to encourage them to take risks as they move up to new technology and have it "easy."  To give them the confidence to know that they can do this, because they could do it the hard way.

When cameras were invented, I think people assumed that painting and painters, such as those who would paint portraits, would become obsolete, since we were able to capture "truth" in likeness.  However, even though painting has become less of a "necessity" in life, it has never gone away.  It remains as fine of an art form as ever, and garners a great deal of respect from those who do appreciate art.  It simply has been redefined, just as the role of the art teacher has become redefined, and the tools we use have been redefined.  Art, education and technology will be constantly in flux far into the future.

Elementary Art - Understanding and Using Visual Qualities

Teaching visual culture at the elementary level requires a deeper knowledge of the elements that go beyond the traditional ones of line, value, color, shape form and texture.  As educators, we must be aware of the  ideational content as well.  “Ideational content refers to the ideas people express through art and about art (Freedman & Boughton, nd).”  This can include the subject, story or symbols used to express meaning in an art work “through the use of technical skills and the visual tools used to create form (Freedman & Boughton, nd).”  Four tools that are used are objects, space, light and time that are combined to create new forms of visual culture that must be critically examined in an artistic way.  Ideational information, along with formal qualities and technical skills, “must be infused into a visual culture curriculum so that their relationship is understood by students as they learn (Freedman & Boughton, nd).”  This provides a dynamic experience for students to learn about art, their culture, their histories and apply their knowledge inside and outside of the school environment.

Lessons that combine all of these elements are important to implement, especially as technology and the access to it advances.  A “1 to 1” classroom environment  - where students and mobile learning devices such as iPads are in equal numbers and used throughout the day to teach, learn and create - is becoming more and more commonplace, even at the elementary level.  In order to combine this part of our culture - which could be described as “digital visual culture,” teachers must be prepared to have a knowledge of how to use the technology and how to effectively apply it to art.  For a previous curriculum class, I combined a lesson I had found from Tracy Fugelstad’s blog, http://drydenart.weebly.com/fugleblog, and combined it with an art lesson about one point perspective and character creation.  The lesson included working with a student to teach him about one point perspective, had him create his own character, the environment his character would be in, then draw the environment using his perspective knowledge.  Then, instead of keeping the lesson as a drawing, using green screen technology and his iPad, I had him insert himself into the scene as his superhero character.  He performed as his character, and was able to see how the use of one point perspective made the environment look more 3 dimensional.  This combination of traditional and digital techniques provided him a more dynamic lesson that kept his interest and taught him a multi faceted lesson, rather than just a single technical skill. 

This lesson used the tools of space and time, as well as visual culture to teach my “student” (my son) about more formal artistic qualities.  It was a learning experience for both of us, and was fun at the same time. 

References

Freedman K., and Boughton D. (e-version) Elementary Art Education: A Practical Approach to Teaching Visual Culture.

Elementary Art - Classroom Management

There are two aspects to classroom management that, when handled well, can provide an effective environment for children to learn and grow.  Both are equally important, and both have many nuances to them that must be addressed uniquely, depending on the location you teach, the age you teach, the personality of the students that you have, and the number of students.  The first is classroom organization.  This can include how your room is set up, how you prepare or research for what you teach, the resources you have including equipment, supplies and technology, and the use of visual and auditory elements such as color, lighting, noise, seating, furniture and visual culture references or classroom decor.  The second aspect is managing the students themselves and student cooperation.  There must be a time and opportunity to address individual student needs, and allow each student to create and learn with some freedom.  However, within a flexible environment, there must be set rules and guidelines to follow, especially at the elementary level, so that students are provided with structure and a safe space, that teaches them to respect their environment, their tools, each other and their teacher.

For my first experience with clinical teaching, I was in charge of a 4th grade class. I had to set up a temporary space for the students to learn outside of their normal classroom.  The first day we chose to set up in the music room, and had to arrange several tables and chairs so that the students sat together in groups.  I had to keep in mind that they needed to be able to see me, hear me and still have room enough for me to move around the tables to help them on an individual basis.  We set up the room with 4 tables for 29 students.  I was not able to control any other visual or auditory aspects of the room, since it was a temporary space and I was only teaching there for the one day, however, the use of tables and chairs was similar to how their regular classroom was set up.  I did, however, have more control over student management and cooperation.  Since I had never met them before, I went around the room and asked each child to say their name and one favorite “thing”, such as a color, food, art technique, etc.  Although this took a while with such a large class, it was a great way to initialize getting to know the kids, and let them know in a subtle way that I care about their individual needs and interests.  The next thing I did was set up a few ground rules that centered around the word “respect.”  I told them during the class time I had with them, we would need to have respect for the art, the materials, the space, each other and for me and any other teachers that were helping.  I reinforced this by showing them visually on a PowerPoint presentation, and also asked them to repeat back the rules to me throughout the lesson.

