Rant 41: Art at School: Teaching to Create or Debate, Draw or Explore?

As an artist who'se day-job is teaching drawing to post school students (mostly post A Level Foundation Art & Design) with over 25 years experience, I can state quite catagorically that the standard of drawing in students coming from school A Level courses has dropped dramatically in the last ten years.

Visual and manual skills in post school students currently seem almost non-existent.

Generally I would question whether schools manage to teach any drawing skills what so ever!

There is a serious lack of ability and understanding when it comes to handling materials, education should not go down the route of one or the other but do both. sadly because of the restrictions of academic programmes and costs in teaching the subject well, the student will never recieve the quality education that will prepare him or her for a career in the Arts. Universities are following on in the vain and it is often left for the dedicated student to pretty much teach themselves whilst at university. We could adopt the atelier process that teaches both the skills and tools of creating art whilst developing ones own direction. too quickly students are forced into showing there individuality without having the skills to express there work fully .

From an early age, many people feel excluded from art for not being classed as a ‘good drawer’, and are discouraged from creative play and experimentation. When people I meet find out I study art, they are enthusiastic and want to know more, but a comment I hear from people of various generations is that they ‘couldn’t even draw a straight line at school’, often accompanied by a discussion of feeling ‘art is not for me.’

Many people are put off by early experiences, and feel that this prescriptive method of teaching is a barrier that remains for life, excluding many from living their cultural life to the full, whether it’s drawing or visiting galleries.

Pupils should be encouraged to develop more broadly, combining formal tuition with the option to concentrate on art history and contemporary criticism, rather than being written off, in 11+ style. Drawing is arguably still an important skill for contemporary artists, but shouldn’t be used in school to create a (straight?) line that prevents access to a means of personal expression in practice and critical thought that can and should be available to everyone, from an individual and social perspective.

As for the ‘kids today’ argument on the Axis facebook page, maybe a few do want to be famous, but the majority want to be equipped to understand and operate in the world outside school and developing a creative mindset is part of this – whether it’s used directly in a career or not!

What a shame that there are teachers out there who continue to place judgement on others based on how straight they can draw a line! I agree that teaching basic drawing techniques are necessary, not just for those who may wish to study visual arts further or who are percieved as artistically 'talented', but for us all. I teach students as many skills techniques, 'tricks of the trade' etc. as i can fit into the very restricted and limited time-table space art and design lessons are given at secondary level. The ideal would be to have enough time, support and planning to have a harmonious balance between technical skills, experminetaion and dialogue in visual art. It can and does occur, but in my experience very rarely.

For me, it's about encouraging students to build confidence in self-expression using visual as well as verbal/written forms, not just in any outcome they may create (painting, drawing, sculpture), but in the process itself; to do away with judgements and be comfortable and free enough to make mistakes; to learn that in at least one lesson a week they have, making mistakes is a good thing and an opportunity to learn, discuss, explore and improve.

I'm afraid the potential for learning in visual arts as a whole is not explored, valued or respected enough within the walls of most education establishmnets that serve our youth, hence negative views and beliefs continue to flourish in the hearts and minds of the teachers and the young people themselves.

There needs to be a dynamic shift in attitude towrds the role and prupose of visual art training from primary and secondary levels. it's not just about 'who's the best artist', or whether one's work is realistic. Gracious, i thought that form of judgement was left behind in the last century. Looks like my work here on this fair planet is far from done. Where is my superhero suit gone to .......

.flamejoy makes valuable points, drawing taught by the wrong people can destroy confidence when in fact it has the potential to really turn a failing student around.
It is a terrible thing that in many schools students will still feel that if they cannot draw they are no good at art. The problem here is not with 'drawing' as such but the concept of drawing that is instilled in the heads of children, a concept many teachers fail to change not only for themselves but for the students. This whole concept does nothing but instil a sense of failure in many children, who then give up on art (and sometimes everything else).
If drawing is taught with any imagination at all children learn that making mistakes is part of the creative process, that mistakes can even be put to good use, this simple lesson when truly taken in can have beneficial effects in all subject areas. not just art.

It's a shame that A level student Jessica Salter failed to continue her art studies practice after A level. However I would suspect her experience was particular to the school she attended. Whilst the need to understand the basics are fundimental to creating art works, expression and creativity are the essential foundations to a creative career. To concentrate on merely drawing would produce very narrow outcomes.

In the school I have worked at this year, both GCSE and A level students have produced work across a wide range of disciplines from figuarative oil painting, photography, to installations, some of which would make Tracey Emmin blush, with rather raw and personal content.

For me the problem with art taught in schools, is not the emphasis on technique but the lack of width of the curriculum, how many times can you rework cubism for instance before boredom sets in. Also time exam modules, in no way could a professional artist produce a credible piece of meaningful work in two five hour sessions under exam conditions, the stress it places students under is immense and I expect puts more students off art, than learning basic skills.

