April 29. Judy: remarks on CMG revisited. (her book — why did she do it?) Lowenfeld as a classic. c. 1943. Art ed programs built around it. 1967 4th edition of the book > the best > last edition that Lowenfeld directly controlled. “still the major text that everyone will quote” years have added dimension of cultural though and development that he was prior to young children – bring out motivations, drawing experiences out of kids’ experiences. Very little in literature about how kids respond to culture around them. Nurture what was “in” kids, so they won’t be overwhelmed by pop media. Not until adolescence that teachers should engage with culture. Popular and mass media stand against children’s purity. Ado: L developmental schema > focus on conventional skills. Haptic vs. Visual. Realism vs. illusionism. L divides ado class into artists and nonartists. But Judy :: ado clearly shaped by culture. Not accurate: 2 different kinds of beings [haptic vs. visual]. Her book takes up L at the point of the adolescent. Goal of the arts is in nurturing development. Normative sense > how does engagement in the arts nurture and affect young people? • To be more attuned to art and culture • to be able to think critically • to be able to continue to make meaning • there are few fixed points in ado. Can’t think too fine-grained. Not finite but variable. Dev journey is visible in the work. Cannot lock kids into stages. • physical changes > it happens. Inequality is not consistent. Girls earlier than boys. Girls vs. boys :: different dev./phys. Maturity. Peer groups break up around issues of physical maturity > asynchronous growth > feet vs. legs vs. torso vs. etc. this throws kids into doubt When is this going to be over? When is this going to start? physical changes bring emotional changes > anxious > energetic > depressed > emotional responses. Which precipitates the ID crisis > who/what am I? There is a preoccupation with Self > trying to hand on to who they are (the “who” of the pre-adolescent). Then rapid and radical change hits them. Erikson > “continual sense of self sameness” is missing, the ado is thrown into doubt. Sexual ambivalence. Parental ambivalence > changing relationships. Relationships come under scrutiny. Boundaries are changing > think – feel – do > are changing. Adults need to be secure with and in themselves to deal with the challenges. Advice from kids – freedom and structure. Questions to the adults: • where do the boundaries lie? • are you going to allow them to push? • when they fall down, how will you handle it? Different reactions bring varying reactions. Cognitive change – new requirements to cognize the world. Physical and emotional changes require that you think differently. Kids pressured and challenged to think about their world in a different way. Kegan > divergence of perspective. Entry to Ado > the world becomes not so black and white. what is truth? How many truths are there? • in the arts: what is real? Illusionism: is what I see the same as what you see? Multiple IDs > perspective changing and then applied to themselves. They think about self from multiple perspectives > if you can see things from these different perspectives, which one is right? (8th and 9th grades this becomes important) • thinking and re-thinking their ideas > complex ideas are turned around in their heads. Piaget: hypothetical capability. Think about feeling / feel about thinking. Ado live in media culture > highly developed skills. How to integrate those skills & desires into the classroom? Sheyda said: which do you like the best? Go back and forth between materials. Difference discussed: sophisticated digital media vs. rougher and less sophisticated materials. Kids say media makes them feel professional. Painting is about “us” – no other category but being made by them. Participate in the means of culture but also in their own thing. Taking their own sense of themselves across materials, most don’t define themselves in one medium but explore across materials. Teachers: provide a broad palette, not as a set of alternatives. Reinforce broad spectrum of possibilities. But kids must know more about history > set themselves in the time and space. Too man kids are suspended in never ending present. Teach them: human history and art history is about other people like themselves who have dealt with similar issues. Adolescence is a good time to do this because minds are opening. Education as agent of development. You (the teacher) step in as a factor in development. Kids do have ideas > we don’t have to put them there. Ado > ENTER: Confusion. On the edge of childhood everything begins to happen. Early changes > pushing at boundaries; art as reflection of that change. Mid changes > bifurcation: art about me vs. art in category of “art” • the larger world becomes visible; there are makers and receivers; artwork exists in the world. Later changes > emerging critique of work without critique of self. Category flows across ADO. Educators > pace yourself to meet adolescence where they are. Teacher’s question: how can I help them out in a way that doesn’t freak me out? The teacher must be flexible to deal with the adolescent changes. No boxes: no verbal vs. visual (or etc.) > most of us are a bit of everything. Schools ~ support the variety of responses. Repertoire of materials through which kids can speak about their responses. Question: what about art therapy? Judy: art ed as constructivist > thinking and feeling as integrated > making activities bring out feelings that can be talked about: material integrations as act of construction, sensory connections. BOOK :: “On not being able to paint” by Milner. Making vs. interpreting > narrows the sphere of insights. She’s hesitant about thinking about art as a form of therapy. The main thing is that kids see growth in their art works. Question: how did Judy get into Art Education? • student teaching but not prepared for it ~~ shock. Cooperating teacher broke her leg, so she had to take over. No idea what to do. Had a stuffed duck, paper, and pencils. Told the students to draw the duck. Nobody wanted to be there, including her. “Draw it.” “We are not going to draw the duck and you can’t make us.” 1) Why did she do it? She didn’t know. 2) “Can you help us to make it look real?” She didn’t know what they meant. These two questions stayed with her. Self reflective insights :: brought her into educational practice. Two sets of understandings: A. there is art practice. B. there is developmental process. Play each against the other to meet immediate needs of students. Each insight asks questions of the other. Question: why don’t other educational disciplines seem care about development? Content has to be a lecture format…(?) Wendell > art educators know the kids. THE NEXT STAGE > the end of adolescence. Where were you at the end of high school art education? What was the college foundation year like? This transition year is often far from smooth > the second adolescent conflict. Judy: write a few sentences about the experience: For me: no art school after high school and hardly a thought about being an artist. College: English studies: Joseph Conrad.. Interested but not committed. Some light confusion, but not much at stake for me. I didn’t care too much. No strong idea about what came next in mind. I wanted to be a writer, but how, or of what – no idea. Photography gradually took over. Electives in ceramics. Ran the yearbook photo staff. Taught the newspaper photo staff about how to do their jobs. Grad school: accidental dis100%y, a mistake, a misplaced phone call after a year of working in book publishing, editing paperback horror and romance novels. Lost interest in writing, and in reading. Didn’t want to go near a book store. Made a random phone call to the photo grad program at NYU. Got in by mistake at the last moment. First year: massive confusion. Distrust. Re-awakened sense of caring about ideas and about questions. Started to read again. But pictures didn’t make sense – why pictures? How pictures? Tension: envy from others, jealous of them, too. Overall, reading and writing fed a self-directed tumult. Other stories: self-ID as an artist. High school maxed out > self-directed. A mentor who genuinely liked what she did. Coming up to art at the end of high school. Ramp up to portfolio interviews :: got peaks at other portfolios > felt ambiguous and nerve wracking. Nothing to compare it to. “achieving the realism” stories and dramas that attach to the beginning of this journey. What does it mean to grow into an artist’s identity?