Throughout the class, I was able to engage them several times by using a trick their regular teacher had taught me, by singing out “Class?” and they would say back “Yes?” to get their attention.  It was important to me to get their attention first and the next step I will take is to reinforce the rules.   I think that with proper timing, attention to their needs and more experience, I will be able to maintain a successful classroom environment.

Elementary Art - Themes of Visual Culture

There is such a vast amount of visual culture that we can teach our children, it is hard to choose where to begin.  However, working with students and asking them what they are interested in is a great way to start exploring visual culture. "If we intend to develop interpretive skills in children it is important for them to have opportunities to study topics that are of deep interest to them since learning is motivated best if interest is already established the child (Boughton & Freedman, nd, p. 1)." In addition to that, categorizing the types of visual culture into themes can provide a great way to organize what tools can be used to teach students in a focused and interdisciplinary way.  A " thematic approach provides infinite possibilities for the development of ideas that builds upon the interest of students (Boughton & Freedman, nd, p. 24)." As an art teacher, I hope to connect what I teach to what students learn outside of the classroom, and in that way, they can apply their learning to their lives.  

Even though I have yet to have formal teaching experience, I do remember as a child learning lessons from my visual culture that I was not aware of learning until much later in life.  For example, one of my all time favorite fantasy movies, Labyrinth, has a female protagonist that overcomes a powerful male adversary to save her brother.  Her tag line "You have no power over me," is her secret weapon she uses to thwart his attempts to control her.  As I watched this as a young child, I had no idea that this was highly influencing me to recognize the control I have over my own life, and as a female, it also had important strong undertones for me to learn such as feminism, female empowerment and self confidence.  These topics were a big part of my identity formation, and still influence me today. 

For my tech class this semester, we have to create a video game (will post link below once it is completed).  I decided to base my game on the movie Labyrinth.  It will feature the main character, Sarah, in a scene where she is trapped in a bubble in a ballroom setting.  Although it is a beautiful fantasy, and her foe, the Goblin King, has set it up to make her forget about attaining her true goal, she knows in her heart something is not right. After some time spent dancing, she runs away and uses a chair to break the bubble and escape.  The game will feature this same theme, but as a teacher, I can discuss how this also mirrors social issues that are part of our lives today.  We often hear about how everyone lives "in a bubble," satisfied to be unaware of what is happening outside of our lives, communities and cultures.  By breaking through those boundaries, we see that there are many challenges, but they are worth the ultimate goals we can achieve.  In the movie, Sarah was able to not only get her ultimate goal, but she also was able to gain friends she didn't expect and realize the strength she has, giving her more self confidence and self love. Using these types of visual culture artworks, we can combine art making with identity formation, life skills, community involvement (or the inspiration to reach outside of your own bubble) and eventually, the power to change the world. 

Although I have had a great life, I wonder how different it could be if I had been able to explore my interests in school at a young age, and taught to think critically of the things I was able to watch and see on a daily basis outside of school.  Seeing both the bad and the good of visual culture is important, even at a young age, and I look forward to helping my students take their interests to the next level.

References

Freedman K., and Boughton D. (e-version) Elementary Art Education: A Practical Approach to Teaching Visual Culture.

Elementary Art - Lesson Planning

“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”  
― John Dewey 

John Dewey believed that curriculum in schools is not a fixed thing, that it is ever changing to reflect the time is a part of.  What made curriculum successful 100 years ago is not going to be the same thing today.  Curriculum should reflect the interests, lives and culture of the students who are learning from it.  Visual culture has a huge part in this type of education, especially when learning about art. Art encompasses everything from what is in our museums and galleries to what is on our streets, in our homes, and on our screens.   

What kind of lessons can we teach to students who are influenced by so many things outside of their school?  We can take what they know and integrate it with what they are learning.  We can start with their own histories, cultures and interests and compare and contrast them to the lives, cultures and interests of those they don't know.  Art is the ultimate and universal tool to communicate thoughts, ideas and messages that can influence and change the lives of others around you.   It is important to first teach understanding of our world, and other people, and then to teach creative ways to connect to the world, and then build upon those as the changes come.  "This means that art curriculum includes social, psychological, historical, material and other types of information about and analysis of great works of popular and fine art and artists as well as students’ own artistic production.  In other words, contemporary art curriculum is a creative process that is the realization of a social consciousness concerning art making and viewing (Boughton & Freedman)." 

