CollageMama's Itty Bitty Blog: Sam and Janet Evening

3/18/05

Sam and Janet Evening

Not long ago I wrote about having my students paint to music, each one dancing his paintbrush on the paper. The results were enchanting in every class. Some of the most stunning were analogous color schemes. That involved passing the tempera paints in spectrum order. The experience of painting with this range of colors seemed to transport the children deeper into the mood of calm, clarity, and beauty.

I've been challenged by friends that the process of playing "Pass the Paint" operates against individual student's artistic choices by exerting teacher control over how long they paint with a color, and with the actual color choices. The teacher does exercise that control. I believe that what is lost in individuality is made up by what is learned, noticed, experienced and absorbed. This really came home to me as I watched the ever increasing spiral of beautiful painting. Most of the children were aware enough of the beauty they were creating to make increasingly lovely choices about shapes, lines, and composition.

All too often a project can backfire on a teacher when students are given free reign to choose from a full range of colors. Students stir the first two choices together, create an ugly mud, and have no incentive to impose thought or order on the rest of the effort. It becomes a spiral into mucky chaos.

Adults aren't immune to the spiral of mucky chaos. I went to a homeowners association meeting Monday on the subject of removing a twenty-two year-old live oak tree planted too close to a curb. The situation was exacerbated because the tree was on the property of the association board president, and the association was paying for the removal. As the meeting lacked a clear moderator, despite the presence of the board, its president, his lawyer (being paid for by the homeowners' association), and the owner of the property management company, it quickly descended into an ugly spiral of shouting, insults, interruptions, and what we preschool teachers sometimes call "potty mouth". Nothing was accomplished. Everyone left furious.

In art class, the equivalent is creating mud, adding in gobs of black, painting one's hands, spatter painting one's neighbor, painting the chair, and eventually deciding to pour the paint container on the floor. An aesthetic awareness is not increased. The child might learn that paint feels icky as it dries on his hands, and mommy's are crabby when clothes are ruined.

The role of the teacher is to create an experience in which learning can occur. The teacher must provide the structure in which the student can explore free choice and its results. The teacher's job is the same as that of the referee, the chairman, the conductor, the scientist, and Miss Manners.