Art is Hard

Clearly, the main reason many students believe art is hard comes from not having been taught how to see or how to use the strategies artists employ when creating art. In general, it has become clear to me—not only from teaching art but also from having art-related conversations through the years—that people forget (or don’t understand) that the visual arts require the synthesis of auditory, visual and kinesthetic skills.

Let’s consider a simple painting example. After I verbally talk through the assignment and check for understanding by asking students to repeat what I said, I model what I am looking for via a demonstration. Students then, on their own, observe the apple on the table, process the spatial information related to relative-size, shape, color, shadow, etc., mix up appropriate colors and then put brush to canvas to record what they see.

That’s quite a bit of information to assimilate when you are first starting out. I try to remind my students that the process gets easier and parts eventually become rote, but it will take time and practice. That doesn’t allay much of their frustration once they delve into the process for themselves.

The Importance of Struggle

Though few adults relish it, struggle is anathema to my students. Filled with fear of failure and/or the embarrassment of being bad at something as “silly” as art, my students habitually teach me new ways they find to avoid doing difficult things.

Generally, I find that there are three keys that make for a successful trip through a class in the visual arts: interest, practice and time. Because my school has few electives, I inevitably deal with students who don’t want to be in my classes. Therefore, interest level is something I contend with almost daily.

I tell my students—especially my seniors—that in college (and in life) they will be required to do things they don’t enjoy. If nothing else, I encourage them to take the challenge and find one new thing to learn every class whether it be about themselves (and how much they struggle with anger when they don’t get what they want) or about the class (and how meaningless to their future they find it). Such a challenge may not make their situation a comfortable one, but developing those kinds of life strategies will help them mature.

Right behind interest level are practice and time, the two inextricably linked. You can’t cut corners in the arts because of the coordination necessary to get better. Few will be fooled if you do. Clearly some move faster along the path towards proficiency because of gifting, but even if you are gifted in an area (e.g., sports, poetry, drawing), at some point, you will plateau and you will need to push yourself to get to that next level. That’s just a fact of life born out by experience.

It is practice or lack thereof that hampers the progress of many of my students. At the beginning of the year, I begin my spiel where I pick a subject—usually a higher math—and explain to them that unless they are going into an engineering or medical field they will forget the majority of it for lack of use. However, if they put in the time and effort, they could learn a life-long hobby that benefits them mentally, physically and emotionally.

Another day I try a “sneak attack” by switching the focus to the amount of practice it took for them to become good at their favorite sport. I ask my students if they remember friends laughing or ridiculing them when they first started playing. Every one of them had such a memory. I usually tag-team this discussion with some research concerning the 10,000 hour rule which piques their interest and sparks good conversation but has yet to translate into greater study of an artistic discipline.

Whether it be a misplaced focus on digital media, weak attention spans or the never-ending expectation for college “excitement,” it didn’t take me more than six months to realize that my student’s personal time is sacred to them—and that means it’s for entertainment and friends, not school.

Therein lies the rub as I bring this article to a close. How can the arts hope to flourish when the focus of my students’ time is on entertainment, things lacking difficulty? Of similar interest would be a discussion of friends and their influence in sports vs. the arts.

So, I’m considering a switch up to the more “traditional” Art I, II, III and IV (AP) structure.

What will changing my curriculum get me?

First, I would be setting things up as units. For me, that would probably mean drawing, painting and ceramics. I will be able to focus on fewer projects or introductory projects that reinforce skill development and then a final project to allow them to showcase what they learned.

Second, the introduction of units would afford me the opportunity to spotlight art historical periods and/or artists versus feeling like I should cover it all.

Third, using the more traditional nomenclature and structure could allow me to control the progress students make.

How might switching to Art I, II, III and IV (AP) hurt me?

Well, first off, I am greatly concerned about those students being able to move through the sequence. I tried this year to implement an Academy with students who believe themselves more dedicated to art as a course, but the restructuring of the schedule at the beginning of the year forced the class to be canceled because of “core” classes which have priority. Would I end up with students who never progress beyond Art II?

Second, would (or should) I keep my other classes: Drawing from Observation, Introduction to Painting and Ceramics classes as separate classes? The unit skills taught in Art I and II would be identical to those taught in those classes, though the level of detail wouldn’t be there, and I would change the projects. But, then again, I could check for interest from the students and then work behind the scenes to provide more advanced students with independent studies.

Lastly, how would I deal with seniors who need two art classes to graduate on time? How would I refine a student’s growing skills in Art II when they are taking Art I concurrently? How could I hold a student accountable for a class they don’t have the knowledge or skill to handle?

Lots of questions. No sure direction for me, yet. Any thoughts from those who presently teach the Art I, II, III and IV (AP) class lineup?

First, I think Republican hubris played a huge role in the Democrat (and Obama’s) rise to power. Beginning in 2006 with losses in both the House and the Senate, the Republicans began their steady downward spiral to where they are today. They squandered their opportunity when they were in the same position that the Dems will be in after January. They, ironically, conducted themselves as traditional Democrats and increased the size of government, violating that and other core conservative values. They appeared to believe themselves untouchable. Sadly, they found out they weren’t.

George Bush, in his last four years in office, also squandered much (though hampered in the last two years with an oppositional House and Senate). He simply didn’t do much to further conservative thought and remained, in my mind, aloof as the figurehead of the Republican party. The public’s view of him as everything wrong with our country (not a fair estimate, but understandable) hurt any chance for a Republican to take office. (Ironically, we’ll see how the Dems spin the fact that they have control of both Houses and the Presidency but ALSO have such low approval ratings—even lower than Bush’s.)

Second, and most importantly, I believe the election of Barack Obama had much to do with the failure of the Church to effectively communicate its message to it’s own people. Yes, I didn’t say communicate its message to the World, but to its OWN people—both black and white. While I recently heard that polls indicate that the African-American vote helped Obama, it didn’t put him over the top. There wasn’t a significant increase, overall, in the number of black voters (with the increase coming from in younger voters). Rather, it was white independents and moderates who elected Barack Obama. Nevertheless, I find two points interesting.

First, the African-American community as a whole votes very traditionally on issues such as family and abortion. Ironically, they selected a candidate who is anything but traditional. Did the A-A community know Obama’s stances and voting history on these core moral issues? Or, was it more that they chose to overlook it—much like most of America—in favor of economy and the prize of having a black President? My own experience in urban education leads me to believe that they abdicated their role as salt and light to the World in favor of race. That’s a harsh statement, but, as I indicated, it holds true to what I hear consistently in my all-minority school.

As I indicated previously, polls show that moderates and independents won this election for Obama. Most of those were white. The present state of the mainline Protestant and Catholic churches also shows a clear willingness to PUT ASIDE mandates about life and the family in favor of progressive politics. After all, in their view, times change and the Word of God is a book written by men that must be revisited as society evolves.

I wonder what would happen if evangelical churches made their focus—over the next four years—one of educating their congregations about the core values of the Christian church. Because the Church has a different vocabulary—a different way of looking at the World—our account of life and meaning is vastly different. I have to agree with Robert Lewis Wilken:

Nothing is more needful today than the survival of Christian culture, because in recent generations this culture has become dangerously thin. At this moment in the Church’s history in this country (and in the West more generally) it is less urgent to convince the alternative culture in which we live of the truth of Christ than it is for the Church to tell itself its own story and to nurture its own life, the culture of the city of God, the Christian republic.

I can’t help but wonder what would happen in the 2010 and 2012 elections if the Church was grounded in this way.