John Dewey in Art as Experience talks about the artist/student as being given a wide range of of material, process and problem finding/problem solving situations. Absolutely. This is paramount in the child's experience as it is paramount in the artist's experience.
My question is then :When does the student become faced with themselves in the studio classroom where they are the trainer and boxer? And how does the teacher set up situations that bring the students into the ring "facing oneself" ?
After years of working in both workshop and classroom; public and private school environments I wonder if it is at all possible to answer these questions if one has not or does not engage in a rigorous studio practice. I don't imagine that I would ever not make work . And I feel it when I don't inhabit the studio for a while during the school year when it is frenetic,meeting filled and dizzying.
What do we teach the children when we don't allow them to struggle with materials , ideas and process ? What do we learn as artists ourselves when we rest with what seems beautiful instead of work to create what is beautiful?
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