I’ve been a teacher my whole life but I don’t think anything prepared me for what I would have to do this year.
2020 began with a workshop about ethnography, community building and place based learning. As a lifelong learner, I was excited to encounter new ideas to apply in my teaching. School started like any other year and I was looking forward to this one, especially as I was going back to teaching IB Visual Art, a course I love teaching. I was also set to teach a new subject for me that required me to be a fast learner and would keep me permanently on my toes. But the year came with a pandemic. When March 13 came along - I didn't know it then - that would be the last day I would be in school for the whole year as well as the last time I would see my students (most of them new to me) face to face. By the next Monday we were online and had to just suck it up and start teaching and the kids began learning through screens.
I always welcome challenges and this was a huge one. One of the reasons why I am a teacher is because it makes me a never ending learner and often it's my students who teach me about art and also about life. It might be an advantage to be an artist for such a challenge as I’m used to problem solving and looking at things from different angles and testing different approaches to deal with an idea.
Bad wifi was a huge, stressful obstacle but it also forced me to find other ways to communicate with my students and let them know that even if my wifi was bad I was there for them. It was fun watching my male students’ hair grow throughout the months but also made me sad to see some faces turn a little gray, tired of screens. Overall, my students showed me they were willing to learn no matter how.
Another difficulty was dealing with the pandemic itself which translated into curfews, taking care of and comforting my senior mother, long lines for groceries, finding ways to get everything we needed and losing family members to the disease.
What has this year taught me? Many things and it also convinced me of others I already knew about the learning process: adaptability, resilience, and that teaching doesn’t work unless both parties (teacher and learner) are fully present and open to being part of the connection. That no matter how much you’re going through personally, when you’re there, in front of the screen with your students on the other side, you must be fully present with them and not let the world in. That showing your students you care (and actually caring) is often more important than the content you share. That education is a privilege and it shouldn’t be.
So much has been discussed about online teaching during the year in various forums. There are those who say that online learning is not real learning and to them I say this: trust me, it is.
And there are advantages to it, not just difficulties. My students are getting more and more specific feedback and they have had to become more creative with materials and open minded towards art-making. They have had to create what I think of as mini-at-home-art-studios to work in and this took them closer to the creative process.
However, it also brought doubt and uncertainty about what learning through art is for at a school level.
I have had this conversation so many times, I think I know it by heart. Some people say learning art in school is helpful for the other ‘core’ subjects and, while this is true, it has intrinsic value that is often overlooked, misunderstood, unknown. There is also a stereotype that art is too hard unless you have a natural ability to draw and that the subject is only for those that want to pursue a career in the arts after school as if maths was for those that want to be mathematicians or history for future historians.
None of this is true. Learning through art, makes you a better and more solid human being. How does this happen? If the school offers a coherent, scaffolded and serious art program, students will learn much more than how to draw or paint. They will start a journey of connection with themselves and the wider world, they will become problem solvers and creative thinkers. They will develop their observation skills and learn how to read and unpack the media, learning critical and analytical thinking skills. They will develop an understanding of how to communicate using the visual language and discover artists ‘ways of thinking.
Each art project is a problem and an opportunity to challenge students to solve it. For example, let’s say that a student wants to make a self-portrait. They must study self-portraiture and look at artworks made by other artists. They will then sketch options and start making decisions. How will I pose myself? What colours will I use? What will I be wearing? What will I add in the background? All of these are decisions they will take based on what they want to communicate with the piece having understood the visual arts as a language.
How does this transfer to life? Within any career or non career path that young people choose to follow, they will always encounter problems. Those who know how to face them and find solutions will have greater chances to solve any problem thrown at them and therefore to succeed and lead happier lives. Those who just know ‘what’s in the textbook’ will not.
Employers are now looking for candidates who have what are called 21st century skills. These are the abilities that students need to succeed in the information age, such as: Learning skills (critical thinking, creative thinking, collaborating, communicating), Literacy skills (information, media and technology literacy) and Life skills (Flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity and leadership). Many of these skills are learned in (and in some cases are exclusive to) art class and can be taught well online through a solid art programme that involves looking at art, thinking like an artist and making connections and which gives as much importance to process as it does to the final product.
What are the lessons that we can carry back into ‘normality’?
That we need to teach not only our students but also the wider school community of parents and teachers. By this I mean finding a common ground and a shared understanding of the aim of the course at a school level and the benefits for the students. Most parents have not been educated in this way and carry their own stereotypes and bad experiences with art courses and therefore can be unsupportive of their children seeking to deepen their studies with a course they don’t consider important or relevant to their lives.
That the school must follow an art education ‘north’ which respects the teachers teaching methods and identity as educators but which also aims to go in the same direction.
That a lot can be achieved online. I was surprised at how much you can do and also how some art appreciation connections can be learned better online. It also made me improve at explaining techniques step by step.
That students can be trusted as independent learners and that we should allow them to show us how they learn better.
That teachers must be empathetic towards students and meet them where they are. Caring for the children and making sure they know this is vital.
Lastly, that shared struggles can deepen relationships. Many of my students were very thankful to me and voiced how much they’ve learned to appreciate their art education, that the arts have given them perspective, and that they now better understand how context plays a huge role in art.
The pandemic has reminded us that art and design are everywhere - from the clothes we’re wearing to the lamp in our living room - and that our lives would be sadder and less meaningful without the arts. Furthermore, they have helped us through the isolation and uncertainty of this year. Many people have expressed how much music, books, art, online performances and events have kept them connected and healthy in these times of hardship.
We need the arts to keep us human and to give us solace, to help us express and process the moment we live in. And these are all connections that begin in school, at a very young age. We need to nurture and teach the arts to young people so they grow to become resilient creatives and tap into the arts to comfort and heal them in dark times such as these as well as to deal with the moment and dream of new possibilities. In the words of Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO “Bringing people together, inspiring, soothing and sharing: these are the powers of art, the importance of which has been made emphatically obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic”
