6/3 Reading Response

Juicey quotes and points from the Freedman chapter (1):

"Images are becoming more pervasive than texts..." pg. 20  -->  Images on the internet, tv, youtube, magazines, music videos, and even music sources are rapidly increasing frequency.  People of all ages are being bombarded with visual culture at an escalating rate.  Why images instead of text?  Because images can be read at a glance, with little effort can make a point or evoke emotions.

The first paragraph on page 18 discusses the viscous cycle of old, tired teaching objectives/styles being passed on from generation to generation of teachers.  The students are CHANGING every year so why on earth wouldn't the teaching?

"Narrow learning objectives and assessment can result in curriculum that is about what can easily be taught and assessed, rather than what students should learn." pg. 12  --> THIS IS SO TRUE!  Curriculum drives me crazy because it seems to lack the luster of what is most important.  It is not requiring meaning making, self exploration, deep visual interpretation, etc. Curriculum is not blurring the boundaries between mediums and subjects.  It is not requiring connections be made to the NOW and relevant happenings of the world.

"...schooling functions as a form of social control." pg. 12 --> Whether we like it or not schooling does create a norm within our culture.  For this reason it is crucial that these basic norms being taught be relevant to today and preparatory for the future.

"The philosophical debate that emerged in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries concerning the character of knowledge, nature, and culture enabled both progressive thoughts and its internal contradictions."  pg. 10 --> I feel that a similar debate has been steaming for some time and has begun to boil.  Changes have begun, but they need to flush through the education system as a whole instead of just bits and pieces.

"Bourdieu and other theorists have argued that education is reproductive--that is, it reproduces the culture in which it is carried out."  ... "However, education is not only reproductive; it is also productive."  pg. 8 --> Education becomes productive when it sparks LEARNING instead of teaching. The last thing education needs are more reproductions of things already exhausted and no longer used.  The key here is for learning to occur instead of just teaching.

"Art is a form of social production and the creation of a work of art is only part of the product; it is the viewer that completes the work and what is produced is a social relationship." pg. 4 --> This reminds me of the new standards being set for art curriculum:  create, respond, and present

"People cannot only speak freely, they can visually access, display and duplicate, computer manipulate, and globally televise." pg. 3 --> Further evidence of how crucial it is to teach visual culture in schools from a young age and continually expand upon its complexity as you progress through the grades.

Memorable Mentions from Eisner Chapters 1 & 2:

"Experience is centralt o growth because experience is the medium of education."  Pg. 3 --> WOW! This greatly supports art education and the idea that the experience of creating, responding, and presenting (all action words) scaffold great LEARNING instead of just teaching.

“Work in the arts is not only a way of creating performances and products; it is a way of creating our lives by expanding our consciousness, shaping our dispositions, satisfying our quest for meaning, establishing contact with others, and sharing a culture.” Pg. 3  -->  This goes back to the idea of the DISCONNECT between face-to-face interactions and how the sharing of a culture is no longer physical interactions between one another, but instead an abstracted version of connections through technology.  Art requires students share ideas, discuss topics, collaborate, and critique.

…”it is from surprise that we are most likely to learn something.”  Pg. 8 -->  I loved this quote because it relates back to the idea and importance of play within the art room.  I always tell my students to try it out when they ask me "What if I ________?"  And remind them that if I tell them what happens then they will never remember.  They have to have the experience (like mentioned in Freedman) of trying it themselves.  And if it doesn't work, WHO CARES! At least they learned something.

“Aside from remoting our awareness of aspects of the world we had not experienced consciously before, the arts provide permission to engage the imagination as a means for exploring new possibilities.”  Pg. 10 

“ The lesson here is that the future is affected by inventions that we cannot now foresee.”  Pg. 41

-->  This is exactly what we need for our future generations.  They need to be our inventors and problem solvers!

“Work in the arts also invites the development of a disposition to tolerate ambiguity, to explore what is uncertain, to exercise judgment free from prescriptive rules and procedures.”  Pg. 10 -->  I find this to be one of my students greatest challenges.  They have a hard time wrapping their minds around the idea that there is not a a right and wrong, just different ways of doing things and all their ideas are valid.  Can you imagine what would happen if these ideas were taught across curriculum?!  Their fears and anxieties would fade and be replaced with bold, original thinking.

“…abilities are realized capacities.”  Pg. 23 -->  Allotting students the opportunity to explore multiple experiences instead of readings will allow them intensive self-exploration and thus realize their own interests/niches. 

“Art education, focused on the visual world within this frame of reference, is interested in helping students become astute readers of visual images and sensitive, politically informed interpreters of their meanings.”  Pg. 30 -->  This shares the idea of the importance of teaching visual culture with Freedman. 

Summary:  Freedman and Eisner discuss the importance of experience within the classroom, teaching and learning of visual culture, interpretation of imagery, and nurturing of original ideas that can be put into practice.  Art education is a road for face-to-face interactions to take place, for students to explore themselves, learn articulation, presentation of ideas, and battle the fear of making mistakes.