Sunday, September 16, 2012

"Artists for our future"

I don't have a painting to show you, but I want to share what I am doing for this a couple of days. I have not mentioned much in my blog that I have art classes in my house, most of the students are children from 5 to 16 years old. In order to teach kids art properly, I did a lot of search on the Internet, but I was very disappointed to find out that there is almost nothing I can use to guide children to gain hands-on skills and knowledge about art. I asked some of my young friends in both elementary and high schools if they have art classes in school and what they have learned. They said they do have art, but they hardly learned anything. It is a sad reality that art education, in America as well as in China, schools only teach how to talk about art, not how to do it. I feel sorry to our kids, and I will try my best to help them.

7 comments:

AnneMarie Blackmon said...

I am teaching art to children also. I have found lots of wonderful books and several websites that are helpful in planning my lessons. One website I really love is called Deep Space Sparkle: http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/ I will be taking an online course with her starting very soon.
I keep meaning to make a list on Amazon of the books I use in teaching to children. If I get around to that, I'll send you a link.
I very much enjoy getting your email updates and watching your progress as a painter. I greatly admire both your self-discipline and your masterful technique.

Karla said...

I really enjoy reading Natalie's blog smART. She has so many great ideas and is very enthusiastic. elementaryfunart.blogspot.com

Karla said...

Sorry, that is elementaryartfun.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

My school recently cut all the art and music from the elementary school day too. It's so terrible that all we seem to care about is those test scores, not about the children's minds that need to be developed in creative ways. Your classes look wonderful! I'm so glad you're doing that for those children. If you have any good photos of your students that I could draw, I'd love to have some!

Susan Roux said...

It's a wonderful thing. My children never learned anything about art in art class. I do have an artist friend who teaches art to grades 1-6. She has a wonderful program and actually teaches about art! Let me know if you'd like to be connected to her. I'm certain she could be very helpful.

I teach to beginners, but adults. I never figured out how to put it in children form...

Altax said...

Lovely kids and nice paintings!!!


Cool Math for kids

Kante Luis said...

aa