05
June
June
I just finished 4 long but inspiring days at the Center for Integrated Arts Education Institute at the University of Northern Colorado. If you have a large group of people attending an event like that from kinder to college professors you will get varying reflections and opinions on its worth. This is my 4th year and I was honored to be invited to sit on a panel discussion with 4 University Professors and one other teacher. I have to admit it was rather intimidating to be a “lowly” teacher amidst such prestigious academia but it was also a thrill. As I reflect back on the conversations with the audience and the theme of the entire week I started to really “get” the theme of the week – the aesthetics of education and the impact of the aesthetic experience on education!
Sounds really touchy-feely and trite doesn’t it? But it isn’t and the sad thing is people don’t get it. I have been teaching in the arts field for over 20 years and didn’t get it – at least not to this extent – until this week. Let me try to explain:
My first husband was in air intelligence during the Vietnam war and part of the training was to go through training as a prisoner in a mock POW camp. The experience had lasting effects on him and so I understand first hand the psychology behind some of the brain washing techniques they use-even to this day. They all involve manipulating the aesthetic experience.
Think about it: prisoner is interrogated under bright lights. The room is hot. They are asked questions they can’t answer – and are sometimes punished for not knowing the answer. Then they are sent back to wait out their time with other strangers for awhile before it might start all over again.
Now:
Think of little Suzie starting kindergarten. She is filled with excitement and wonder. She is anxious to meet new friends, and her parents have told her how wonderful school is going to be. She skips into the classroom the first day at school and waves good-by to mom. What happens next? The school isn’t air conditioned. A stranger takes her to a quiet place to ask her all kinds of questions. Sometimes she knows the answer and sometimes she doesn’t. She feels the heat of the room and the bright lights from the fluorescent fixtures are a little uncomfortable. The chair is hard and uncomfortable. She is losing that excitement rapidly and wondering what naughty thing she could have possibly done to have her parents send her to such a place. After a time she is sent to play possible with other strange kiddos. Some are friendly and some might not be.
The similarities are pretty obvious. What might not be so obvious is the long range effects of this on her education for life.
Think of a time in your own life when something scary or unpleasant happened to you. Can you smell the smells in the room? Can you remember the smallest detail? All those aesthetics are what made the event memorable.
What does it take now for Suzie to overcome her first experience with school? Will any amount of recess, field trips, crackers at snack time or fun and engaging activities that Mrs. Jones the teacher supplies overcome that first day’s aesthetic impact on her? Maybe…maybe not.
I read with some amusement the 21st Century skill set that the State of Colorado Department of Education has attached as a focus for all content standards in their recent revision. First of all, let me say I am ecstatic that they were thinking of these things when writing the standards. The amusement comes from the realization that a kindergartener steps into our school doorway with all those things already!!!! What killed it so that now we have to remediate them all?
Well, in my humble opinion it could have all started with that very first day and the aesthetic experience of that day.
Just something to think about as we all plan over the summer for that first day of school.
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This is my third visit to your blog. We are starting a brand new initiative in the same category as this blog. Your blog provided us with valuable information to work with. You have done a great job.
July 26, 2010 at 11:38 am
Interesting thoughts and comparisons. Sometimes we forget about those all important first impressions, and the impact they leave on us for years to come.
June 6, 2010 at 11:47 am