My Philosophy of Art Education.

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     Art education is not solely teaching children how to create art, but uses the creation of art as a vehicle for teaching life skills such as problem solving, time management, working cooperatively, recognizing aesthetics, being culturally and historically aware, and building self confidence and awareness, amongst a plethora of other skills and traits necessary in a persons every day life. This is a belief I hold very strongly, and acts as the catalyst as to why I want to be an art educator, and equally as important, how I will conduct my teaching as an art educator. I fully believe that comprehensive art education is the proper way to build a curriculum, introducing not only the studio aspect most have come to expect from art classrooms, but as well as lessons in aesthetics, art history, and art criticism. There are several developmental stages a child experiences through their life artistically, and I plan to use these stages as a guideline to recognize where students range, and where I can help them to improve. Through out my career as an art educator, it is important to me that I not only am successful in honing these techniques, skills, and appreciations within my students, but I also feel a deep urge to have the community as a whole understand why art education is so crucial and beneficial to elementary and secondary students. Through texts I have studied as well as hands on experiences within classrooms, I can begin to determine my own philosophy and teaching, including what and how I will teach, why my decisions are formed, and how they will be effective.

     In my own art classroom, I will not solely seek to input the basic artistic skills such as drawing, painting, sculpting, and so on, but I will seek to have my students build other skills through the creation of their works. I believe that students should have the freedom to solve a creative problem on their own, in their own way, on their own terms. This does not mean I will idly sit back, but instead of showing them my way and having them copy what I do, I want my students to take the time to explore their materials, critically think about the creative problem I have set for them, and begin to ask questions that I can answer in order to help guide them through the creative process and eventually to a finished piece. I have had experience similar to this while spending time at Art Backpacks in Newark. For example, in one instance the students were asked to pick a room in their home with a window and describe it. While this prompt was an exceptional means of prompting visual recall, some of the students were having trouble stating more than the obvious traits of the window. Instead of just telling them what else to write down, I prompted them with questions such as “what do you see when you look outside the window?” “What materials is the window made of?” “Is the window the same size as the other windows in your home?” etc. These questions catapulted the students into a deeper level of thinking and visual recall, allowing them with my guidance to arrive at their own individual answers. This concept of guidance over a show and copy form of teacher to student interaction will not only give my students the chance to think critically, but also keep me from implying any kind of indoctrination upon my students. It is very important to me that I never push my own thoughts, ideas, or way of doing things upon my students, but rather I want them to become their own free thinkers and doers, coming up with their own ideas and their own ways of accomplishing tasks presenting to them.

     The importance of independent thinking within my classroom comes as a result of acting as the student’s guide. Art is not only making, but thinking, “Making art is a matter of thought more than manual skill. Artistic thinking is highly abstract, even though art- in process and after completion- is an object we can see and touch.” (Hobbs & Rush, 75) The ability to critically analyze and creatively think about an art project is not a skill that will only be applied to the projects I present within my classroom, but will be applied in other subjects and life scenarios, as critical and creative thinking are necessary in many instances that go beyond the art classroom. This is the kind of skill that I hold of upmost importance when I think of what I want my students to gain from my lessons because it is a skill that is universal. As an art educator, one is aware that not all students will go on to be an artist, and that is not my aim, my aim is help guide my students towards becoming people who complexly look at a problem and try to solve it in a manner that may not come as obvious, because seldom in life are problems one sided and answers obvious.

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     While the concepts of aesthetics, art history, and art criticism have at times seemed intimidating and overwhelming to me, I have gained a deep understanding of their importance and view them as a necessity in the type of art curriculum I want to use in my own classroom. I have witnessed first hand through my field work not only how they are effective to students, and have also witnessed and explored strategies through which to make them effective. Aesthetics is described as “not concerned with art, but with theories about beauty and the sublime.” (Hobbs & Rush, 61) This quote may at first strike as counter productive since it states it is not about art, but on the alternate view it shows how it is important because it is a concept that relates to everything, not just art. Art history, while important to myself as an artist, is also crucial to understanding cultural development. By teaching art history, I am not only teaching my students the history of art, but the history of the evolution of human ability, as well as cultural development and how it relates to the world around them. During my fieldwork for my public purposes class in a Newark elementary school, I saw evidence of art history working as a way to teach students the history of the city they lived in when the students were shown artworks that depicted Newark throughout history. This exercise not only familiarized them with artwork and artists, but as well as the roots of the city they lived in. I have touched upon the importance of critical thinking within my teaching, but art criticism presents another form of it to students, the opportunity to learn how to make valid and educated conclusions and opinions, a skill used in all areas of life and academia. While my beliefs that these three concepts and skills are just as important to me as studio art within my future classroom, those beliefs are somewhat useless if I do not have strategies to successfully execute them. I feel that the key to successfully conveying these skills to my students is to present them in a relatable, non intimidating manner. I have seen this done at art backpacks and plan to model my own strategy in similar ways by presenting my students with child friendly stories, activities, and examples of artwork that will help them grasp these concepts. While a child may not be able to fully grasp what is meant by saying “aesthetically pleasing,” they certainly do understand what they enjoy looking at, and what they do not. By breaking these broad and vernacularly challenging concepts into more basic, relatable, and understandable terms, I believe I will create an effective strategy for teaching them within my classroom.   

                                    
     Through what I have learned in my education so far as well as what I will learn in the future, my own philosophy of teaching has begun and will continue to evolve. Using concepts, ideas, and strategies witnessed first hand, I am creating my own ideas as to what a successful art education looks like, and how I want my style of teaching to be implemented. While strong beliefs about what I will teach are important, they are null without a personal understanding of techniques and strategies I will use to successfully teach what I deem as important. Above all my personal goals and philosophies, the most important to me is guide my students into becoming people who use art concepts in every area of life, who can take skills learned in the art classroom and adapt them to fit other problems they are presented with. To me, a successful art teacher does not only imply manual talent, but the talent to think critically and creatively.​