A Positive Perspective on Teaching Elementary Art.

To be an elementary art teacher you most certainly must have a positive philosophy. This philosophy must see you through some rough periods and keep your "educational goals" picture rosy. I deal with budget cuts, inflexible teachers, horrendous schedules, and cumbersome teaching loads. In a word, my philosophy is "humanistic." I sincerely believe that all elementary students benefit from time in the art classes. It should be a period of joyful experiments, a time of seeking answers for yourself, and an interval in the educational process where you can pace yourself. Art should open horizons and give insights to areas never before explored.

I receive a tremendous amount of satisfaction watching the wonder on young students' faces when they discover that blue and yellow mixed together make green. The magic of making a lump of clay into an object is a rare gift that many teachers never receive, or the first drawing that "really looks like I wanted it to look." The sharing of early art forms and how we still use them today is an exciting art history lesson. To learn how to criticize our own artwork in a positive manner is a challenge at any grade level. All these activities are a part of my "sharing of oneself" philosophy. We must become more humane towards one another, and the elementary level is the perfect time to begin this process of humanism.

Instruction in art should be open-ended. The pupils should be shown that many projects can be completed on their own, and they can improvise with materials and methods. Although we teach the very basics in weaving, students may get very involved on a larger scale and do some spectacular weaving pieces. They may do in-depth art pieces that we do not have time for in the regular art classroom situation. Once we get a child involved in art learning, hopefully, the process never ends.

The work I do in art curriculum development makes me much more organized. I understand that there must be an overall plan to the children's learning experiences. Many years ago, when I was just beginning to teach, art was just a series of hit or miss projects. I was really not attuned to the process of sequential learning or the necessity of an arrangement of art learning processes. I was heavily into the "Lowenfeldian" philosophy of letting the child do whatever they wanted to. I ascribed to all the theories he preached. I constantly told the students how beautiful everything they did looked. I now look back in retrospect to what a phoney attitude that was. I should have been trying to better their attempts in a positive way and not be satisfied with mediocrity. The study of curriculum brings me the knowledge of several different bases from which to teach. I was certainly ignorant of these before.

We need to present a positive picture about what happens in our classrooms to the public, the parents, administrators, and school boards. If we do not advertise in the marketplace we will not have anything worth advertising. By that statement, I mean if we do not explain why art values are important, our budgets will be cut and our jobs and curriculum will be absorbed into other fields of endeavor.

Some researchers are strongly advocating that art criticism methods can save our diminishing classes. Others contend that art research will resurrect an avid interest in the art curriculum and development of new teaching strategies. I think that a combination of many factors will ignite the art field--chief among these is the aspect of public relations. The art teacher seems reluctant to "blow their own horn" about the many things that children accomplish. I must stress that we be concerned with learning attitudes, not just with our students, but also with ourselves.

Martyna Bellessis is an elementary art teacher at the University Elementary School, Monroe County Community School Corporation in Bloomington, Indiana.