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Mr. xxxxxxx, President
Board of School Trustees
xxxxxxxxxxxxx School
Corporation
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx
Dear Mr. xxxxxxxx:
I noted with interest
several recent news
reports in the XXXXXXXXX (local newspaper) describing parent
dissatisfaction in
the quality of the
visual art education in your elementary schools. You
are fortunate to have parents to take an interest in
their in their children's education. We
all know too many children lack concerned
parents supporting their
learning.
Please allow me to articulate
some concerns which may be
helpful to you in dealing with this issue in your upcoming meetings
about
this.
Educationally, you have to be
sure that every other
position in your system is more important than the ones being requested. If you listen to these parents, they
are trying to tell you they disagree with the priorities you have set
for their
children's education. They've seen
better in New Hampshire. It hurts
our pride to be behind in Indiana.
Your
district has some beautiful facilities. I
was really surprised to read the cost
argument against art teachers. What is
best for the children? I'm sure any
administration wanting to provide
quality art instruction
can find a way to do it.
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In setting priorities we
have to make the hard decisions
of where to spend our budgets. In
most cases, when classroom teachers are asked if they want art
teachers, they
are highly in favor of them. They
know the children's needs will be better met. In
most cases, the classroom teachers take a slightly larger
class size but are still happier. What
they really like is the fact that they
get a break in their busy
week. Parents who like the program
help drum up the taxpayer support as well.
By now you've surely
guessed, I am writing from the
perspective of an art advocate. I
am a practicing artist and a professor of art at Goshen College. I have a doctorate in art education from
the University of Kansas. I have
been an art teacher in public schools. Since
1970, I have been privileged at Goshen
College to teach an art
course for elementary education majors. Based
on the ability level of our graduates as
well as many observations
in the schools, I am very much aware of the art teaching ability of the
typical
elementary classroom teacher.
Out of 120 some credit
hours, our elementary education
students get 2 credit hours of art appreciation, and 3 credit hours of
art
teaching methods. Most university
programs provide them considerably less art education than we do at
Goshen
College. Even so, most of our
graduates are still ill prepared to teach art to children.
Unfortunately, because of
the situation in schools like
yours, many of our students arrive at college with essentially no
knowledge or
skill in visual art. The same
college students arrive with many years of preparation and reasonable
ability
in English, math, science, and the social sciences.
Their public school education has provided
virtually
continuous classes in these fields. However,
in visual art in Indiana many only
have a few weeks in Junior
High when they actually see a trained art teacher.
These are the same people you are putting back
into the
school as art teachers when you neglect to employ art specialists.
Much of my time with
elementary education majors is spent
helping them overcome their anxieties. Many
draw at the third or fourth grade level. Because
of their own educational deprivation
during the
critical developmental years, they have avoided any natural
self-learning in
art. In addition to not having
developed basic skills, most are totally illiterate when it comes to
design
theory, art history, aesthetics, and art criticism.
Most of them, even the women students, can't
give me the
name of one nationally or internationally known women artist, living or
dead,
when they first come into my class.
The saddest comment of all
is when I hear them say,
"But I'm not creative." Of course
creativity is much broader than
visual art and some are
actually quite creative in many other areas of the their lives. Most become more creative when it is
encouraged and rewarded.
Your elementary teachers
are qualified to teach art in
the legal sense in Indiana, but do they actually teach art to children? Do they know how to teach drawing in ways
which do not intimidate and frighten, but still build expressive and
observational skills and self-esteem at the same time?
Do they understand how to meaningfully
evaluate a work of art and its contribution to society?
Most of what I see being
done in the name of art by
classroom generalists isn't art at all. It
is simply making things while using art
materials. The teachers are merely acting
as
supply clerks. It is a kind of
child labor. The children are
taught to follow directions in order to produce. They
are asked to do but not to see. They make
stuff, but it is neither
meaningful nor expressive. It is
formula stuff. It is more like
slave labor than like art.
Some children may enjoy
this break from the books, but
not because it is fulfilling in the sense that they have gained any
insights
into themselves or their worlds. At best
this might be some sort of preparation
for factory work. We all know technology
and developing
countries are displacing the factory working class.
Successful citizens of today and in the future
are those
able to work with concepts. The
typical "art" I see being overseen by generalist teachers does not
teach conceptualization skills.
Art education has been
considered a frill for so long,
that most adults in our society don't realize what they are missing. Yet everybody wants to be better at
drawing, better at singing, better at dancing, and better at expressing
themselves in every way. As you
know, literacy and knowledge has many facets beyond the mathematical,
and
verbal.
Mrs. XXXXXXX as reported
in the (newspaper) only tells a
small part of the art education story. She
articulates one benefit of having art
teachers. i.e. "... children need the arts
to become flexible creative thinkers...." In
my experience I have seen the enhancement of creativity,
but I have also seen children find self-worth when they saw that they
could
produce expressions that dealt with their own lives and experiences. They are amazed when they see the work
of famous artists who have had the same human concerns they are
experiencing in
their lives.
I've watched
kindergartners who haven't learned to write
their own names produce a complex story with pictures. I see them
learning how
to think. I see them ponder.
I see them learn how to make their own
decisions. They are figuring the
thing out. No one is telling them
the answers. They are learning
that they are persons who can produce answers both meaningful and
expressive. I see them feel
pride. I see them becoming aware
of their own bodies and their minds. Children
who draw frequently when they are
small become very smart
adults. Their minds have the
ability to deal with conceptualizations. Having
grown up learning to attend to a mental
task, they surpass others
who have been mainly been taught to follow directions.
I have personally seen
children with otherwise short
attention spans spend long periods of time pondering and working on
their art
task when they cared for it because it was their baby.
I have seen the impulsive become more
deliberate and the thoughtful become more expressive.
I have seen third graders
develop their observational
skills and drawing ability under the guidance of skillful teachers who
can
explain to them how to look at something, without ever having to draw
it for
them. They grow up proud to be
able to draw.
Persons who fail to learn
to read and write lack
self-esteem. The same is true for
those who lack the ability to express themselves with drawing, but it
is easier to
slip by. Just as there are
effective ways to teach reading and writing there are effective ways to
teach
drawing, but few generalist teachers know anything about them. Unfortunately, I've seen too many third
graders get frustrated about their inability while their teachers are
helpless
to know what to do. Of course
drawing is only one aspect of art, other examples are too numerous for
one
letter.
One of my roles is to help
the Indiana Professional
Standards Board review tests used in teacher licensing.
I hope we don't have to count on
generalist teachers to be the art teachers in Indiana in the future. There are states with an art teacher in
every school. You may want to
begin to phase in one grade level per year if you aren't ready to hire
all the
specialists at once. How expensive
could this be? The fairest way for
the children would be to start with the upper grades next year. Add a grade each year until the
transition is complete.
Sincerely,
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Marvin Bartel
Dr. Marvin Bartel, Ed.D.
Professor of Art
Goshen College, Goshen IN 46526
1700 South
Main Street, Goshen, Indiana 46526
Telephone: 574-535-7000
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