All fired up!

Freedman and Eisner – Numero Uno

I read Freedman first, mostly because it was daunting after what Dr. Unrath said about it being dense; she was not wrong. This chapter, although and introductory chapter was full of information. However, after taking my time a reading slowly I didn’t stop highlighting. The most important part that I highlighted came from page 15, “Currently, students may gain more information from images than from texts.” This made me think about the symposium when we heard about the new common core standards and visual literacy. Students are bombarded with imagery, and from early on we learn to relate what we have already seen to new things we see every day. That is how our brain works, through relationships. So it makes me think, how can schools say that the arts programs are the first to phase out when we run out of money? It all relates to me back to Pink’s book that I will reread soon, that the country is looking for creative thinkers and problem solvers more than information and computer gurus.  Also, form page 13 I found this  as ironic and Freedman, “immense commerce surrounding the production of visual culture, which depends on so much learning about appreciating art , and yet results in so little money being given to art education.” That directly pings off of what Ken Robinson said about who is making the rules and regulation of education… Not Educators! So much more I found interesting in the chapter alone, but, I needed to read the other chapters and should go to sleep at some point tonight.

While reading Eisner I couldn’t help but feel like I had read the same things twice. Whether it be mirroring what Freedman said about the art developing conative thinking or like what Pink stresses about the society and workforce of today needing people who are creative. It is amazing to me that so many people know this and write about this and yet it is not catching on.  I really enjoyed this quote from Eisner from page 12, “Seeing is an achievement, not merely a task. It is the result of making sense of a part of the world. Learning to see the qualities that constitute a visual field requires a mode of attention that is rarely employed in “ordinary” living.” I thought this was powerful and coincided beautifully with what Eisner said about visual culture and how we have to learn to be visually literate in this world. Understanding imagery is not instinctual, it is learned from the beginning, associating something visually to what it feels or tastes like as a baby to looking at an advertisement and assessing exactly what the emotion they are trying to achieve to sell you their product. I feel like a broken record saying this but, with all of this imagery, why do people take the arts for granted?

Both of these readings got me fired up, and ready for a discussion tomorrow. I think that it is our responsibility as the new art educators to show the importance of what we teach and bring a new thinking to the students we teach. You are not just gaining your fine arts credit. You are learning how to function in your visual society!