Thinking beyond the frame. (Editor's Comments).

We know that our land is not the whole world, because the world has no boundaries. --Netsilik saying

Years ago, when I first taught elementary school--and I thought I was doing good teaching--I'd often ask students to pretend they were walking into a painting. I'd ask questions like: "What's the first thing you are going to bump into?" "When you look up, what do you see?" "Where's a good place to rest?" At the time, learning about art, to me, meant learning about how to appreciate the formal qualities of paintings. The choices of images to be studied were mine. More exactly, they were the choices of authorities who selected the images for large reproductions. Most were probably Impressionists.

For the good teaching of art today, we don't have to ask students to pretend they are walking into a painting. We simply need to help them realize they actually live in something that can be as pleasurable and intriguing as a framed painting--a seamless world of visual images beyond the frame. We might still ask similar questions: "What makes this place seem like a good place to relax?" "What do you see when you look up--or down?" It doesn't take students long to discover that the choices of images to be studied are limitless and complex.

Looking beyond the frame, we confront a world of wonder in our daily comings and goings. In a department store window, we see faceless and colorless plastic figures in designer clothes with exposed belly buttons. On the sharp curve of a road, we see an ever changing memorial of artificial flowers and baseball caps. On a neighbor's front lawn we see a tableaux of plaster forms--chickens, ducks, frogs, rabbits, or deer--that changes with the seasons. We construct their meanings and their lessons through our personal journeys and our common experiences.

Within the frame and beyond, visual images are transitional links to learning. Visual images present human commonalities and themes that cross, or soften, borders of time, place, and discipline. They teach us about life and death, about conflict and resolution, about neglect and fulfillment, about pomp and prejudice, and much, much more. In short, they teach us about the human experience.

For the most part, the authors in this issue of SchoolArts are providing us with models of links to learning. They are thinking beyond the frame. They are crossing discipline borders. They really do see art solidly linked with other subjects within the total school curriculum. Hopefully, the articles may help to soften the discipline boundaries that for so long have restricted and limited the way we look at the world. We hope that the articles push readers to further explore ways to help students to see art, and the whole of visual culture, as an important way in which people communicate their ideas while seeking a meaningful life.

For the good teaching of art, it helps to think of art as inseparable from life--to think beyond the frame.

Postscript

I was attempting to finalize the above editorial comments on the morning of September 11. Two weeks later, I have decided to "fill the empty space" with this postscript.

The World Trade Center and the Pentagon were visual symbols, steel and concrete icons of prosperity and power in a high-tech world that were brought down by something as low tech as a box cutter. For most of us, the events of September 11, 2001, were experienced through a series of video clips played over and over again. Networks, newspapers, and magazine covers competed for the most dramatic graphics. With such powerful images bombarding us, the horror will be forever embedded in our memories.

In the days and weeks following, another bank of images emerged, shifting the drama to themes of heroism and healing. Across America, we displayed our pride and patriotism with flags. We marked our remembrance with candles. We participated in symbolic acts of unity. We moved beyond the frame to try to understand the hatred.

In the months and years to come, students will need significant opportunities to express their feelings and concerns for the human condition. They will seek substantive ways to visualize their ideals and beliefs. With the good teaching of art, they will find meaningful messages in visual forms of expression. One way to share these messages is being provided by Artsonia's student art collection. See page 61 for details on how to participate.

For the good teaching of art, analyzing and interpreting visual culture around the world is now more important than ever.