Day 7: Let there be paint

Today my students and I were lucky enough to receive a program called Art to Grow On.  We are lucky and have parent volunteers that put on this program for our students four times a year. This is not your traditional cut and paste art program. Previously this year we made sculptures out of recycled garbage and the children were taught about the pacific trash gyre (otherwise known as a trash heap the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean.  At the second program the students learned how to mix primary colors to make secondary colors and to mix secondary colors to make tertiary colors. In addition, they learned how to make tints or shades of colors using black or white paint.  The programs were fantastic, but watching my students complete today's project was amazing.

Today the students were shown the art of painter George Rodrigue.  His is well known for his blue dog paintings. The students then learned how to grid a canvas in order to replicate a print by first sketching and then covering the sketch with acrylic paint. The created amazing acrylic painting on canvas. My seven, eight, and nine year olds created art that was simply extraordinary.  For the entire program the children were smiling. They were engaged in their work and so engrossed in what they were creating. It was one of those moments that one really appreciates being a teacher. Maybe we weren't preparing for "the test".  Maybe we weren't working through one of your "traditional school subjects" but we were learning and sometimes that in itself is simply enough.

Days like today I remember why I became a teacher in the first place. First and foremost, I believe in the education of the whole person.  I know that each child, or person for that matter, has unique skills and talents and sometimes those talents are not reading, writing, or math. There is a place in the world for artists. What would the world be without them? What would we read, what would we watch, what would we listen to, what would we enjoy? Today some of my students learned that art was a passion of theirs. As educators it is our job to not only support the talents we find meaningful, but also those that our children seek to explore.  I understand that this program is not in every school, but there are parents and organizations that are willing to support these types of programs if we seek them out. I know that the schools are in trouble financially. I understand this fact. However, I also understand that an education without some exposure to the arts in as injustice to our students. Many of our most creative thinkers are never given the opportunity to explore their potential. Art is good for the brain, it is good for the soul, it is good for our students.

Somewhere along the way our system of education has lost focus. We are so centered on test scores that we have forgotten how important it is to nurture the creativity that is inherit within us all.