Whole Latte Love

No pun intended - there is an art to working with and teaching children. As a teacher, you must first of all be passionate about children, and of course, passionate and knowledgeable about your subject. With all that passion and knowledge, ultimately, a teacher must be able to teach, to engage, and most of all, allow his or her students to learn. By allowing students to learn, a good teacher knows when to lecture, when to solicit individual student or class participation, and when to simply get out of the way and let students create. Such are the everyday occurrences in each of the classrooms at Global School, but one classroom in particular takes these tenets to a higher level.

Most of us in our early school art class experiences can remember being asked to draw or paint the obligatory vase of flowers or bowl of fruit. Taught by either the regular classroom teacher or by a wandering "art gypsy", the classes were often sporadic or lacking in any real focus. In my own case, one of my art teachers was fixated on Warner Brothers cartoons and we were asked to draw various popular characters - repeatedly. I became the class expert at drawing Tweety Bird. To this day, it is a life skill I will always cherish . . .

Tweety Bird expert or not, today, many children do not even receive the opportunity to draw the bowl of fruit. As school budgets are cut and trimmed, art classes are often among the first to fall under the axe. If not eliminated completely, the number of students in each class is dramatically raised to the point where individual creativity is often stifled in the name of uniformity or simply getting things done.

At Global School, art teacher, Jenny Dickson-Child, moved away from the bowl of fruit long ago, and I am not sure she appreciates Tweety Bird the way I do. What she does appreciate, is that students must become invested in art. To her, art is not simply line drawings or finger painting. Instead, it is also about space, texture, and materials. It is learning about the great and not-so-great artists of the past, as well as the present - not to copy or emulate them - but to help students understand how a particular style or artistic vision came to be.

Whether it be Picasso, Monet or Whistler, students of all grades are introduced to the artist and asked to "be" that artist for the duration of the study. Though thankfully, no one has been asked to slice off their ear in support of this teaching method, students have, among other techniques, lain on the floor to practice charcoal drawings in the style of the bed-ridden Matisse - the end result of which was quite fun and remarkable in its quality. Most of all, Ms. Jenny believes that all art should be shared everywhere and anywhere it can be appreciated. The halls, classrooms, and byways of Global School are a testament to this generous impulse.

Through an earlier blog, most of you know that the students at the school recently painted portraits of area firemen as part of a well-mounted joint project with our local Bank of America to "Honor Our Heroes." Though lacking a bit of the heroic aspect of their earlier work, second, third and fourth grade students recently prepared some additional work for display outside our campus.

Asked to explore the works of native California artist, Wayne Thiebaud, the students were engaged to paint a still-life. The pieces they created were a mix of acrylic paintings, mixed media works (paint and pastels), and collage. No regular bowl of fruit here - instead, students painted cupcakes. Forget the art, for students to overcome the urge to eat the cupcakes before they finished their pieces, was a huge achievement in and of itself. Invited frequently to visit classes throughout the day, I am trying not to take it personally that I was not asked to drop by during this particular lesson . . .

Steeling themselves against the pangs of pre-adolescent hunger, the students completed remarkable work. Excited as always over her students' success, Ms. Jenny arranged for the work to be displayed for a few days at Barefoot Coffee - a local business very close to the school. There, patrons - and not a few parents - are treated to a remarkable array of cupcakes and other bakery delights, the likes of which few long-time artists and students could rival.

Whether laying on the floor with a charcoal pencil taped to a broomstick or drooling over a cupcake still-life, it's clear that Ms. Jenny loves her students and her work. As a result, her students are thoroughly involved in the learning process. Exposed to a seemingly endless supply of artists to learn from - including their teacher - they each produce remarkable work, no matter their age. Their learning experience is active, engaging, and fun - the way all learning should be. The formula is simple: passionate and involved teachers = passionate and involved students. Welcome to Global School!