Friday, January 15, 2010

Academic vs. Expression

So, I'm just waiting for my dinner (smells gorgeous btw) and I've staring thinking about Art as a subject in Leaving Cert.




Image from:http://bit.ly/81ItJI


It’s been 2 years since I’ve been in secondary school and unfortunately, I found the Art class to be dull, frustrating and forceful in the classroom. Art shouldn’t be about sitting down at a desk for a half an hour and being told exactly what to do and what materials you have to use. It’s a form of expression and I don’t think my art teachers or the programme gave us that opportunity to express ourselves. I think that fact that I struggled that was fairly obvious to them and caused a lot of clashing.

With art you can’t plan. Saying, “right, tomorrow at 5pm I am going to do a watercolour painting of a bowl of fruit” (first, thing that came into my head) for me anyways, is just not possible. On occasion, I might be sitting down watching TV and suddenly get the urge to paint or sketch. You don’t go to art, art comes to you. People’s moods obviously effect the level and type of art when producing it and that’s something that was completely forgotten about or even ignored in the classroom. It was such and still is a shame. There were people with incredible talent in my class and they didn’t have the freedom to do what the want. Yes, materials in the classroom were second to none, along with talent and guidance of the teachers, but the most important element is emotion which lacked incredibly.

As it’s fairly obvious, I’m interested in creating art, however, a very important aspect of art is to learn the history and development of it through the years. This is something that disappointed me greatly throughout my two years in the Leaving Cert cycle. A half an hour a week for two academic years seemed almost enough to understand and expand the knowledge and influence of art. Unfortunately, I was very wrong. I was gasping for information on artists from Di Vinci to Braque to Hone. The window of information that was available to us was astonishing but never explored. I was unimpressed that I never got to experience the art from 1400’s onwards unless I studied it without any guidance. The prospect of learning about Modern Art and the ideas behind it were so appealing. This was not due to the teaching level of my teachers but I have found other students from different schools complaining of the same issue. There seems to be an attitude of ‘learn what is expected the exam and leave it at that’. What happened to making learning fun?! (Leaving Certs cringing over that sentence all over the country)




Newgrange: Tomb or more?
Image from: http://bit.ly/8nNzpX


The idea of learning about art and it’s experiences was thrown out the window and became strict regurgitation of facts and figures like something out of a Biology book. Shouldn’t the art course be based on your own thoughts and feelings, whether you liked or disliked the painting/sculpture along with the fundamentals of the work? I expected it to be like this and not a word by word account of Newgrange. Wouldn’t it have been far more interesting to ,yes learn the dimensions and reasons behind Newgrange, but also adding our own creative touch by commenting and giving our own theories about the designs and grooves on the stones circling and inside the tomb? This would have given student the opportunity to think for themselves and really study the tomb further without being bored to death by looking at a book for 4 hours. I think students get enough from the other 6 subjects they study. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to learn the facts and figures of different works, however, a whole course does not need to focus on this point but rather explore the meaning behind the painting.

This would have been the perfect opportunity to get students ready for their university education if they were to push on to that level. In university, especially in my course Communications, you learn how to research the facts and figures while adding your own flare to assignments and give your own theory attachment to others who have excelled in the subject before you. This would have made the Leaving Cert far more interesting while giving the student the knowledge about the art work but giving them their own opportunity to delve into and examine art they in fact they find interesting.

Or, maybe it's just me.

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