Thank you
Emily for suggesting this reading for this week.
I was sitting and reflecting on my own educational experience and realized that the activities or assignments that are most vivid in my memory were ones that incorporated some sort of art project or creative component. These were assignments beyond art class. I'm talking about creating a pedulum swing painting device in fourth grade and dripping paint all over the butcher paper covered floor, or learning biology by tracing my body and drawing in the different biological systems, or being given the option to make visual responses to books I read in English class. These opportunities were few and far between, but I remember these being the moments when I was most engaged and learned the most. I think the opportunity to make stuff and create and explore definitely pushed me beyond the level of just knowing to understanding.
There's actually a PBS show about this topic (which also is the premise of my thesis):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pbs.org/digital-media/
and in your post lies much of the argument for arts integration, paulina. but here's another question. arts educators have been trying to shoehorn in the arts by linking it to the 'core' subject areas, and i'm not arguing that interdisciplnary work isn't great, but why don't we allow it to exist on its own as a real and vital subject rather than enrichment. i think this links back to your earlier post/video by ken robinson. we need to completely change the paradigm. but how will we do this?
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