The Joy of Teaching the Arts
Top secondary school educators in the Arts comment on their favourite aspects of teaching youth and share their top frustration with educating in the Arts.
Submitted by Jessie Kennedy, Drama teacher
In Arts education, students are asked to think, rethink, overcome challenges by problem solving on the fly, apply skills, and negotiate on a daily basis. Engaging with the creative process allows them to gain innumerable transferable skills while also teaching perseverance and accountability. Analysing our own creative outputs and that of others requires us to critically examine works in a multidimensional way that takes into account our aesthetic judgement, consideration of cultural context, our personal interpretations and gut reactions. Given this depth, breadth, and rigour, it is frustrating when arts education is treated as a fringe subject area. When we seek to understand the past and gain insight into the experiences of people who are long gone, when we are compelled to express the depth of human emotion, or when we strive to capture the beauty or discord we see in the world, we turn to the arts to tell those stories. We need science, tech, engineering, and math, but the arts stand alongside these fields as essential to communicating with each other about how we make decisions in those areas, what we value, and why.
My favourite part of being a drama teacher is watching students come together in a collective effort to present whatever performance they have created. They are serious, they are committed, and they depend on each other to execute each element they have planned with accuracy. But when things don't go according to plan they need to improvise, find a solution, and help each other through quickly and without fanfare so they can reach the finish line together.
Submitted by Kristy Gordon, Teacher of Drama, Media, Photography
I love watching students explore their creativity and realize that they are "actually good at something".
I dislike that some students are shut down or don't want to take a chance and explore their creativity because they have experienced rejection and/or criticism in the past that has impacted their belief in their own abilities. At some point in everyone's life we sang and danced and drew and painted and didn't care what it looked like....our parents put our art work on the fridge or paid attention to us on stage. But eventually, as we age, we become aware of disinterest or disapproval or a lack of interest and we stop drawing or painting or singing or dancing. And that, when thinking about how much the arts can enrich all of our lives, makes me sad. How many budding artists has the world missed out on because of an adult who inadvertently gives a slightly negative reaction and then that young person never picks up a paint brush or puts on ballet shoes again?
Submitted by Paul Marshall, Visual Arts, Applied Design teacher
A quality Visual Arts education balances a student's ability to meaningfully navigate their creative process while also engaging in the critical analysis process in an informed way.
This investment in the full range of the creative process is crucial -- challenging --> imagining --> experimenting --> planning --> revising --> producing --> presenting --> reflecting and gives students the tools to respond to and engage with the world around them through their art.
The critical analysis process allows students to respond to the art they see in an informed way where they can consider through analysis the choices the artist made and evaluate the work's significance. This ultimately enriches a student's understanding of different aspects of the human experience throughout time and around the world. Supporting students to engage in balancing both of these processes allows them to exercise skills that will be relevant to multiple disciplines within and outside of the arts, and it also has the power to provide a long term enrichment to their quality of life.
