Andrea Jennings

ARTED302 8/25/10

Wilson, Brent. “Child Art After Modernism: Visual Culture and New Narratives”

Wilson points out the differences between “child art” of the East vs. West and between
various countries. Do you think there may also be differences within our country, say
between different social groups? How might access to different forms of visual culture
as well as quality and quantity of formal art training affect the way children acquire skill?

Based on Wilson’s idea that “child art” is created by pedagogues, does this mean that a
“better” art teacher will produce “better” art from the students? Is this necessarily a bad
thing? What might be some reasons that contemporary art educators have for wanting
students to produce great “child art” (or high school art, or adult-like art, etc)

(Question asked by Wilson) “What would art education be like if we assumed that there
were many forms of visual culture produced by children and youth and that these visual
cultural forms have many different functions and purposes for the child, for education,
and for society?” What are ways we can better understand not only the visual culture
that young people digest, but also produce? How do we access them? (Can we access
them at all?) How do we assess and evaluate their importance and figure out how to
integrate it into our pedagogy?

Freedman and Schuler. “Please Stand By For an Important Message: Television in

Art Education.”

This article emphasizes the importance of television as visual culture source in the lives
of children, teens and adults. The fact that it gave some actual numbers and statistics are
helpful for illustrating the extent that student’s lives are affected. These numbers can
even be shared with the students so that they too can have a better understanding of TV’s
impact.

I like the way this article shares not only some recommended outcomes for lessons
regarding TV, but also some project ideas for older students. One thing that I have had
difficulty with in the classroom is finding a balance between attacking students’ decisions
to watch TV vs. advocating staring at commercials. Lessons need to be very organized
and the teacher must also be involved in the project in order to get students to cooperate.

This article came out in 2003, when television still had a much higher number of sitcoms
and before reality TV was the dominant form of televised entertainment and almost every
household with cable had “On Demand” and other instant and highly
controllable/interactive television. How does the interactivity change the way that young
people watch and use television?