*that children at a young age use multi-artistic forms, cross art boundaries naturally, and the educator is the one pushing labels onto what they are doing, which is unnecessary.
I concede this point, personally I don’t have any issues with it. Arts educators are not the only teachers trained to see education as a rigid structure, but to me it should be more natural. The teacher’s role should be closer to being a facilitator than a ‘teacher’.
*that multi-arts and the various mutations and combinations of the arts (blurring the boundaries) have not only been used in the past but will continue into the future. To break down the outcome into parts is diminishing ‘the whole’ piece. He argues that the arts are in constant flux and the education and practice of the arts should be evolving and embracing this phenomenon.
I can see some flaws to implementing this within the bounds of the classroom, and it isn’t that the argument is flawed, people are, and the way they have been trained. What many educators see as education does not marry well with the creative arts, and unless they are retrained to understand this I think it would be rejected. On the other hand, educators who have specifically been trained to work within the arts have been shaped to present and educate in a certain way, may be able to embrace another way to present the arts . It could be a wonderful thing if the educator is open and willing to change, it could create a very fertile learning ground.
*He argues that arts education has been limited in the past by certain ways of thinking, arts history has been confined to movements, and self-expression limited to composition. He states the Arts boundaries are fluid, creativity and 'aesthetic appreciation' are essential to all aspects of the arts including appreciation, reproduction and production.
I think a multi-arts approach that encompasses all the arts would be beneficial, and defining and seperating arts into subjects is limiting the Arts themselves, naturally they are going to interact and connect. Implementation of his ideas, though, will entail changing the opinions of many educators.
*He has mixed feelings about the future of the arts. Change may happen, IT is certainly changing things anyway forcing the multi-media approach and making it an easy option. We need to be open to the constant flux of the arts and aware of it's developments. Essentially the main problem with the arts, is under-funding because it both undervalued and artists are seen to be beyond the average person.
Arts has unfortunately always fallen behind sports in this country, and this has caused many problems for the arts all around. This is going to cause problematic if one wants to overhaul the Arts education system, particularly if one wants to change it on a national level. Comte also points out that many arts educators differ on the conceptualising of the Arts and this would need to be addressed. I don't think for a minute the Arts community could not reach some level of understanding, but the money involved I can see might be a problem, trying to prove we need to revolutionise and bring together the arts community costs money, and lobbying for enough money has always been an obstacle.
Cornett's suggestions for integrating the Arts throughout the curriculum:
Definitions
Teach with the arts, or to give opportunities to the children to make creative works, with some freedom, or integrating an art project within another discipline like math/science.
Teach about and in the arts, teaching them about Art for Art's sake, gaining artistic skill and to learn about artistic content and meanings.
Teach through the arts, the arts are placed in a prominent position and incorperated on a daily basis, focusing on the Arts themselves and how that relates back into life an into other disciplines of study.
Immersion into the arts goes another step, can incorperate the above in various methods and degrees, Plus:
Creating the environment to make it artisticly rich by
*Using posters
*arranging the furniture for comfort and pleasure
*using music
*using living plants which not only is visually pleasing it also enriches by fragrance
*flowers arrangements
*putting in a designated comfortable area for reading surrounded by books
*putting up easels with works on display or for easy use
*beauty boxes that are collections of the childrens which they can talk about and discuss
*textural items for sensory enjoyment
*partial picture preview
*an Arts for Life centre
*encouraging contributions from the students and have them comment on it
*a comment box for reviewing books
Doing:
*having the tools, and learning how to use them
*learning concepts and skills (pattern, line, shape, texture, value etc)
(genre, element, style, art forms, media)
*Know that Arts is another language and become familiar with it
*Develop HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills)
*Asking provocative questions, talking about feelings and how they relate in use of an artistic medium
*Learning the great artists of the past
*Learning how artists work
*Various learning materials ie charts, word walls, visual aids
*having artist visitors to do a unit.
Habits
*encourage exploration, questioning and creative thinking
*teaching the backstory/history - the why
*positive reinforcements with constructive criticism balanced with compliments and sayings
*foster passion and encourage total engagement
*use of 'fat' questions or open to discussion (What if? What backs this up?)
*encourage risk taking/develop courage
*its the journey not the destination attitude.
*allow and foster self-starters, independance and self-discipline
*interact with the children on their terms/understanding/level
As I don't have anything to do with the education system, as my children are homeschooled, I'll discuss Glover and Ward's Music in the intergrated primary curriculum from my perspective which is tempered by both interactions with homeschoolers and my own experience with music when I went to school. Music was a distinctly different subject when I was at school... and even in high school it was seen as something very different from everything else. In primary school we had to go to another teacher in a specialised room. We sang from a music book while the teacher played piano, and in the last two grades (5/6) we got to play the recorder. In high school, we had to take music for the first two years and we all had to do guitar. There was no music appreciation, no choices. There is no doubt why this approach doesn't work, I never engaged with music at school. I actually fostered a negative attitude as the teacher was only interested in the children that 'showed talent'.
