LTC 8740 - Read & React Day 4

Class: The Social Life of Art

9:00am - 11:45am · Lecture

Read:

Chapter 5 Freedman
Chapter 5 Eisner
A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change 

Freedman - 

I was thinking either during last night's reading or perhaps the night before that it would be great if a local museum (perhaps STL's CAM or the Pulitzer or even the MillyKemper) would do a little training for art teachers to help break them into Post-Modern art and what elements or characteristics of post-modernism it is important to consider teaching our students. I was enjoying the parts that Freedman was pointing out these very things, but I was thinking of my teachers in my district,  mostly quite veteran teachers who show little interest in understanding or viewing contemporary art. They have mentioned they would like to know more about it, but don't really understand it. And I completely understand that. There is a lot to understanding post-modernism and you have to stick with it and let it continually seep into your roots before it effects your understanding. It is frustrating to keep 'learning' about something and having to wait for your understanding to catch up.  From my statements until this point you might think I know something about post-modernism, but I don't - unless by 'something' you mean enough to fit on the head of a pin. 

I like capturing the snippets Freedman lets us in on. I may be making connections in this regard where there are none, but for example, I like where she lets us in on the idea of 'suggestiveness' (p.90) in visual culture. I've been aware of this somewhere in my periphery, but hadn't thought about how much it might effect the viewing of post-modern art. This idea of making connections through suggestions, wow. Yes! Need to pass this on in my teaching more directly. 

p. 93 - "students who have been taught how to critically analyze written texts cannot be assumed to transfer those skills when viewing images."  - RIGHT. So, if we are asked continually to emphasize reading and writing we have to be strong teachers and advocate for those skills that coalesce and teach our students VISUAL literacy and how to read visual images and in turn, how to communicate using the power of visual images. 

p. 101 - Kerry, you're backin' me up girl! We are doing our students (& by extension our society) a disservice if we aren't teaching them to interpret visual images and how to view images critically. I can not state strongly enough that we, as art teachers, should be doing this! (and theatre teachers should be teaching media classes...) Few teachers would argue, no. But plenty would cop out of stepping up to the plate and tackling the teaching of it. (sorry for the mixed metaphor!) I'm feeling a little discouraged when I think of some of my teachers I've been working with, sorry for the negativity everyone!