For our first lesson, my teaching partner and I are using a book that our students are currently reading "The Kindness Club" by Courtney Sheinmel.  In it, a student starts a club focused on being kind to others, and makes a birthday party for another girl who recently lost her mother.  For our lesson, we are going to discuss several things, including why is it important to be kind, how we can show kindness to others, and then create visual representations of these acts of kindness.  We are going to discuss how visual art sends a message to others, so we are not just celebrating kindness for ourselves, but sharing the art with others to spread that message of kindness.  We are also going to discuss how public art is part of our visual culture, and how art on the street that is accessible to everyone is sometimes a better way to share art than keeping it locked up in a museum or a gallery.  We hope to incorporate all of these lessons in our teaching, while also creating artwork.  We want to combine meaning and personal story with art making.  "In art as in all school subjects, education should be as meaningful and authentic as possible.  As a result, curriculum should include opportunities for student self-directed learning as well as teacher directed learning (Boughton & Freedman)."  In this way, the students will not only be learning from us, but learning from each other and from themselves. 

References 

Boughton, D., & Freedman, K. (n.d.). Elementary art education: A practical approach to teaching visual culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 

Elementary Art - Artistic Development and Identity Construction

Images by me, circa 1990

As art educators, it is important to keep in mind the patterns of artistic development of students when teaching, and even more important to guide children beyond their current level.  In order to do this effectively, taking a child's history, culture and interests into account when planning curriculum and assessing artwork is essential.  In order to provide challenges without frustrations, I feel that teachers should allow students to develop individual projects over time, and provide periodic critiques without fear of failure.  This can lead to greater risk taking, but also build confidence and give the student a sense of identity.   Lowenfeld's stages of development are a good starting point, however, I still feel that each class should be evaluated individually.  If students are performing above their developmental level, that does not mean they should go unchallenged.  I think a big part of being able to give students room to grow and challenge themselves is not to assess every single project they create.  Allowing them to explore ideas and make changes and updates to artwork can be very helpful in fostering creativity. 

I remember as a young child, I was a big fan of Archie comic books, and I have several old sketchbooks filled with copies of my favorite characters.  However, these were all done at home, outside of school and were never shared with anyone, especially not my peers or art teachers.  Art at school was more like a series of craft projects, where we all copied what the teacher was doing.  By the time I got to 8th grade, I was dissatisfied with the art curriculum and only continued with art at home, until I got into high school.  Luckily, my parents were very supportive of my "hobby", and my development as an artist was not too hindered by lack of art education.  However, if I had the opportunity to explore my interests in school, I feel that I would have been able to develop even more as an artist at a younger age, and gain more confidence in myself and my ability as an artist.  Now that I a mother of two elementary age children, I can see their artistic development at home without having had too much instruction.  They are excited to create art and often use their favorite tv show characters and family members in the scenes they create.   At school, their art education is not specifically explored yet, but rather incorporated into other classroom subjects in an interdisciplinary way.  Although I find this to be beneficial to topics outside of art, I hope in their future that they are given the opportunity to create art for self expression, and bring their interests into it as well. I hope with the skills I am gaining through my own schooling, I can help them develop beyond their skill levels and gain confidence to be creative and unique.  I am also excited to be able to incorporate visual culture and student interests into my own curriculum in the future.  

Elementary Art - Community, Culture and Critique

When teaching students art, it is important to pull from all aspects of their life, including what they have experienced outside of school.  Their past, including their cultural heritage, visual culture and special interests, should all be incorporated into the curriculum.  It is also important to teach students about cultures other than their own, and learn to appreciate others who may differ from them.  I feel that with my limited cultural background, I could benefit from visiting artists and arts partnerships that can teach students from a perspective that is closer to the source, rather than teach filtered through my own Western lens.  This connection with the world outside of their own, past and present, can lead to greater confidence in student's art making and their ability to see the world through a broader view.

Part of widening this point of view is critique. Teaching students to view art and culture with a critical lens is important when teaching them more traditional fine art, but also when viewing art that is a part of our every day lives and in our popular culture.  Getting them to question what they see beyond what is on the surface, like why a certain artwork was made and who was it made for, and what it is trying to say.  It is important for them to take on this type of questioning when looking at other artists work, but also at their own, when they are creating it.  Even at the elementary level, students can participate in this mode of questioning.  Discussing how certain styles and colors can bring around certain emotions can be a simple way to get them thinking beyond the customary "I like it" or "I don't like it."  They can move into the "because" part of art exploration. Pushing them to dig deeper and get the full story can not only lead to taking greater risks, and making better artwork, but also lead them to be better people and more well rounded members of society.

Elementary Art - Making and Viewing Visual Culture

In order to create visual culture, one must view it.  In order to do that effectively, we have to create critical thinkers of our students, rather than those who take our visual culture at face value and enjoy imagery based on what is most popular, or what someone else feels is important. “Critical reflection is important to artistic production and to everyday viewing experience in a democracy where analytical viewing skills are ideally necessary to assist individuals in making important decisions” (Freedman & Boughton, p.4).  I think an important part of critical reflection is to look inward, not just at what you like and dislike, but examine the place you come from, the culture you are a part of, and how you are privileged or otherwise.  Starting from a place within, rather than the socially influenced is important in developing the confidence in student’s criticality, so that they can form their own opinions, make informed decisions and ultimately, create more meaningful art that is both powerful on a personal level and engages with society.

