Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Brewer Reading Reaction

I have always approached interdisciplinary art education as a positive aspect of arts in education today. Until reading this article, I didn’t realize that the integration of other subjects into art could result in classes that deny visual art its value as a distinct discipline (31).  As art educators, we incorporate reading, English, social studies, geography, history, and even math and science into our curriculums without purposely doing so. However, it seems like all of those core classes do not incorporate art as readily within their own curriculum. Nonetheless, this is an exciting subject to read about because I absolutely stand for integration of other subjects into art education. I think it validates our subject matter and really broadens the horizons of students who have different modes and methods of learning that others.  I agree with Mr. D’Amico when he said “he did not mind teaching art in correlation with other subjects as long as it was not placed in a subordinate role…” (31).

I loved reading that 85 percent of fifth graders in Brewer’s intrinsic art experiment practiced art at home. Even with practicing art at home, he found that art instruction played a key role in their drawing techniques and aesthetic preferences (33). I also enjoyed reading that linkages between learning in the arts and learning in other subjects are, “perhaps strongest and instrumental instruction most justifiable when an art program exists in its own right, when there is a specific need for instrumental outcomes, and when there is a conscientious effort to facilitate transfer” (33).

 “Studies from the National Arts Education Research Center (1991) were considered as early indications of success in defining how the arts contribute to learning across the curriculum in secondary schools” (34). I think this is a great quote that tells us that the arts have some positive effects on education, but aren’t being fully considered or truly proven. One of the things that frustrate me with art education is that we are always advocating, always working so hard to make sure that skeptics know why art is so important. Have we not proved that art can incorporate other subjects? Have we not shown that arts make children happier, more involved and excited about school? Although this doesn’t apply to absolutely every student in the whole world, arts bring something to the education system that many classes do not. We even bring in other subjects to our own, unlike some others. Art Education is an amazing all-encompassing subject that gives a real world analysis of when and why we will use this in real life… whether we are studying art, math, science or literature.

While reading the article, I didn’t find a lot of it to be ‘quote worthy’ or extremely new information to me, rather, I took the big picture of the article into consideration. I thought this article highlighted integration of other subject in the arts as a positive thing, something that will help us justify our subject. The big thing that I want to remember from this article is that no matter if art education is an amazing subject to integrate other curriculum, it is still art class, and my students are in the art room to create, learn and understand art in a more comprehensive manner than before. I also hope that by learning art fundamentals, they can make connections between their subjects on their own, without making it a mandatory part of my teaching, more like a happy by-product. 

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