Page 2

Higher-order thinking skills are great; they are what we all should strive to facilitate in our students, children and world leaders. Synthesis and evaluation of our visual environment is at the heart of the latest and greatest in art education; Visual Culture. My problem though with all latest and greatest saviors of our childrens’ education, (largely written by lab coats who don’t really seem to have actual contact with (ewww!!!) real kids) is that these new writings rarely pay the respect due to what has come before, and often must lie under these higher order goals. If you’re talking about classroom discipline and control, believe it or not, a little behavior mod has to be a part of the equation that will hopefully, maybe before the end of the first quarter, more fully function by intrinsic control. If you want kids to analyze the birth and growth of the civil rights movement, a little rote memorization of some important dates and names from Abe Lincoln on is a helpful ingredient in the mix for a foundation upon which an analysis can be based. And believe it or not, great gurus of Visual Culture Education, experience and confidence in formal analysis and media manipulation is an instructive place to start if we want our kids to really notice and think about their visual world.

When I teach people, young and old, to interact with works of art, which includes their cars, tennis shoes and office buildings, I first facilitate observation and description. What do you see? Give me adjectives, adverbs and similies. Think about what associations these descriptions bring to mind. Connect with your descriptions, then you will find you are connecting with the art. Knowledge and Comprehension (looking and describing), Application and Analysis (connecting what you see to other aspects of your world and experience), Synthesis and Evaluation (creating and expressing a personal response and interpretation to the work of art). This is how I see Mr Bloom’s intended taxonomy; higher-order thinking is hollow without lower-order basis. Even after all the hours I have spent looking at art from around the world, I try to not immediately interpret the art (I wasn’t around in China a thousand years ago, how can I possibly truly interpret?!) but rather I interpret my description of and connection to the art Be it a thousand years old Chinese temple sculpture, or my child’s drawing.

So last summer I noticed, while sitting on my front step, what I immediately described as being very much like the yellow baby-barf stain that all parents know, on my right shoulder. The problem was that I didn’t have a stain on my shoulder. When I looked down, it was gone. A few weeks later, in synagogue during Rosh Hashanah services, I noticed the bright purple glow coming from the prayer book of the lady to my right. It was very cool and neon, like a scene from a fantasy movie about a magic book. Trouble was, it really wasn’t glowing at all. It was the same prayer book as mine. This kind of thing went on and, while I knew it wasn’t right, it was not in my way and was actually kinda cool. It was not until a few weeks later that I noticed while taking a shower that the vertical tile grout lines to my right bowed and waved like a Bridget Riley painting and realized I should probably have this looked into (pun intended).

A trip to the opthamologist led to a trip to a retinal specialist, which leads me here. And not really knowing where “here” is is punishing. Except “punishment” is a behavior mod thing right? No, that avenue won’t take me anywhere.

I meet today with a member of our Museum IT department. My hope is that Kyle will buy into my goal of making my New Dimensions program Web 2.0 active. Creating and expressing personal responses to the Museum’s collection, based on careful observation, and creating on-going dialogues involving people around the world who have never heard of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art about the art. Spreading the Museum, the art and the kids expressions around the world,

like a cancer.

I just got the call to set up an appointment to meet with the retinal guy to talk about my MRI next Tuesday, 4 days away.

d

Page 1

back

Writing a blog is something I’ve been putting off. Now’s the time; for a few reasons.

I want to incorporate podcasting and blogging into the program I manage at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, so it’s probably time I start wading into this stuff.

And, I just found out I have something growing behind my retina; it’s got me a little frightened. Maybe writing about it will help me think it through.

I say with no reservation I have the best job in the world; a museum educator in a world-class art museum. My job is to create programming for teenagers that brings them into the museum multiple times, gets them used to the idea of looking at art, and finding meaning and connection, and to facilitate projects that express their meanings and connections.

My first day on the job (this after 15 years teaching art in public high school) my boss came to me and said, “David, there’s one more thing. You have to go look at the art. Seriously, it’s why we are all here.” Um, okay. I get paid to think, to be creative, to teach others to think creatively, and to know art.

And I’m afraid I have a tumor in my right eye.

I have always felt the the best lessons, especially for teens, are those that result in real, authentic, important products that can be useful and appreciated by others. Right now we help the kids make videos and websites expressing ttheir responses to works of art from around the globe. The kids are taught that if they base their connections and expressions on their observations, and if they write to make their observations clear to a stranger, their writings are real, they are valid, they are important, they are useful. When I work with schools and teachers I stress that the CD-ROMs and DVDs the kids are more than reports. They are multi-media, cross-curricular peer-to-peer classroom resources. They are learning tools.It’s all about learning to look, really look, trust what is seen, trust the descriptions of, and connections to what is seen, and express a unique, personal response.

I get the results back from my first MRI in two or three days. I hope the writing helps.

d

back