Probably so I learn how to draw.’ ‘I find out something about the history of art.’ ‘For me it’s kind of a relaxing lesson.’ ‘I don’t know, we never really did much in art class.’ ‘Like, I actually like art class, but I can’t draw, so I’m not very good at it.
And what if I tell someone that I teach art?
Oh, that’s nice, so you just draw there.’ ‘That’s great, you probably don’t have a problem with students being bored.’ ‘Is art even taught at high school?’ ‘So now you’re probably going to make Christmas decorations, right?
I understand, I understand, I understand. Because art class often looks like this: in autumn you draw ‘what I did during the holidays’ and make leaf prints. In winter you make greeting cards and Christmas decorations for the school. In spring you make flower pots for Mother’s Day, and in summer you draw ‘what I will do during the holidays.’ And the rest of the time, you practice still-life drawing. The children try to achieve the most accurate copy of a model shown by the teacher, which she found on Pinterest. And the drawings and ‘little paintings’ are supposed to be as colorful, pretty, and finished as possible so they can be put up on the classroom display board before parent-teacher meetings, so parents can admire how beautiful the children’s work is. Because art is supposed to be beautiful and cheerful, after all.
I am in no way blaming the teachers who lead art classes in this way. In many cases, especially at primary schools, art is taught by a teacher who has studied an entirely different subject, or general primary school teaching. During their studies, they focused mainly on how to teach children to read and write, how to support cooperation, how to develop their personality in a healthy way, and how to explain information so that children can understand it. And that is completely fine. In such cases, art class often provides children with space for relaxation and a break from a stressful school environment, teaches them the basics of drawing and painting, and in some cases, perhaps even leads them to an interest in art.
But it can also be done differently. Art education does not have in its name the word education just for nothing. Because ‘educations’ focus, much more than other subjects, not only on knowledge, but also on developing the so-called soft skills“, meaning those aspects of learning that you acquire indirectly while working on a school project. For example, when in art class you are given the task: ‘Paint an abstract picture according to your current mood,’ it may seem that the goal is to develop painting skills, become familiar with abstract art, and learn to work with the whole surface of a painting. And partly that is true. But there are also other goals involved, which ideally the teacher should also communicate.
By drawing on your feelings, you learn to recognize your emotions. By giving them form, you learn how to express them. And that it can be done through gesture, nonverbal communication, symbols… You learn how to communicate your feelings in a way that others can understand them. When your painting does not turn out the way you imagined, you learn to work with mistakes—and ideally that mistakes can move us forward much more than a ‘correct solution’. Because the assignment is relatively open, you learn how to approach problems creatively and find your own personal solution. And by sharing your work with others, you learn how to stand by what you have created, but also how to accept constructive criticism and take it as feedback rather than failure.
I could write for hours about what art class is good for (and maybe I will in the next issue), but at the same time I stand firmly on the ground. I am aware that few people will appreciate all those hidden benefits. But hey—even if my students only got from art class that they learned a little about art and culture, discovered that art is not just about drawing with crayons, and had a small break from the constant pressure for excellent academic results, I would be satisfied. And maybe they will discover that the sun does not always have to be in the corner, and their pictures do not always have to be ‘beautiful’. 😊
Hana Sršňová
