Connecting Arts & Learning.

The word Connecting and its variations has become a keyword in today's educational jargon. I wish to clarify five aspects of the meaning of interdisciplinary.

1 The wholeness of knowledge is essential.

Subject separation into quantities of information delineated in textbooks and quantified on tests has separated knowledge into compartments in our educational system. I recall the words of Chief Seattle: "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls also the children of the Earth."

Artists have understood this wholeness perhaps better than most people. Throughout the ages, artists have drawn the content of their art from the entire world of knowledge. Cave painters studied the anatomy and movement of the animals they drew. The Egyptians worked with incredible accuracy on the mathematics of their pyramids.

The Greeks' study of anatomy and their logical perfection of its proportions using the Golden Mean, and the mathematical order of their architecture demonstrate their fusion of logic and mathematics in their art. Artists and scientists, artists and historians, have paralleled achievements through the centuries. It was an artist who developed the mathematics of perspective during the Renaissance. Galileo's scientific breakthrough changed artists' understanding of space. Neo-classicism and Romanticism were the visual voices of revolution. The Impressionists' search for color as reflected light paralleled science's understanding of the nature of light rays, visible and invisible. Religion has been the inspiration of the art of every culture. And, in turn, art has been an inspiration for religion. And so on through psychology, literature, music, technology--all areas of human thought.

Why should we deprive our children of this connectedness of knowledge by declaring the content of their other subjects off limits for art expression? By reaching into this rich source of imagery and ideas, we strengthen both the art and the learning of other subjects. Art is not demeaned by connecting it with math, science, social studies. All are enriched. And the connection gives substance to the artwork and shape to the subject content.

The fragmenting of learning into subjects, each with its text containing the quantity of information to be "covered," gives students the idea that there are no connections among math, science, history, etc. A good program builds interdisciplinary thinking on themes which draw content for all areas of knowledge.

2 Drawing is an essential mode of expression, hence of learning.

I see drawing as a complementary mode of learning, equal to writing and verbal expression. It is within the powers of every person to draw. Many cultures do not have a word in their vocabulary for art because making--and making things aesthetically pleasing--is such an integral part of their being. Drawing, moreover, is as personal as handwriting. Just as, after practicing Palmer Method, we evolve a handwriting that is our identification, so our drawing style must be equally personal.

My experience with teachers as well as students has proven to me that it is linear thinking that stifles individuals' drawing. Once empowered to RISK "drawing with their eyes," in other words, really following edges with their eyes and letting the hand record them, everyone can draw. (And this kind of perceptual drawing has a direct carry-over to reading.) Drawing, therefore, should be a mode of expressing learning in every subject, combining with linear, "right answer" thinking that tends to dominate the school learning climate. I have seen sad examples of very bright children who will not draw, who simply refuse to try. They have been so conditioned to getting A's in factual exams that they find risking an "unsuccessful" drawing to be traumatic.

The arts are unique in their potential to develop this necessary attitude toward risk-taking and learning from "failure"-- the failure that comes from trying creative ideas and most often stimulates new and better ideas.

I recently worked with a class of inner-city fourth graders, preparing them to draw their shoes. A bright little girl looked up at me and said, "I'm afraid." I told her I was so glad she said that. It gave me the perfect lead to talk about being willing to try and fail in the learning process. Training their eyes to really SEE is our first task.

3 The classroom teacher should be a part of this visual learning.

In my approach to interdisciplinary teaching, I urge a daily "Drawing Break" --five minutes of drawing seen as a "drill" in perception and aimed at making students so comfortable drawing objects and figures that there will be no fear in them. Classroom teachers can do this, because they should not draw for the students (a practice which results only in copying the teacher's drawing). Rather, they prepare the students to draw by directing them to follow every edge with their eyes, letting the hand record the eye's movement. This taps the sensory powers rather than the logical mind. I have gotten hundreds of classroom teachers to draw in just this way, people who have said all along that they cannot draw.

In an interdisciplinary learning climate, every subject should be approached both literally and expressively. Hence, a once a week art lesson by the art specialist cannot begin to reach these dimensions. Empowering classroom teachers to bring visual learning into their general curriculum will not threaten the role of the art specialist. On the contrary, art teachers who become resource persons for the classroom teachers are valued far more than the specialist who functions merely as their "coffee break." This conviction has been confirmed by art specialists all over the country, directly to me as I have worked with them. For example, found object printing is an excellent medium for making repeat pattern designs of multiples. Why not see multiples aesthetically? And this can be done by the classroom teacher in math class. Cutting letters to look like the adjectives they spell is an excellent design experience and an activity that can remain on a classroom bulletin board for weeks, motivating students to find more and more adjectives.

The key is to make every concept meaningful.

Giving visual shape to a concept in social studies, math, science adds a meaning that facts and definitions cannot approach. Allowing learning to be expressed imaginatively, rather than on testing only, makes every concept personal and aesthetic.

4 Learning about other cultures and about the diversity within the students' own culture is important.

Seeing the arts of the world's marvelous variety of cultures in the context of a total learning experience gives a depth of meaning to the arts that studying them in isolation would not have.

5 Conclusion

Understanding the meaning of an interdisciplinary approach to learning necessitates an aesthetic frame of reference to see and hear all things. Learning minus the arts can only narrow the child's growth. Learning given form by the arts reaches into the child's life and continues far beyond the school years.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students identify connections between the visual arts and other disciplines in the curriculum.

Jean Morman Unsworth is a retired Professor of Fine Arts at Loyola University of Chicago. Her publications include Connecting--Integrating Art Across the Curriculum (Reading & O'Reilly, Inc. 1987). Connections (three visual games) (Dale Seymour Publications 1992-94).