I'm sitting here this morning, with the two books my daughter was given as part of her educational program, under my desk. These two books, unlike the rest are pristine and unused. They are her art books. I had a quick glance through them before writing this blog post, to see the content and relevance. My inquiry to my daughter came after a discussion we had over lunch the previous day. On occasion I ask her how she is doing in her art class. Many a time, she replies we drew a picture or coloured a photocopy in. She is eleven years old and been going to school for some seven years. The things she does in her art class are rudimentary and at a stage that is compliant with kindergarden activities, and basically have not evolved from this point; no instruction and no learning takes place in these lessons. My daughter stated that the last teacher was better, as they did one whole lesson on Picasso. My daughter also, was willing to defend her teachers, saying that they weren't artists, and didn't know how to draw. I rebuffed this by saying, they aren't mathematicians nor scientists, but they teach you maths and science.
As the dawn of man came upon us, and we strived to evolve into the simian being we are today, our first attempt at communication was by making marks. We drew in sand, on stone, etc, and made iconic forms that would dictate the narrative to what we wished to purvey. This ability is built within all of us. It is an instinctual form of communication. All kids become familiar to the task of creative mark making as they grow from infancy. Many of their parents have little or no aesthetic skills, but they are still able to translate observational aspects of their life and put them on paper, in whatever medium it be. This is before schooling and without instruction. The fact that what occurs after this, is detrimental to the free thinking of the child, and the mandatory need to be educated in an out-dated school system seems to destroy this natural aspect to creativity.
After watching an interesting TED talk two days ago about the "The Divided Brain" by Iain McGilchrist, I am more aware that the reason behind this inhibition to creative and aesthetic matters is due to the further training of the brain toward left-side control over the right. The noted medical fact that the corpus callosum has in fact proportionally decreased in ration to the rest of the brain is an enormous detrimental factor in many aspects of the methods of free-thinking, and therefore aesthetic activity (I want to add at this point that I will refer to the term aesthetic quite a lot in this post, knowing now that it is from the Greek; touching the senses). What is occurring in our evolution is the the part of the brain that allows for more open thinking and expression is getting smaller. Therefore the actions and it's control is getting weaker. In combination to this, the functions of human society are such that our development of culture has made commerce a more pragmatic concern than allowing free expression and thinking.
We are sent to school, to be "clone" taught activities that some seldom use in later life, but are there simply to train us for the mega-machine of the corporate world. We are funnelled into the money making machine. Education itself, as told by Sir Ken Robinson, is badly structured in a way that actually destroys the notions of creativity. And why is this? Well, in a slight tangent to this discourse, there was a recent bill going through the American government called SOPA. A weakly disguised attempt to allow governments to block, eradicate and null out any site they deemed inappropriate. It is banded under the 'protective' guise of 'piracy', however the bill will basically allow the ability of higher officials to delete any site, and strangely enough; creative sites. This combined with the still omnipresent Orphan Works Bill, are two ways to but a leash on the only real functioning outlet for free thinking; the internet.
Based on the premise that the internet is free (still), unless you live in such countries as China, then this is a big concern for Governments, and therefore puppeteering money-makers. As was the planned subversive affects of the OWB, to enforce registration of art, or loose copyright status, so the SOPA bill is there to block and neutralise any forms of free-thinking activities that may also be against "the machine". This is the future status that all creative are working their passion towards. A control mechanism that makes life as a creative and aesthetic person almost unbearable. There is too much of this around already, with (money grabbing) stock sites making art a cheap commodity that aesthetic minded people either get in line or pay the consequences. There is already a lack of respect toward mass community art. So much so, that art is becoming a greater elitism than ever, and a possible reason for the lack of educational input.
Now coming on full circle to the educational aspect, and those two books my daughter handed to me this morning. Several things are of note as I flicked through them. Many of the activities that have bee avoided, are based on material usage. As much as I can remember when I was a kid. Making clay animals and figures, or paper mache forms, or collage or whatever it was, it takes more than what can be fed to children from a printed text book. If we look at it, it is one of the more expensive activities in school, but nevertheless one of the more essential, and forgotten. The world is an ugly place, in many ways (as build by man), and nothing is done to help form a generation that could aid in beautifying it.
As an educator, I see and hear the remarks of my students, who are scared to draw a shape on paper with a simple pencil.
This has nothing to do with the actions of producing such marks, it is an inhibition built from a mind-control from a system that is ineffective and in staunch opposition to any aesthetic ability of children. It is a strange fact that a synonym of the word 'single-minded' is in fact "artless". This seems to be the goal of government in this evolution and current epoch of man. To be focused and determined to make money makers a minority at the expense and cost of natural expression from the masses. It was stated by Sir Ken Robinson in one of his talks, that in a test, more pre-school children were better aware of geography than those who had entered the school system. It seems a little ironic that in an society that has "planned" obsolesces built into many of the products that are destroying natural resources, etc. that the one main obsolete thing we have to contend with (education) has not yet been thrown out and replaced with a better model.
First posted on my blog on 25th January 2012
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What a wonderful post! Iain Macgilchrist goes deep into the subject of his TED talk in The Master and his Emissary, a desert island book of mine for sure!