Tuesday, January 3, 2012

I'd give Monet an "F"

As mentioned in my last post, I'm now a substitute teacher! And I love it. On a day in January I will be subbing for the art teacher.... which made me think. Art is a school subject? Really? Something that has assignments, and papers due, and grades? This puzzles me greatly.

In my random and humble opinion, art is not something to be graded - I don't think it even can be graded. How can you look at two paintings (for example) and say that one is better than the other? Say that one gets an "A" and one gets a "C"? I don't understand it.

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.  -Amy Lowell

When you express yourself, I don't think anyone has the right to tell you that you 'passed' or 'failed' in doing so. I'm a huge fan of art classes (naturally - I'm a dance teacher) but getting graded on your artwork just doesn't make sense. Does this confuse you too or is it just me?


(oh, and p.s., the title is supposed to be on the funny/sarcastic side of things.. in case you didn't pick that up :) )

2 comments:

  1. This pretty much sums it up! http://harvestridge.fhsd.k12.mo.us/llange/Assessment.html

    Seriously though, you raise some good points. I never thought about getting graded for art. Of course I never really had a graded art class!

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  2. thanks for the link! that was interesting :)

    ReplyDelete