School for Society 9: We All Want to Be Artists
Item 9: Reformers must contribute to the artistic and cultural community.
This item in the model reflected Dewey’s ongoing interest in aesthetic theory and the arts’ role in a thriving democratic culture. In my dissertation I spent a lot of time laying out Dewey’s notion that art is something that humans deliberately create in order to create an opportunity for the audience (including the creator) to have AN experience. AN experience is different from everyday experience, which often floats past us to the point that we don’t really remember it. When we have AN experience, our attention is fully absorbed in the moment; our emotions and intellect are engaged; we see or understand something we did not see or understand before; we perceive new opportunities for action. According to Dewey, art is humanity’s ongoing attempt to harness and increase these opportunities for growth. Artistic expression is a powerful method for exchanging ideas, motivating action, and inspiring reflection. Reformers should absolutely make a conscious effort to harness that power in their efforts to improve society.
For a reform movement school, this conscious effort to include an artistic dimension to the school’s work should begin with the curriculum and planning. Many educators talk about the importance of giving students authentic work to do, and one thing that can help drive this is to design the school experience so that students are producing work for a wider audience than their teacher and immediate classmates. Technology has placed some incredible content-creation and publishing tools at our disposal. We can use those to increase the reach of of our students.
This communication can and should go both ways. If the school and its surrounding community are already working to establish close relationships based on other elements of the model, it stands to reason that the school and surrounding community would also want to share their artistic creations. Perhaps established artists could come to the school and do workshops for the students. Perhaps beginning artists could attend sessions in the after school periods. Perhaps connections could be established on social networks, and students, staff, and neighbors could share and comment on each other’s work. In this way, the tools that schools try to teach students to help them understand and appreciate art can be applied to the artistic experiences that students live inside and outside of the school.
The two key elements to remember for this element are: 1) students (and teachers) should be creating and sharing works that have artistic purpose, and 2) the school should have some avenues established for exchanging works and commentary with members of the community outside of the school.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.