Eisner, Winner and Hetland Reading Reaction

Myths in Art Education & Art for our Sake

In Eisner’s article depicting seven myths in art education, I found two of them to be specifically interesting. I loved his argument for the myth, “…what’s important in art education in process not product,” (9). In this argument, he noted how art is as much about the process as it is about the product. Without either one, neither would exist. A product is created through a process, and one must think of and actively engage in a process to create a product. It was very mindful of Eisner to note that neither the product nor the process is more important. It is merely a fact that they cannot be compared to one another in terms of value.
As an undergraduate student, like those that he mentioned in the article, I do believe in a wide variety of materials, yet I still agree with the seventh myth of, “…’the best curriculum in art for primary school children in one that provides the widest variety of materials with which they can work’,” (13).  To me, the key to this argument is “primary school”. I believe that secondary school art students should have a wide range of media available to them, but should always go back to the basics with drawing. Young children (even before schooling) are drawing with crayons on paper. Art educators should start where children are comfortable, enhance those skills within the comfort zone of each child and finally push them outside of that comfort to see what else they can do.
I really enjoyed the myths article. I thought that all seven myths were very interesting, and very important ideas that art educators should keep in mind.
In the article written by Winner and Hetland, I was surprised to read that the arts have never been proven to increase test scores the way it is so widely argued. I don’t know how one could measure the outcomes of the theory, but nevertheless, it hasn’t been proven. I love how the authors pointed out that although art teachers teach skills strictly relating to art creation techniques, the curriculum also incorporates things like visual-spatial abilities, reflection, self-criticism and the willingness to experiment and learn from mistakes. Many other classrooms cannot incorporate all of these things the way the art room does.  In relation to the myths article, art education embraces imagination, something that gives children their innocence and purity. Imagination manifests itself over time into a way to perceive the spaces around us in a more accurate, three-dimensional way. Imagination gives engineers and doctors the ability to see what they will be doing before they do it. By fostering the ability to perceive in one’s mind at an early age, art education is really a career training system, starting in elementary school!