1958: issues of the day.

1958 issues of the day

"Issues of the Day" was a SchoolArts feature during the late fifties. This reprint, from the September 1958 issue, suggests that the differing viewpoints of leading art educators of thirty years ago were quite similar to today's art teachers. The varied responses presented here range from pejorative viewpoints to more positive frames of reference concerning "holiday art"--a topic of continuing interest to our profession.

THIS MONTH'S QUESTION

Should holiday themes be used frequently or infrequently, or be entirely eliminated from elementary art programs? Why?

Manuel Barkan, head, art education, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, says: To eliminate holiday themes would be tantamount to eliminating love from life. Some holidays are as meaningful to people as is love itself. Teachers would inevitably fail should they try to eliminate either holidays or love. Holidays are rich reservoirs of exciting ideas for artistic interpretation. They are inherently good. The real issue is not whether holiday themes should be used frequently, infrequently, or not at all. The issue is the degree and way they are used. Holiday themes become bad only when teachers use them to dominate the art program. Such teaching is bad because it forces holiday themes to exclude other meaningful themes.

Italo L. deFrancesco, director of art education, State Teachers College, Kutztown, Pennsylvania, says: The answer is yes and no. If holidays and holy days are understood as part of our cultural milieu, which includes Christian and non-Christian days and feasts, and if they are understood as motivational because of their age and usage, then teachers should take advantage of them as springboards for creative expression. On the other hand, if such themes are used every year, in every grade, to produce hackneyed favors, and stereotyped motifs, it would seem best to eliminate them. However, no one has the power to eliminate either the recurrence or the spirit of holidays. Therefore, the solution is to guide elementary teachers to encourage the better way, the child's way, of interpreting Christmas, The Feast of Lights, Thanksgiving, or other holidays.

Pauli Tolman, supervisor of art, Los Angeles, California, says: If a specific holiday has become a part of the life of the particular community in question surely a holiday theme would be as acceptable as the holiday itself. Often the holiday theme motivates creativeness. The relation of special holidays to the emotions is a strong factor in bringing about creative work. Nevertheless, holiday themes are not essential for the construction or rendering of an item to be used as a holiday gift or decoration. Students' finished projects that relate to daily art experiences and are collected over a period of time frequently are the best holiday items to send home or to use in room display.

Sister Mary Corita, I.H.M., Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, California, says: Holiday--"originally a holy day; then by extension, a day set apart for any celebration." Holy means wholeness--a man developed to the fullest. So the holiday, the celebration, is the real thing the students should be involved in and their making flows from the necessity of having visible things when many people celebrate as a united group. Not "holiday themes to be used frequently or infrequently." Out of this involvement with a serious end would come banners and signs and plays and costumes, and you could happily bury the art program (as such) because it would have happened already.

Robert Iglehart, head, College of Architecture and Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, says: Our problem, of course, is not the holiday theme in itself, but the dismal stereotypes associated with it. The very existence of these stereotypes (with which the children are as bored as we) ought to make it easier to create the desire for fresh approaches. The human meanings of all our major holidays are inexhaustibly rich--and that is why we continue to be moved by them despite their tawdry exploitation. We cannot eliminate the holiday excitement without eliminating the children, and there is no solution merely in new themes. As Proust said: "to discover means not to visit new landscapes but to see with new eyes."

Pauline Johnson, associate professor of art, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington says: Art is an approach to excellence; a way of doing things well. It is expressing that which means the most to us. It makes no difference what the motivation or the idea might be. It is what is done with the idea that is important. If holiday themes are important to the life of the child and have meaning to him, he should be encouraged to express them in the finest way possible. Nor should we rule out tradition and the rich things that come to us in our culture. I am glad as a child I did not miss the experience of creating my own Christmas angels and Easter baskets.

Leafy Terwilliger, art consultant, Fresno County Schools, Fresno, California, says: Holiday themes should remain a part of the elementary programs. The problem is not shall or shall not but how these themes can be used as one of the areas in art education. There is a great need for the teacher to study the design possibilities as a means of developing constructive thinking, an awareness of relatedness, of stimulating creative use of materials, of developing taste (consumer appreciation). If our magazine articles can be so presented that the above possibilities can stimulate the readers to see the educational value which lies within real life situations, such as the holidays, and offer some suggestions in ways of working, such articles should be of real value.