Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2006. We were on our way to Pennsylvania to take Mattie to Sesame Street Place. Half way was an amazing aquarium in New Jersey. Across the water you can see the buildings in Philadelphia. Mattie LOVED the aquarium and was very excited about our threesome weekend away. I am so glad we did as much as we did when we did it with Mattie because there were no second chances.
Quote of the day: The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do? ~ Picasso
For seven years, I have been teaching a three part art series at Mattie's school to a kindergarten class. Specifically, about the artistic styles of Picasso and Matisse, as well as the rivalry that existed between the artists. A rivalry that inspired each artist to out create the other. As a result, they studied each other's art so diligently that they began adopting aspects of the other's style.
In 2011, I created this wonderful curriculum that involved power point presentations, hands on activities, and finished with a themed snack. I spent a great deal of time that first year developing this series, as I am NOT an artist, art educator, or better yet an educator of young children! That first year I had almost three hours to work with the students in comparison to the one hour I had today.
In a way I am seeing longitudinal changes on kindergarten aged students. Certainly I am not following the same children over 7 years, but instead I am getting to see how children at the age of 6 learn, process information, and behave from 2011-2017. I am seeing generational changes. That alone has been enlightening and I wish I could say what I am seeing are vast improvements thanks to technology, over programmed schedules, and forced curriculum. However, I am NOT. I am saddened that what I am observing is shortened attention spans, need for immediate gratification, a disinterest in really learning, difficulty with communication, a lack of attending to what others are saying, and the list goes on.
I questioned at first why we were moving away from my power points this year to showing students a brief video instead. However, given what I saw today, I got all the answers I needed. Yet as a former educator I wonder....... should the educational system change and conform to the demands of its pupils, or is there something to be said for the traditional methodologies that so many of us grew up with as we were learning. I don't have the answers, but I do know that I left the one hour experience today dejected. Mainly because showing kids a video should not be deemed an educational experience. I did not feel like I connected with the students using this format and worse I don't feel like they gained any knowledge about Picasso, like they would have in previous years with my lecturing, discussing, and asking questions.
If you want to see the five minute video I chose to show the class, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlNf5XZDcQs
This was Picasso's Woman with a Hat. I had Peter trace the outline of this painting onto table sized pieces of cardboard. I brought in four of them, so that children could work in teams of three to paint in the shapes. After all Picasso was the master of shapes. The children aren't shown this painting, until after they color in their cardboard, so as not to influence what they are creating.
When each of the four tables of students saw the same tracing before them, their respond to me was that the product would all look the same. But of course, it never does. What makes art is the artist, one's feelings... which direct colors chosen and how one sees those colors in space.
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