Now, some homeschoolers are musical people, music just happens naturally in their households, the children are engaging because from birth music has been played and appreciated within the home. It is natural for them to have access to music to listen to and to play. On the other hand, some homeschoolers may not be so naturally inclined, so they either outsource when and if their child is interested, but the often harbour music appreciation by playing music within the household. It is a rare household that doesn't at least listen to music and appreciate it.
Personally my approach is, as I know at least one of my children is musically inclined, to play music around the house, it is often playing. We discuss how the music makes them feel, we show interest in what types of music they like to listen to and allow them to listen to whatever music they are so inclined to and put our own on when no one else is particularly interested in playing it. We have a large basket full of musical instruments (bells, shakers, glockenspiel, recorders and various other small things) and we have a child sized guitar and a keyboard. The basket is always available to them, the keyboard and guitar is available but out of reach to protect them. They get to 'play' whenever they want really, but rarely do they ask. I am beginning to bring them out and play with them myself, and this has marked a difference with them, they see my engage with music, and now they are interested in learning too. If my abilities are not up to speed, we will pay someone to tutor them - but with a view to natural learning as much as possible. For the younger two, there is baby einstein and Mozart etc. We also have Kindermusik curriculum. We sing all the time, in the van travelling, around the house, whenever the urge takes us. We also enjoy making sounds that imitate nature (my eldest is 8, so its early days yet).
I like the approach Glover and Ward suggests, that the experience I had ie the specialist teacher is flawed, but rather should be integrated into the curriculum. I think its natural to link maths/science and music. Sounds of nature, the beats in music is time, and the theory of music is linked to maths. Sorting/controlling sounds is a wonderful, natural approach to learning. From reading Glover and Ward, I'm inclined to want to integrate music more into their learning by letting them experiment, make drums, see how glass sounds, or pots when struck by a wooden spoon, making a stringed instrument etc. We already paint listening to music, I'm sure this is an interactive art experience for the children. Integrating music into history makes it come alive, listening to sounds of the ocean or a volcano (geography) and attempting to reproduce those sounds would be interesting way of thinking about sound.
As a world view approach to music, we already incorperate music from other cultures, we use this as a part of the discussion about different types of societies, and they also think creatively as to why this particular culture may have invented this type of musical instrument, ie what's available to them in their natural environment. This is across the board, into the visuals too.
The language of music should be familiar to the children, just as the language of visual arts.
Tone, texture, form, scale, colour and rhythm.
While learning another language it is natural to embrace the culture, so integration of other cultural practices are a good way of including music (amongst other things). Writing lyrics and music, or putting poetry to sound is another way to foster love of music.
Obviously music and movement are entwined, so allowing children to dance, use their bodies for expression are often used with music. There is a strong link between these. Rhythm and dance is making and expressing sound through the body. Playing different types of music and encouraging children to dance or move to the music is important, and also using imagination to create a show then finding music that works well with it.
Koster endorses theme as opposed to project type work. Themes can be richer and fuller experiences for the children, and foster a greater enjoyment, make it more memorable and fulfulling. Working by way of theme has a downside of time intensive preparation. (There are prepackaged Theme works to save time). I like the idea of organic learning personally. The example given of the butterfly is like the kind of learning I'm talking about. A teachable moment I would replace as a learning moment though. Child-delight learning is a wonderful way of learning for children. Given the butterfly example, after discovering colour and shape and doing a painting of it, you could read Eric Carle's Caterpillar book, try the technique of tearing coloured paper and doing a picture that way. If they are still interested, grab a few books or look at a few web sites and documentaries to look at them in further depth, go on a nature walk to see if you can find a coccoon, a butterfly. Make butterfly cakes. Write a poem, sing a butterfly song. Focus on metamorphis and draw a series of pictures that describe it. Create a series of objects that show a transition between one state to another (leaving it to the imagination of the child). Then take a series of photographs and make a simple animation. It may start with a butterfly, but from there, who knows where the children may take it. All the while, you can sneak in writing/art/poetry/product making/science/math/reading/just about anything you can imagine!
Projects are a focused study on a particular topic. They engage the children to widen their knowledge, it breaks down the barriers between curriculum, allow creativity, it can be levelled at the children's stage, it creates a sense of freedom to explore but at the same time is reliant on a child's motivation. They can direct their own learning, researching and ultimately responsible for their own learning. The success of the project is directly linked to how engaged the child was.
Exploring, organising and discussing what is learnt.
Projects/themes can be interactive. They are not necessarily separate.
Bottom line is, if you have the children's interest, they will be easier to engage and it will make for more meaningful and successful art. Also they will be more successful.
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