From: Shannon Stoney (shannonstoney@earthlink.net)
Date: 08/20/02-05:07:14 PM Z
Christopher wrote:
> Shannon I would have to say just about every example you mention I saw a
> peer do in my BFA program which I graduated from in 1997. That's the reason
> these teachers say it's been done before.
OK, but, how can you fault a student for not knowing what another student
did in say 1995 in another university? The subtext of these messages was:
you should KNOW that this has been done before. Maybe it was the job of the
dept to show us "what had been done before."
Teachers have to be blunt and cruel
> if the student wants to make it after school.
I disagree. I've been a teacher a long time. Cruelty never worked. And my
students have done fine after school.
What works is patiently looking for something good or at least redeemable,
in the fledgling efforts of a learner. (This is hard, granted. You have to
have a good eye and be a good communicator.) And to imply that they CAN
learn to do this skill if they just stick with it. (There were a few
people, in the painting dept, who did do this.) It's quite possible to
point out the problems that need work without bludgeoning people and
implying that they are stupid and can never be successful at what they're
trying to do. This goes for learners from age 3 to adults, trying to learn
to do anything.
AS for art school: most of the students in our undergrad dept will never
go on to graduate school or even be professional artists. They are just
trying to get a BA degree, which is sort of a union card for employment in
our society. It makes no sense to abuse them emotionally in order to
toughen them up for the real world out there, etc etc. Most of them are
plenty aware of how tough the real world is; most are from working class
backgrounds; most have worked or been in the military before coming back to
school; some have small children they are supporting. It's arrogant to
suppose that it's somehow your job to beat them up to make them tough. How
much tougher do you want a black inner city lesbian who supports herself
working at Starbucks to be?
Have you actually asked them why they teach the way they do?
Yes, I did, but never got an answer that made sense to me. I don't think
they really thought about it. They were taught that way themselves, so...
And I also defended the victims a lot, in critiques. But that was mostly
futile. Eventually I found I just had to leave the room when the torrent of
cliched abuse would begin.
I think the culture of art school needs changing. This horrible way of
teaching may be a long tradition, but it's not working. YOu can see this in
the quality of a lot of contemporary art.
--shannon
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