No surprise

What was your favorite subject in school?

Art

No surprise there.

When I used to teach art to elementary school students I think one of my favorite parts was when kids would sit down and sigh contentedly. I could see them visually relax. Even the kids who struggled or the ones who got into trouble (not with me), would tell me how much they loved art class. It was hard to get them to leave!

Growing up, I had to wait until fourth grade to get art with a real art teacher. That was a huge thing for me. When it finally happened, I loved it, just as I knew I would. Then sadly we moved away that same year and I had to wait until seventh grade for a real art teacher again. When I was teaching, I could tell the kids appreciated doing real art.

As a teacher, I enjoyed art discussions with a whole class. The kids would get so animated and have so much to add. We’d be talking about dada abstract or Whistlers Mother, or Van Gogh and someone would forget to wait to be called on and I would forgot the protocol myself because the insights were so good and the conversation was so interesting, then the teacher would correct us and we would all remember that we were at school in a class with rules…

Kids love learning about artists and art movements. Art can be a history lesson, it can teach compassion and empathy. Art can give practice to motor skills and attention to detail, Following directions, making decisions, I saw so many reasons for why schools should have art.

Art exercises the whole brain. I had a couple of lessons where the right, non verbal side of the brain was in charge. You could hear the switch as one by one each class member fell silent and all but their drawing hand became still. Home room teachers loved these lessons. I was fascinated with the phenomenon. I wrote all the curriculum as I went along so every week was an experiment. I didn’t know that kids could get to kindergarten having never used scissors. I didn’t know that younger children understand abstract better than older ones, actually better than most adults. If you want to know what emotions a painting is portraying ask an elementary aged kid. Did you know coloring is a skill that can be taught?

Oh I did enjoy art class!