There is such a vast amount of visual culture that we can teach our children, it is hard to choose where to begin. However, working with students and asking them what they are interested in is a great way to start exploring visual culture. "If we intend to develop interpretive skills in children it is important for them to have opportunities to study topics that are of deep interest to them since learning is motivated best if interest is already established the child (Boughton & Freedman, nd, p. 1)." In addition to that, categorizing the types of visual culture into themes can provide a great way to organize what tools can be used to teach students in a focused and interdisciplinary way. A " thematic approach provides infinite possibilities for the development of ideas that builds upon the interest of students (Boughton & Freedman, nd, p. 24)." As an art teacher, I hope to connect what I teach to what students learn outside of the classroom, and in that way, they can apply their learning to their lives.

Even though I have yet to have formal teaching experience, I do remember as a child learning lessons from my visual culture that I was not aware of learning until much later in life. For example, one of my all time favorite fantasy movies, Labyrinth, has a female protagonist that overcomes a powerful male adversary to save her brother. Her tag line "You have no power over me," is her secret weapon she uses to thwart his attempts to control her. As I watched this as a young child, I had no idea that this was highly influencing me to recognize the control I have over my own life, and as a female, it also had important strong undertones for me to learn such as feminism, female empowerment and self confidence. These topics were a big part of my identity formation, and still influence me today.

For my tech class this semester, we have to create a video game (will post link below once it is completed). I decided to base my game on the movie Labyrinth. It will feature the main character, Sarah, in a scene where she is trapped in a bubble in a ballroom setting. Although it is a beautiful fantasy, and her foe, the Goblin King, has set it up to make her forget about attaining her true goal, she knows in her heart something is not right. After some time spent dancing, she runs away and uses a chair to break the bubble and escape. The game will feature this same theme, but as a teacher, I can discuss how this also mirrors social issues that are part of our lives today. We often hear about how everyone lives "in a bubble," satisfied to be unaware of what is happening outside of our lives, communities and cultures. By breaking through those boundaries, we see that there are many challenges, but they are worth the ultimate goals we can achieve. In the movie, Sarah was able to not only get her ultimate goal, but she also was able to gain friends she didn't expect and realize the strength she has, giving her more self confidence and self love. Using these types of visual culture artworks, we can combine art making with identity formation, life skills, community involvement (or the inspiration to reach outside of your own bubble) and eventually, the power to change the world.

Although I have had a great life, I wonder how different it could be if I had been able to explore my interests in school at a young age, and taught to think critically of the things I was able to watch and see on a daily basis outside of school. Seeing both the bad and the good of visual culture is important, even at a young age, and I look forward to helping my students take their interests to the next level.

References

Freedman K., and Boughton D. (e-version) Elementary Art Education: A Practical Approach to Teaching Visual Culture.

“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”
― John Dewey

John Dewey believed that curriculum in schools is not a fixed thing, that it is ever changing to reflect the time is a part of. What made curriculum successful 100 years ago is not going to be the same thing today. Curriculum should reflect the interests, lives and culture of the students who are learning from it. Visual culture has a huge part in this type of education, especially when learning about art. Art encompasses everything from what is in our museums and galleries to what is on our streets, in our homes, and on our screens.

What kind of lessons can we teach to students who are influenced by so many things outside of their school? We can take what they know and integrate it with what they are learning. We can start with their own histories, cultures and interests and compare and contrast them to the lives, cultures and interests of those they don't know. Art is the ultimate and universal tool to communicate thoughts, ideas and messages that can influence and change the lives of others around you. It is important to first teach understanding of our world, and other people, and then to teach creative ways to connect to the world, and then build upon those as the changes come. "This means that art curriculum includes social, psychological, historical, material and other types of information about and analysis of great works of popular and fine art and artists as well as students’ own artistic production. In other words, contemporary art curriculum is a creative process that is the realization of a social consciousness concerning art making and viewing (Boughton & Freedman)."

For our first lesson, my teaching partner and I are using a book that our students are currently reading "The Kindness Club" by Courtney Sheinmel. In it, a student starts a club focused on being kind to others, and makes a birthday party for another girl who recently lost her mother. For our lesson, we are going to discuss several things, including why is it important to be kind, how we can show kindness to others, and then create visual representations of these acts of kindness. We are going to discuss how visual art sends a message to others, so we are not just celebrating kindness for ourselves, but sharing the art with others to spread that message of kindness. We are also going to discuss how public art is part of our visual culture, and how art on the street that is accessible to everyone is sometimes a better way to share art than keeping it locked up in a museum or a gallery. We hope to incorporate all of these lessons in our teaching, while also creating artwork. We want to combine meaning and personal story with art making. "In art as in all school subjects, education should be as meaningful and authentic as possible. As a result, curriculum should include opportunities for student self-directed learning as well as teacher directed learning (Boughton & Freedman)." In this way, the students will not only be learning from us, but learning from each other and from themselves.

References

Boughton, D., & Freedman, K. (n.d.). Elementary art education: A practical approach to teaching visual culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.