The Importance of Art Education in a 21st Century Education

Below are the 8 habits of mind I use in my art studio. As an art teacher and a teacher of 15 years I deeply believe that the arts help prepare our children for 21st Century learning, thinking and work-related skills. It's one thing to teach a child concepts, vocabulary, and historical facts, but it's quite another form of learning to teach a child to think, work with their mistakes, persist, envision, express, observe, reflect, explore and understand. In teaching with the habits of mind as the 'umbrella' that guides all lessons and units we ensure that children will always embrace all situations with these helpful habits of thinking. In the art room, I don't teach the kids to be 'artists', I teach them to be independent thinkers and explorers of answers by following their own questions.

I have often been asked why I don't have kids make Picasso-like work, or Matisse-like work. While we still look at these artists and their work, we rarely waste time trying to merely emulate them or their style. In emulating another artist's work we dispossess the children of their own innovative abilities to find their own unique style. Instead, we discover what inspired these artists to do what they did and similarly look for our own inspirations in our own lives. In following our own inspirations we place value in our own ideas, our own stories, our own unique capabilities. When all else in school is simply telling kids what they should know, in the art studio kids learn to value their own voice and to verbalize, through art, their own expression of this world. The idea that you can only be exceptional at what you love is huge in the art studio. To simply create a Picasso-like face, we might make a pretty picture to take home, but kids will never walk away truly feeling like creators or innovators of their own ideas or concepts.

The arts, in fact, give children an enormous advantage in the future, when they hit the job market. Children who can follow these habits of mind (see below) can take everyday obstacles, in any field, and turn them into opportunities. When I hear people downplay the importance of my role as an art teacher in education, I immediately know they've never had a hands-on studio art experience. When I hear about art and music being cut from budgets to only be replaced with more seemingly academically-focused courses, I am saddened for those children, for they will only be further crippled by this lack of arts education in their lives. I am not creating artists, I am teaching an essential 'language' of seeing, creating and expressing that will undoubtedly enhance all forms of human interactions. Art is a life-changing experience.....and no education should be without it....

Studio Thinking Framework Eight Habits of Mind
	Develop Craft Learning to use and care for tools (e.g., viewfinders, brushes), materials (e.g., charcoal, paint). Learning artistic conventions (e.g., perspective, color mixing).
	Engage & Persist Learning to embrace problems of relevance within the art world and/or of personal importance, to develop focus and other mental states conducive to working and persevering at art tasks.
	Envision Learning to picture mentally what cannot be directly observed and imagine possible next steps in making a piece.
	Express Learning to create works that convey an idea, a feeling, or a personal meaning.
	Observe Learning to attend to visual contexts more closely than ordinary "looking" requires, and thereby to see things that otherwise might not be seen.
	Reflect Question & Explain: Learning to think and talk with others about an aspect of one’s work or working process. Evaluate: Learning to judge one’s own work and working process and the work of others in relation to standards of the: field.
	Stretch & Explore Learning to reach beyond one's capacities, to explore playfully without a preconceived plan, and to embrace the opportunity to learn from mistakes and accidents.
	Understand Art World Domain: Learning about art history and current practice. Communities: Learning to interact as an artist with other artists (i.e., in classrooms, in local arts organizations, and across the art field) and within the broader society.

4th graders detail their yoga-inspired sculptures after a long discussion about how we use our bodies to communicate meaning.

Students in Mrs. Mathur's class got to detail their clay sculptures today using clay tools. Before we placed our clay bodies into a position, we had a discussion about how the way we hold our bodies communicates meaning. Next week, they will use permanent acrylic to paint their sculptures. During our discussion I showed them a slideshow of various sculptures of people that strongly show some sort of emotion. Children were amazing in their insight in to what emotions these sculptures were trying to communicate.

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Our school-wide auction project is coming along!!! we have 1/2 the school left to add their 'twigs' or 'branches'...and sign the back.

Below is an image of the unpainted, semi-finished textured tree on canvas that will be painted for the auction project. So far about 1/2 the school has added either a root or a twig to the tree. Every person that has added an element to the painting has also signed the back....(see image below). When all children, teacher and staff from Murch has added their part I will take the canvas home and paint it. You are welcome to come in the studio and get a glimpse of the work in progress. Just let us know you're coming.

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1st graders explore ink painting using varied brushes (Bergin)

In the art studio, children do a lot of exploration at the beginning of each unit. In this ink painting unit children begin with exploring various degrees of ink and various brushes. At the end of class children shared out various characteristics they noticed that was unique to this media. One child said that they saw that the level of black varied depending on how much water was used. Another child noticed that thinner marks can be made using 'detail' brushes. Another child noticed that a 'fuzzy' mark was made is he painted on pre-wet paper.

Explorations allow us to build experience with a media and learn certain things about a media. During the discussion times, children learn to label these findings and categorize them in ways that will be useful to them in the future.

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3rd graders stuff their designed pillows and sew it shut

Children in 3rd grade have been LOVING sewing. So much that I think we might extend the learning into a more in-depth project that takes what they learned in their pillow-making into a new level. I could say with certainty that it has been an amazing experience for them to actually create a pillow.....from beginning to end. I will post pictures of some of the finished pillows later.

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4th graders pull several GIANT abstract prints .....

The 4th graders are starting a new unit in printmaking. We began the unit by working in teams to create giant abstract shape stamps and pulling a print for each child.

Below you see the whole class in front of their drying GIANT prints

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4th graders create a giant stamp..launching into our new printmaking unit

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Sample page for altered book project from a 5th grade artist

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5rh grades working on designing altered books..need old and no longer needed baby board book!!

We are in dire need of board books, but seriously, any book would do. In 5th grade students are working on designing an altered book containing some pop-up elements.

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Where's my child's art work?

I recently had a parent ask me why more art work is not going home weekly stemming from the art program. I see all kids at Murch 45 minutes a week. Each unit I introduce my take up to 4 weeks, sometimes more. A unit is a set of lessons based around one media. An example unit with a media might require (1) exploration with the media in our sketchbooks, (2) reflection on what we learned and created a shared resource wall and begin planning steps for a final project in that media. Lessons 3-4 often entail working on our 'final projects'. This may differ some from more 'crafty' art lessons that look good but carry little individuality and very little value in terms of building skills. When done, the project may be used to be displayed in the hallways or sent home. At this rate, parents may get work about every 4-6 weeks. But by no means, does this mean learning is not happening. I post on this very blog at least twice a week and at most three times daily with pictures and 'glimpses' of what is going on in the studio. In addition, I have an open door policy in my classroom. I welcome all parents to come and observe their children and the class during their child's art class. So, please take advantage of this and come join us and see for yourself what we are working on. My focus in the art studio is exposure and skill building in various true art media and building of ideas and concepts that stem from within the child and lessons that are meaningful to the child personally. I have a full curriculum for all grades posted right at my door. Please contact me if you have any questions at Miriam.Cutelis@yahoo.com.