The purpose of school is to educate students to be their best possible selves, to teach them to understand and participate in their community as moral and socially responsible adults; and to educate them academically through the power of their own educational experiences.
The aesthetics of education can and must be experienced through the arts. The arts are an important part of the school’s curriculum and are a cross-training tool. They provide not only an artistic but also an intellectual garden for students from all learning styles to blossom in their strengths and improve on their weaknesses. The artistic process is helpful in exercising cognitive reasoning when not only creating, but critically analyzing art as well. This develops a student’s ability of artistic perceptions. The arts teach students that problems can have more than one answer and that there are many ways in which to see and interpret the world around them.
Art is a personal expression of an individual’s experiences, feelings and identity. It is through the arts that possibilities are never-ending, and minds full of questions are the building blocks for the classrooms of art education. The art room is a place of reflection, peace, truth and self-awareness. Every student will feel safe and have the courage to be themselves. Each will exercise tolerance and respect for all who enter the classroom.
Students will be aware that small differences can have large effects. All will work towards the improvement of their own school environment and community by problem solving collaboratively and independently on art projects that convey a message of growth and change that is accessible to everyone. Arts teach students to say the things that are difficult to explain. The arts are proof that our cognition exceeds the limits of our language.
Just as there is no right or wrong answer, since no two students are exactly alike the arts experience will be an individual but equitable journey. Every student will and should have a voice in my classroom. I want to foster a challenging and creative learning environment where anything is possible, offering the freedom of self-expression as a top priority while following along with the Vermont Standards. I will listen and advocate for my students. I will stand up and ask for the necessary ingredients needed to make an outstanding art program. When challenged by school budgets and funding to create a seemingly limitless art room, I will creatively problem solve to make sure every students individual needs in the art classroom have been met.
The art classroom should be a place to get a breath of fresh air, it should be a room to break up the basic academic classes and offer students a chance to see what is possible through the arts. Like the very moment when Dorothy realizes she is not in Kansas anymore, stepping into the art room is stepping out of the doldrums of black and white academia and seeing all of the colors in between.