It is important to maintain this level of constant investigation, into ourselves and what we create, as well as what others think and do.  We can start by teaching this to the very youngest of children, as they do notice their worlds around them and their visual culture, practically from birth.  My children have been viewing television and You Tube from a very young age, however, visual culture is not just what we see on our screens.  It is all around us and influencing us on every level.  Today, I took my kids to Dairy Queen, which we pass almost every day on the way to and from their school.  Although we have been there many times and they love ice cream in general, today my 8 year old son noticed the Dairy Queen logo, and he said “It looks like lips.” Instead of saying “Oh yeah, it does!” and leaving it at that, I kept the conversation going and said, “Maybe they did that on purpose, so that you would think of your mouth when you saw it and how delicious their ice cream is.”  He found that interesting, and I told him that a lot of logos are made to give us messages that aren’t readily apparent, so that we get the message they want to give us without knowing quite why.  This type of critical thinking is important for self-reflection, because you want to understand your feelings and why are you having them when you react to imagery, and not just make snap judgments.

Image retrieved from: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/index.ssf/2017/12/dairy_queen_sign_auction.html

Image retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/en/lips-lipstick-mouth-red-teeth-2024681/

It is also important to teach students that visual culture is not just trickery or subliminal, but that it can be used to inspire new ideas.  My brother, Andrew Lowery, started a company called RealWear, which created the HMT-1,  a wearable tablet computer, meant to facilitate training and industry.  The design was based on the character Boba Fett’s “Range Finder” from the Star Wars movies (check out the full story athttps://www.realwear.com/products, and scroll to the bottom of the page).  Although the original was not functional, the idea behind this inspired new technology, and that type of art making and popular culture has done the same thing many times before and probably will far into the future.  Not just in a galaxy far, far away, but on our own planet.  The meaning behind art does not just have to be an emotional response.  It can be functional as well.  It can inspire us to live better lives.

Images retrieved from: http://www.realwear.com

References

Boughton, D., & Freedman, K. (n.d.). Elementary art education: A practical approach to

teaching visual culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Products - RealWear. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2018, from http://realwear.com/products

Elementary Art - Introduction to Visual Culture

Visual culture encompasses a broad range of what we, as a society, see every day.  From the moment we wake up and check our cell phones, or turn on our TV and computers, our eyes and minds are bombarded with an endless barrage of imagery that defines who we are, what we like, what we want to buy and who we are buying it from.  It encompasses the aesthetics of the every day, and the imagery and items we create that come from those aesthetics.  The broad term of visual culture includes fine art, however, the definition of “fine art” is transforming itself.  The future seems to be leaning towards a melding of everything we see and all that we create as “art”, in one form or another.   Culture is created through a group of people or beings that influence each other, and this can easily be seen throughout our lives in the clothing we wear, the cars we drive, the movies and tv shows and comic books at which we look.  With the advent of the Internet, the world has become a smaller place to live, as we can now not only see the culture of own lives, but those of others all over the world.  Needless to say, visual culture and art is everywhere.  It is not just a part of our lives, it has become life itself.

How can we, as art educators, ignore the visual influence that is constantly with us from the moment we wake up to the moment we sleep at night?  To teach about a single timeline, or a single group of people or a single way to make “fine art” is to say that that which makes up our history and has influences our lives to this day should be disregarded, seems to be at odds with living a complete life.  Education does not begin and end when a student enters and leaves a classroom, it is constant and unending throughout life.  John Dewey said in The School and Society (1956):

“From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning in school. That is the isolation of the school–its isolation from life. When the child gets into the schoolroom he has to put out of his mind a large part of the ideas, interests and activities that predominate in his home and neighborhood.”

To combine those influences and to critically investigate art, visual culture and history is to combine the lives we lead every day with the atmosphere of learning.  It takes a once narrow road of education and splits it into a lattice of ideas, images, cross cultures and information that was not previously accessible or attainable.  It teaches an ethic of understanding to our children and also teaches them to question everything, to see it from different perspectives, and in that way, they will better know themselves and each other.  “In order to effectively teach art today, interdisciplinary and multi-modal connections must be made for students, culturally diverse experiences must be provided, and visual technologies must be understood” (Freedman & Boughton, p.12).

Works Cited

Boughton, D., & Freedman, K. (n.d.). Elementary art education: A practical approach to teaching visual culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Dewey, J. 1956. The Child and the Curriculum and The School and Society. Chicago: Phoenix