One of the over-riding beliefs, in studying the arts, is that arts programs must have strong discipline and be heavily supervised. Students should do the projects the teacher has in mind and obey. (You can have freedom; you can do it my way, happy; or you can do it my way, sad. Your decision.)
While the education in arts should be strong and dynamic, an over-bearing education in the arts can turn out good technicians but never real artists. To be a real artist, one needs freedom and this means real freedom- not the kind of freedom that most teachers may have in mind as they teach these students.
Real freedom means exactly that: FREEDOM! A student must have the freedom to work on projects of their own choosing; to go after their own artistic dreams and not Mom’s or the art teacher’s or the vice principal’s. Real freedom in the arts means working on art pieces that are the students ideas; writing and producing plays; putting one’s own dance team together and working on the choreography; putting your own jazz musicians or classical orchestra together; composing your own sonatas or writing your own sonnets.
When a student is allowed the freedom to follow their artistic dreams, miracles can happen. A motivated student, given the freedom to create, can build incredible projects in art that can lead and guide them as a learning tool, for the rest of their lives.
Some projects that have been accomplished by students working on their own are major theatre productions, films, classical music compositions, CD’s, major choreography and wonderful pieces of art and literature.
The best thing an art teacher can do is to gently lead and inspire. If a student can come out of school feeling that are worthwhile and that they have talent, then the sky is the limit!
Posted in 
Tags: