Not so long ago I was a high-school teenager very much like the ones you’re talking about. And I’ve done a decent amount of thinking about this sort of thing because beyond being an Art/Philosophy double major at a Christian college, I have also been a camp counselor the past two summers at a summer camp for 3-9 graders. During that time I was given the greatest complement I believe I have ever received. One of my fellow counselors, someone whose opinion I respect very much, said that I was the most passionate person he has ever met. This has stuck with me since; and the more I look at my life, the more I see it.
From looking around, (at mine and other colleges, high-schools, etc) I see an alarming trend of apathy: people (especially students) who just don’t care about what happens. They don’t really think that they will get anywhere in life so they live life going through the motions without actually becoming passionate or putting themselves into what they are doing. One of my art professors told us about one of his colleagues at another institution: simply stated, he saw a drastic difference between students from the Christian institution that he used to teach at compared to the students at the secular institution he is now at. He noticed that while the students at his current secular university are technically and theoretically more skilled they lack the passion, the enthusiasm, which his Christian students had. While capable of producing much better work than his former students these students simply slacked off and produced lackluster work. He concluded that, from the student?s attitudes, they had simply given up. They had nothing driving them to succeed.
What has always drawn me to the arts was their ability to let me respond. I have always loved learning but what keeps me constantly learning and searching is not the love of learning. It is what I can do with it. When I learn I put that knowledge to use and can respond through my art and through papers and such. I have always despised research papers on their own, but when I can respond, put my own insights to use, I enjoy it. What really makes me keep going, in education and in life, is that I can respond. I think that Art/Artistic Education gave me a venue where what I said was not simply subject to a grade, but rather, it transcended grades and became involved in a dialog with those around me. It gave me a chance to reply to the world around me, without the pressures of purely objective evaluation. Though it can be harder to evaluate, as Norbert emphasized, I believe that it is the best way to get a student passionate about what they are working on. An artistic/gymnasium approach to education involves this sort of response style learning where craft and polish are emphasized.
Maybe I was the weird artsy kid, Dan, but I always longed for connections in high school, and college for that matter, and being involved with other people that cared about me and what I was saying was what coolness was about.
(Sorry about the long post… I tried to keep it brief, really.)
SamIam
Apr 01 2005
02:44 am
Not so long ago I was a high-school teenager very much like the ones you’re talking about. And I’ve done a decent amount of thinking about this sort of thing because beyond being an Art/Philosophy double major at a Christian college, I have also been a camp counselor the past two summers at a summer camp for 3-9 graders. During that time I was given the greatest complement I believe I have ever received. One of my fellow counselors, someone whose opinion I respect very much, said that I was the most passionate person he has ever met. This has stuck with me since; and the more I look at my life, the more I see it.
From looking around, (at mine and other colleges, high-schools, etc) I see an alarming trend of apathy: people (especially students) who just don’t care about what happens. They don’t really think that they will get anywhere in life so they live life going through the motions without actually becoming passionate or putting themselves into what they are doing. One of my art professors told us about one of his colleagues at another institution: simply stated, he saw a drastic difference between students from the Christian institution that he used to teach at compared to the students at the secular institution he is now at. He noticed that while the students at his current secular university are technically and theoretically more skilled they lack the passion, the enthusiasm, which his Christian students had. While capable of producing much better work than his former students these students simply slacked off and produced lackluster work. He concluded that, from the student?s attitudes, they had simply given up. They had nothing driving them to succeed.
What has always drawn me to the arts was their ability to let me respond. I have always loved learning but what keeps me constantly learning and searching is not the love of learning. It is what I can do with it. When I learn I put that knowledge to use and can respond through my art and through papers and such. I have always despised research papers on their own, but when I can respond, put my own insights to use, I enjoy it. What really makes me keep going, in education and in life, is that I can respond. I think that Art/Artistic Education gave me a venue where what I said was not simply subject to a grade, but rather, it transcended grades and became involved in a dialog with those around me. It gave me a chance to reply to the world around me, without the pressures of purely objective evaluation. Though it can be harder to evaluate, as Norbert emphasized, I believe that it is the best way to get a student passionate about what they are working on. An artistic/gymnasium approach to education involves this sort of response style learning where craft and polish are emphasized.
Maybe I was the weird artsy kid, Dan, but I always longed for connections in high school, and college for that matter, and being involved with other people that cared about me and what I was saying was what coolness was about.
(Sorry about the long post… I tried to keep it brief, really.)