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| #10 (1952) by Mark Rothko (Photo credit: wordherder) |
Seemingly these are questions long for freedom, but somehow I saw just the opposite: they are asking for permission, asking for demand. These students really wished me to give them a certain rule to follow so they could be successful with every single projects. I often see this attitude among those whose parents have the highest expectations, those who also have high expectation on their teachers (in this case it's me). And these students would be frustrated or discouraged, even stressed if they could not reach their goal in very short period of time.
Since the beginning of my art classes (2009), I was clear with what I could and could not do with my teaching. What I could do is teaching students some basic techniques and giving them opportunities to discover themselves; what I could not do is giving them inspiration, making them "talented". I told my students that I do not teach "how to paint a tree", "water", "mountain", or any specific subject, rather, I only teach "how to paint". In other words, I teach basic rules (such as perspective, shading, color principles, etc.), and let students use these basic rules to deal with subjects by themselves. Most of students (especially those self-motivated) could understand this idea quickly, put themselves in "experiment" and have fun with it, but some students couldn't seem to understand, only feeling lost when there are no certainties to rely on.
Averagely, I found younger students seemed to welcome this teaching method more than older ones. Also same students could change through time. i.e., one girl was very creative when she just came to my studio a few years ago, now she is over 10, she seemed to try very hard to find some rules to follow, and confused when I refused to give her specifics.
Sometime I would feel impatient when facing such kind of questions too often, especially when I saw the mental laziness or complete dependence (on me) in their attitudes. But sometime I would remind myself that they are still too young and could be very confused by all different kinds of influences surround them. So I took a deep breath, be patient again next time.
Freedom is a good thing, is the soul of art, soul of joyful life. Unfortunately, it is not always comfortable. I knew this when I first read Erich Fromm's Escape From Freedom (and later my life experience seems to prove his point). Now, teaching young kids, I realized, that even at this early ages, freedom is not welcome to everyone.
"You know, yunyi, people get so used to being slapped on the hand for doing the wrong thing, for giving the wrong answer, they become afraid to freely express themselves, to trust their own impulses. They get inhibited. But that's what art and life and freedom are all about."
ReplyDeletemarty, i totally agree. what i truly wonder is, why some people are easier and some are less easier to be influenced by others?
DeleteI can understand, Yun. I never had high opinions of all those 'creative writing' schools that, I assume, prescribe methods and rules for writing. Art is basically intuitive. Maybe they are good as a group though.
ReplyDeletevery true, uma!
DeleteOn the other hand, you need to master the strokes to paint what you want, otherwise, you are only free to paint what your skills allows you. There is often no freedom in acquiring a skill, but only after you have acquired it
DeleteYuni, I think you're exploring new depths of understanding and talking about how you are looking at them, which is always a good way to reason out a balanced judgement. Well done.
ReplyDeletethanks theresa for your kind words and understanding. :-)
DeleteApprehensions regarding one's freedom become very quickly apparent in an educational setting. Those who are self-directed don't feel a need to ask permission for "the right way" to go about learning and doing things; they're not afraid to explore for themselves. This goes for students and teachers alike. The best teachers are just like you, Yun Yi. They don't micromanage their students' learning...they encourage the students' own resourcefulness in integrating and applying whatever basic principles are being taught. The reason I enjoyed my medical training so much was that it was completely self-directed learning (problem-based learning). No lectures, no spoon-feeding, no micromanaging. We read, applied, and integrated the material, and came to our basic science tutorials, prepared to teach it to one another. Everyone contributed to everyone else's learning experience. Of course, to flourish in that type of environment, one has to be self-directed and adaptable.
ReplyDeletethanks kris! your medical school experience sounds just so fascinating and right!
DeleteI have no children, but friends who are teachers and parents. We discuss how it was different when we were growing up. Now, it just seems like there is more pressure to 'teach for the TEST,' instead of letting younger children fly into their own talents. I'm inspired and admire those youths who have the gift to think outside of the TEST. I' glad they have you as an inspiration.
ReplyDeletethanks charlene! it's a pleasure to work with young people and i am often inspired by them as well.
DeleteRules are there to be broken Yunyi, although it does help if you know what the rules are before you break them. Asking for rules, as you describe, goes against that philosophy because it implies that the asker is afraid to break the rules. Still, it's a difficult balance, and I admire the way you try to encourage your students to be free to do/be whatever they want.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, interesting choice of painting to illustrate this essay. I've always found abstract expressionism to be the most interesting (and challenging for the viewer) of the art movements of the 20th century.
Deletewe invented rules, and broke them. always. agree that knowing some rules are necessary and sometime even essential.
Deletei love many abstract paintings. they seem to give more rooms for audience's imagination.