1. Karen Gallas discusses the separation of art from life and how this process begins early in children’s school life. Do you agree with this statement and it so, why o why not?The issue of nature versus nurture as long been resolved, it was once believed that a child’s ability to produce art is solely depended on the genes that were passed onto them children with artistic talents were set to believe that they were inborn. On the other hand, a different school of thoughts argued that artistic talent can be learned when a child is exposed to the right stimulation.
Art that is produced by children were viewed simply as a product. It isn’t seen as an expression on how the children view the world around them. In effect, learning and teaching opportunities are lost along the way. The product is only viewed as is and the chance on expanding the child’s ability to convey the story of their life experiences is limited.Art is an expression of self.
Art lives within each person’s life. It entails the story of series of events that the artist had experience. Though the effects of art in lives of children may fall into different levels, it is a medium of seeing and understanding that revolves around them. Separating art from life provides the student limiting views of the world and the ability to express their understanding of it. I agree with Gallas (1994:116) when she stated that “the process and dynamics of the art experience best capture the way children make their world sensible from very early years on.” With art, life begins to make sense to them.
The more sense they make out of life, the more they want to understand how life works and in the process skills in observation, inquiry, creativity and critical thinking may be practiced and mastered. Therefore, learning for children becomes more interesting and in the early age they are equipped with essential skills both to excel in school and in life.2. Merryl Goldberg describes how the arts can become a methodology (forms a process or structure) for learning. What does she mean by this?Art has become a medium for learning, especially to those students who have learning disabilities and for those students whose English is not their first language.
Art offers them a whole new way to communicate their idea. At the same time, it is also a new creative way to convey to them the message of a particular subject matter.Art shows what the teacher means, rather than telling the students about a subject matter. Discussions can revolve around the art experience and link it to the target subject matter. Students may have more knowledge and experience that can be a basis of their arguments.
Results of various researches concluded that arts is an effective strategy in bring out the curriculum content in the classroom. The more often teachers use art, students are more involved in the activities and the better outcomes they produce.3. How might arts experiences in schools empower children and give them control over their learning as Goldberg states in chapter?It has been an established fact the experiences are the best teachers. Since art experiences put meaning into the world where the child lives in.
During an art experience, children’s skills in observation, inquisition, communication, exploration, critical thinking and creativity. The search for the answers to the questions why, when, where and how, expands the thinking process of the child and with art since it deals with self-expression, confidence building may be a result as well.Role of the teachers shifted to facilitating rather than simply teaching. Through this role shifting, teachers prepare activities which allow the child to experience the subject matter, for this instance, arts.
Art, whether it is the product or the process is subject to the interpretation of the child of the world around him. It communicates to us the level of the child’s understanding of the world.How the child interprets the art is already a form of putting the learning into the hands of the children. They fit in their experience to the world they know, which in this matter makes the learning personalized. The teacher, on the other hand, processes the information to the child by reinforcing them and encouraging them to continue discovering new knowledge. In the long run, the students learn to filter information and become more independent in searching for the answers they might have and find ways to understand them.
4. Susan Wright describes 3 kinds of intelligence based on the learning theories of Howard Gardner that relate specifically to the arts. Describe what these are and give one example (for each of the art forms) of how they may be actively represented in music, dance, drama, or the visual arts. For example, when children stamp their feet in a consistent rhythm they are using their musical intelligence.The three kinds of intelligence that Wright (2003:2) mentioned in her article are spatial, bodily-kinesthetic and music which are directly related to arts. Special intelligence is the child’s ability to work with spaces with a mental model (Gardner 1983 in Wright 2003:5).
This kind of intelligent is important component of art because it gives life to the different dimensions of a model or an image that has been previously viewed. The spacial abilities of a child can help recreate an image in accuracy and in different dimensions, in different forms such as a sculpture, painting, or even in dance. For example a child makes a clay art of a model man in the top view.Another type of intelligence is musical.
It is the ability of the child to recognize, organize and to put together different tunes. It can be in different forms such as singing, putting together tunes, playing a musical instrument and writing music that can be easily comprehended by the listener. Music can be combined with different forms of art like dance and drama and can also be integrated with visual arts and writing. Music can be used as background music to a dance or to a dramatic performance to put more emotions to the movements performed.
Same strategy can be used for visual arts and writing, but its role is to inspire the writer or the painter to express their thoughts and feelings in their work.And the last type of intelligence related to art is bodily-kinesthetic. It is the ability of the child to control body and object movements that includes both small and large muscles under circumstances of time and space. Bodily-kinesthetic is the center of dance, music, drama and visual arts. These art forms need either small or large muscles to produce or to perform it.
The act of pressing the piano keys to produce tones and the combination of those tones lead to create music. Dance and movement are two things that are inseparable. Dance is all about movements. It is the expression of self that puts life to action and emotion.
