My Philosophy of Art Education
I never really gave thought to what my primary influences were in choosing Art Education as my career but after taking art courses at California State University, San Bernardino I realized that Art was always something that was present in my life. This is because when I go back in time and think about my childhood and how I was raised in Mexico without really any exposure to the art world, I was still the creative one in my family. When it came to doing manual crafts I was really good at it. For example, when I was 13 years old I learned how to construct decorations for Christmas by hand and I made all the stockings in my house. Now, that I am in CSUSB I have been influenced by math in my art work. This is because I was a math major before I changed to art. After the change I have noticed that there is always some kind of geometric form in my pieces. I think that this is due to the fact that I was so used to trying to solve problems in math and trying to get the right answer that now this is the way I get to show my answer to the world. I was accustomed to problem solving which is something that I still believe is important in art so I answer my questions/problems with a form of “art-math.” In order to give my sense of art education I should first try to give an explanation of what art means to me. I believe that art is defined by the individual that practices any kind of medium. This is because I think that we all have a different definition of art. I want to define art by saying that it is an act of creativity and intelligence that act together in order for us to create a piece of work that can express our feelings, points of view, political views, economical matters, etcetera. Art is also accomplished by inspiring people to experience feelings when they see your work. So therefore in art education we, as art educators, should be able to show our students that there is a whole new world out there that they can learn from and get inspiration for their work. Plus I consider that we must be able to critique our students work in order to help them improve their ideas. The idea of art education is to be able to listen to the students and bring them into a new world where they can express themselves, feel very comfortable, happy, understood and accepted with the work of art that they create. This is part of what really stood out to me about teaching art.
Going back to my previous experiences and remembering how terrible it must have been to teach kids art when they did not know the language in their school setting. Inspiration from my past is what appealed to me and why I wanted to become an art teacher; because I want to help those children that come into this country without knowing the language or culture in order to make them feel part of something important. I want students to know that art can help them with any problems they may have to face and that art is a medium in which they can communicate with their professors, parents and community around them. An art teacher should always have a lesson plan in hand for each class that he/she is going to teach. They should also know that teaching requires a lot of patience and that it is an individualized attention that needs to be available for each student, especially those that come to the U.S.A without knowing the language and culture. Teachers should keep in mind that they need to get to know their students, in order for them to learn from their classes. Students should learn that an art teacher will always be there to help with any questions they might have. Students also need to learn that art is a part of the huge world around us that is here to make every single person in this planet more intelligent, patient, loving, caring and to give a sense to this precious life that we have in-front-of us at all times.
Going back to my previous experiences and remembering how terrible it must have been to teach kids art when they did not know the language in their school setting. Inspiration from my past is what appealed to me and why I wanted to become an art teacher; because I want to help those children that come into this country without knowing the language or culture in order to make them feel part of something important. I want students to know that art can help them with any problems they may have to face and that art is a medium in which they can communicate with their professors, parents and community around them. An art teacher should always have a lesson plan in hand for each class that he/she is going to teach. They should also know that teaching requires a lot of patience and that it is an individualized attention that needs to be available for each student, especially those that come to the U.S.A without knowing the language and culture. Teachers should keep in mind that they need to get to know their students, in order for them to learn from their classes. Students should learn that an art teacher will always be there to help with any questions they might have. Students also need to learn that art is a part of the huge world around us that is here to make every single person in this planet more intelligent, patient, loving, caring and to give a sense to this precious life that we have in-front-of us at all times.