Reading Reflection #1

     In Chapter 1 of The Arts and the Creation of Mind, Elliot W. Eisner discusses the ways that art and the arts stimulate the mind.  He encourages art teachers to think about artistic concerns when designing curriculum and to help students learn and think about new ways to interact with their environments.   Traditionally, schools have been interested in quantifiable things, things that can be measured and evaluated.  As Eisner states, “the arts, in contrast, have little room on their agenda for efficiency, at least as a high level value.” (p. xiii).  Eisner discusses the ways that we experience the universe through our senses and the options we have to transform our personal sensory experiences into something public, like a work of art, to share with others.  I like the idea that “Humans can leave a legacy” (p. 3).  It’s like creating a little inheritance.  Then Eisner points out the connections between exploration, imagination and representation.  We think and explore, use our imaginations to create a mental image, then we can stabilize that image with representation to share with others.  We have a dialogue, creating then responding, responding then creating.  As Eisner says, at school, “children learn how to think about the world in new ways.” (p. 9).  We can learn to notice the world in an artistic or aesthetic way, explore new ideas, make our own rules and explore how we feel about what we see and think.  We can learn the basic components of visual form; line, texture, value, etc., mix in some imagination, culture and emotion, and we can create something that resonates with others.

     Chapter 2 looks at some of the different aims of art education advocates.  First, discipline-based art education is discussed.  It is an attempt to put a somewhat scientific, quantifiable structure on art education.  DBAE tries to encompass important aspects of art education, from acquisition of technical skills, new perception and communication about art, cultural and historical understanding and questions about value and taste.  “Art educators found these disciplines in the art studio, in art history, in art criticism and in aesthetics.”(p. 28).  This seems to be the way most of my college art education has occurred.  A number other visions of art education are discussed.  One that I had not thought of was the pragmatic, work-place preparation aspect of arts education.  I have had a few conversations with people about why I want to be an art teacher where they assume that it’s all about crafts and children “expressing themselves”, which was once said with actual finger quotation marks in the air.  I wish I had had the workplace, higher level skills argument to give to them, just because I know that approach would have had some traction with them.  Plus, it’s a good way to “hook” people into appreciating the arts.  Integrated arts curriculums make sense and have a number of benefits and uses.  Eisner has set up a view of art education that we will no doubt explore in more depth. 

   Kerry Freedman’s, Teaching Visual Culture, defines visual culture as “all that is humanly formed and sensed through vision or visualization and shapes the way we live our lives…It includes the fine arts, tribal arts, advertising, popular film and video, folk art, television and other performance, housing and apparel design, computer game and toy design, and other forms of visual production and communication.” (p. 1).  Wow.  That covers pretty much everything.  We, as teachers and students, must navigate and decode the multitude of images we encounter every day.  We learn and change, form new identities as we learn and have interactions with others, both by learning about art/artists and by creating art/being an artist.  With these readings, I have been introduced to a number of historical trends that affected public education in America.  It is interesting to see how art education and education in general has changed through the years, as it responds to changes in the social context of American life.  I think it is important to integrate teaching about visual culture into art education,  it will widen the experiences that students can have as they learn.  I agree with Freedman that “An essential responsibility of education in the future will be to teach students about the power of imagery and the freedoms and responsibilities that come with that power.” (p. 20)