Common Myths about Art and Art Class

Common Myths about Art and Art Class

MYTH 1-
The only purpose of Art Class is having fun and making something that looks great.
TRUTH- Art is something that is somewhat inherent yet can be learned. Difficulty and frustration can happen any time that a student learns something new. The end result is not the most import thing in Art. The process of making mistakes, correcting, changing, decision making are a vital part of the Art experience.

MYTH 2-
Art is never frustrating it is pure joy, all the time.
TRUTH- Art and creativity can like any subject can be difficult to learn. Technology is a modern day roadblock as our switched on culture does make sitting and actively creating much more difficult for students.  The Art room is the place to make mistakes, decisions, build focus, endurance and prepare for life. Creativity is vital in our world of rapid technological advancements. Many white collar careers are becoming obsolete, or are outsourced for pennies in our global economy. Creative people are able to adapt to an ever changing society.

MYTH 3-
There are artistic and non artistic people and that is the end of the story.
TRUTH- There are people that tend to be more creative than others, but creativity is learned. Life is full of creative problem solving, and those who learn this skill will be problem solvers in our world.
Those who are not inherently creative need Art the most.

MYTH 4-
Saying “be creative” teaches creativity.
TRUTH- If a student does not have knowledge in the area of creativity,and there is nothing for him to to draw from or challenge him; frustration sets in and the student sees himself as incapable of being creative.
Be actively involved in seeing, creating, learning about Art and Artists.

MYTH 5-
Art is only useful to Artists.
TRUTH- Art is not for the sake of the final product. The process of making Art helps students brains to work in a higher order of thinking. Art reaches people on a profoundly deep level.
SAT scores have been increased measurably by those who participate in creating Art!

CREATIVITY KILLERS

Children naturally begin to create Art at a very young age. Weather or not a child continues to create has a lot to do with creativity killers that come up along the way.
1. Teasing- Adults are often very cautious not to tease children about Art, yet children don’t follow this rule. The first memory that I have of drawing was at the age of 3 years old. I was in the nursery having a great time with my crayons scribbling away when an older child yelled “she’s scribbling, that’s scribble scrabble,” the class erupted into laughter and finger pointing. The fact that I remember this experience at 29 years of age, means that it was a significant event. I also remember my 4th grade teacher giving me 10 extra credit points for illustrating my Florida report, I ended up with the same grade as an advantageous student who had completed 6 binders full of his Florida Report. I remember internalizing the fact that that the Art work was useful. I remember more about that project than any other project in Elementary School as I put a lot of thought into the illustrations.

2. Praise for creativity- Can be a roadblock to learning Art. I often hear parents or teachers praising a student for being “the creative one.” I have observed that that are told that they are the “creative one” are often very resistant to learning new skills. Students who see another being praised for creativity may choose not to create because he feels unworthy compared to the “creative one.”  The learning of creativity is like the process of learning music, it take years, of experiences, education and practice to cultivate this skill. Praise students for learning a new skill, being a problem solver or a hard worker, not only for the look end result of the project.

3. Labeling- children can be a huge roadblock. Saying that a child isn’t creative is extremely detrimental to the learning process as it gives an immediate excuse to only do the bare minimum, instead of aiming for his personal best.

4. Discouraging through encouragement- By encouraging only what the child is “good at” saying “Billy is good at drawing boats” is a praise yet, if nothing more is ever expected Billy will most likely stick with the thing he is “good at”.  Challenge students to branch out from the familiar, to acquire new knowledge.