9.25.2013
9.23.2013
Cool times
9.10.2013
Great quote
"If you're afraid to make mistakes, you'll never be able to make something creative".
Ok, I may have got that a little wrong and I don't even know who said it, but it get's the point across. We are breeding students to be robots by stressing the importance of standardized testing in schools to get the right answer. We are teaching them to be afraid to make mistakes or at least that mistakes are bad. Hence why I get the same, similar questions all the time. "Is this right"? "Is this how you want it"? The idea of an individual thought or something beyond one answer is fading away from students today. I often tell them "In math you are all supposed to get the same answer. In here, I am trying to get you all to come up with a different answer". Even when they know it, they still struggle with it.
Ok, I may have got that a little wrong and I don't even know who said it, but it get's the point across. We are breeding students to be robots by stressing the importance of standardized testing in schools to get the right answer. We are teaching them to be afraid to make mistakes or at least that mistakes are bad. Hence why I get the same, similar questions all the time. "Is this right"? "Is this how you want it"? The idea of an individual thought or something beyond one answer is fading away from students today. I often tell them "In math you are all supposed to get the same answer. In here, I am trying to get you all to come up with a different answer". Even when they know it, they still struggle with it.
9.04.2013
Sir Ken Robinson
I thought I would share this site (http://sirkenrobinson.com/) with you. There are a lot of people that think they have the solutions to the problems in education. Sir Ken Robinson is no different than most people in that respect except he has the solutions, but he has the knowledge, experience, and the evidence that he is right. I have watched his videos, I follow him on twitter and facebook and time after time I am drawn to his ideals and way of thinking. He's got it right. The popular model of education today is the same basic model that we have been following since the industrial age. Guess what....we aren't in the industrial age anymore! We should have moved past that a long time ago and been on to something new many years ago and then onto something new now. But we haven't. We still believe that reading, writing and arithmetic are the important subjects and that all kids must take the same courses, follow the same schedules, follow the same rules, learn the same volume of information and so on. A long time ago if you wanted a job in a factory, you learned to read, write and do math or you didn't get a job in a factory. But what if you wanted to make art, music, dance or sing? Well then, you weren't getting a job no were you. This basically summarises how the arts fit into public school today. They don't. Ok, maybe a little more than they did 100 years ago, but the basically mentality of the arts not being useful is still there.
I say all of this because Sir Ken looks at the whole picture in education and looks at the needs of students now and in the future. He breaks the vicious circle that education is stuck in and has solutions. It is so frustrating and maddening to witness the things I see on a daily basis knowing that there are solutions to pitfalls of our current educational system. There are better ways to do this education thing and we seem to be heading nowhere fast. It has led me to where I am today with wanting to teach private lessons. In a way I feel that by doing that, I will feel like I am actually contributing to something worth while. I will feel like there is value in what I teach.
Take a look at his sight and listen to what he has to say. I'd be curious to here your thoughts.
I say all of this because Sir Ken looks at the whole picture in education and looks at the needs of students now and in the future. He breaks the vicious circle that education is stuck in and has solutions. It is so frustrating and maddening to witness the things I see on a daily basis knowing that there are solutions to pitfalls of our current educational system. There are better ways to do this education thing and we seem to be heading nowhere fast. It has led me to where I am today with wanting to teach private lessons. In a way I feel that by doing that, I will feel like I am actually contributing to something worth while. I will feel like there is value in what I teach.
Take a look at his sight and listen to what he has to say. I'd be curious to here your thoughts.
9.02.2013
Seems like I fell off the planet there for a while. I often wonder if any one even noticed :) I surely have been busy since the last entry here though. I moved closer to work. I got a second chance at being happy in life. I got an ever better second chance at being happy by finding my soul mate and got married to her. That truly has been the best thing that has happened to me in a long long time. Looking back, I believe things all happen for a reason.
I have been kind of lost with my art however. I have questioned everything I have done and why I do it when it comes to art. I don't know that I have really made any progress in that area either. Teaching public school has really started to burn me out a bit as well. It's one of the worst places for a real artist to try and flourish either as a teacher or student. It goes against all philosophies, ideals, boundaries, and formats when it comes to teaching and learning about art. So for the last few years I have been racking my brain trying to come up with an alternative solution or at least a second income/back up plan. I have had all kinds of ideas but none that seem reasonable at my age. I'm too old to take on any school debt and too old to really start a new craft of some kind and still be able to make a solid run at it. The only thing I am good at is making and teaching art. Which brings me full circle to this blog that took almost 2 years to write. Maybe I should teach art. Wait a minute. Wasn't that what i set out to do a long time ago? Wasn't that what I decided not to pursue any more? Well yes, but that was in a whole different capacity and in a whole different way. I had big dreams there which required big money and big space. Now I am thinking small, private lessons. Perhaps a small group or even one on one. No big kilns, pottery wheels, mixers and so on needed. Just a small space and some basic fine art supplies. I would like to be flexible and simple. I would like to find people who are genuinely into being creative and want to learn and know more about traditional fine arts like drawing and painting. People who would allow me to take my education, 15 years of teaching and art making and show them a few tricks I have learned along the way.
So starting with this idea, I am going to attempt to slowly change my website around to better suite this idea. I have re-set my email address since the old one was so old and dated (in case anyone noticed). Maybe over winter I will dive deeper into this idea and start something up next summer. I am going to try and remain open minded about all this and see where it takes me. So if you or someone you might know would be interested in learning about art proper and in an environment that is not restrictive like public schools or colleges, drop me a line and lets talk.
I have been kind of lost with my art however. I have questioned everything I have done and why I do it when it comes to art. I don't know that I have really made any progress in that area either. Teaching public school has really started to burn me out a bit as well. It's one of the worst places for a real artist to try and flourish either as a teacher or student. It goes against all philosophies, ideals, boundaries, and formats when it comes to teaching and learning about art. So for the last few years I have been racking my brain trying to come up with an alternative solution or at least a second income/back up plan. I have had all kinds of ideas but none that seem reasonable at my age. I'm too old to take on any school debt and too old to really start a new craft of some kind and still be able to make a solid run at it. The only thing I am good at is making and teaching art. Which brings me full circle to this blog that took almost 2 years to write. Maybe I should teach art. Wait a minute. Wasn't that what i set out to do a long time ago? Wasn't that what I decided not to pursue any more? Well yes, but that was in a whole different capacity and in a whole different way. I had big dreams there which required big money and big space. Now I am thinking small, private lessons. Perhaps a small group or even one on one. No big kilns, pottery wheels, mixers and so on needed. Just a small space and some basic fine art supplies. I would like to be flexible and simple. I would like to find people who are genuinely into being creative and want to learn and know more about traditional fine arts like drawing and painting. People who would allow me to take my education, 15 years of teaching and art making and show them a few tricks I have learned along the way.
So starting with this idea, I am going to attempt to slowly change my website around to better suite this idea. I have re-set my email address since the old one was so old and dated (in case anyone noticed). Maybe over winter I will dive deeper into this idea and start something up next summer. I am going to try and remain open minded about all this and see where it takes me. So if you or someone you might know would be interested in learning about art proper and in an environment that is not restrictive like public schools or colleges, drop me a line and lets talk.
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