Once they proceed to higher education, the freedom of self directed often study comes at a shock, many unable to cope, then drop out or transfer to more structured courses because the school system has failed to prepare them to create original and challenging work.

I hope that Jessica may at some point will re-evaluate her experience at school, and use it positivity to inform what ever course she intends to take in the future

I have just finished my Fine Art degree at UWE in Bristol. Several students studied Drawing & Applied Art, whereas Fine Art is about ideas, using whichever medium is appropriate. The majority of students are currently working in Installation & New Media, but there is scope for drawing and painting for those that wish to explore them. Apart from the odd life class I haven't drawn properly for three years.

Jessica, your statement:

“I find myself taking an interest in modern and contemporary art and exploring the reasoning behind the artwork; I enjoy finding out the explanation presented by the artist, but also having my own opinion on the piece, being able to relate to the work and discussing my thoughts about it.”...

is exactly the train of thought that is promoted at higher education level; the total opposite of your original experience.

I have never understood why education in school (in any subject) is not driven from the top down; in other words by providing the grounding for a potential degree. The basic concepts can be handled at quite a high level, informing the curriculum. Even at primary school kids are capable of grasping concepts like evolution (Darwin’s theory), gravity (Newtonian physics), etc. The principles can be explored in more depth as students mature.

Employers constantly complain that school leavers have little or no practical knowledge or experience. Students are just being taught how to pass exams. If you equate it to the driving test, we should not be teaching how to pass the driving test, we should be teaching how to drive!

joetymkow.co.uk

As an art teacher, senior examiner and senior adviser with 40 years experience I simply cannot agree with this. Standards of drawing and observational work have not dropped in the last 10 years. Just look at over 500 examples of A level work by students done this year. Which I published on Flickr.

The argument is pointless.... In the future "ARTISTS" as defined by what we now consider those who can "make art"  will be used as the raw material (as in paint,clay,stone, etc) and  there will be instead  CURATORS., who will be the ARTISTS..... There is now so many creatives of everything  and with such varying quality, that  curatorship will be the new art.

 Julie de Bastion aug11  2010

The UWE student summed up the desperate state of present day University Fine Art Education in a sentence ' Fine art is about ideas'. That is supposedly enough but a quick stroll round any contemporary degree show will show one that it is not. Babbling out stolen ideas from Derrida, Lacan and Foucault is just so boring.

Equally the lacklustre 'drawing fruit and bottles' regime has been in place for 50 years or more (I went through it and survived) and reflects low motivation on part of the teacher not the student and I hope you take your evident enthusiasm on to a proper college :-)

As for the state of drawing I would tend to agree with Mr Godley in so much as a great many coming into system at foundation level now have swallowed the ideas not skills argument as set out above. This means they probably have more chance of becoming intern curators (ten a penny this month) as artists.

With drawing devalued by the higher education system because it cheaper lets be frank...sitting at a laptop getting 'ideas' off wikipedia is not expensive. To support a farcically under-skilled sector we can look forward to more of the same as those with no skills clone more of the same. Maybe not time to return to the life room but I pleased to say our local institution is bringing back a 'drawing room'. About time I say! Drawing at its best is about training the mind and the eye. Wooly abstract ideas alone do not create excellence just pastiches of other intellects.

What is needed is a recognition that drawing and hand/eye co-ordination is about ideas as much as about skills. Just look at a Hockney drawing for instance.....or is he just a simpleton with a gift?

 Teaching of basic English has also taken a big hit in recent years; hence, I suppose, the mis-spelling of "whose". But Mik Godley is right about the state of teaching art in schools. When I did art as a teenager in the Sixties, we painted still-lifes and took turns in posing for life drawing. Our teachers advised us about how get our work not only more accurate, but also as lively and original as possible. It was all about learning to see. If you trouble to analyse what is before you to the extent that you are able to paint or draw it as a two-dimensional replica, you will be left with an increased awareness of everyday life; and if you find that you have a particular ability and love of the work, you may even consider art as a career rather than regular self-therapy, as amateur musicians, having experience of music from the inside, will get much more out of hearing it. 

I may be wrong  but the article seems to  single out photography and sculpture  as if neither of these disciplines requires the ability to draw. 

Drawing is not just the ability to depict  a version reality in two dimensions on paper (or other surface) at its most basic level  drawing teaches people the difference between looking and seeing.

As far as I am aware the ability to see is fairly high on the list of skills required when taking photographs.

Likewise with sculpture the ability to draw the 3D form to visualise it from many angles to understand how it relates to its space etc are  all skills that are acquired through drawing.

I liked Jessica's points about 'art at school' - firstly, the focus on skills and the 'ability to draw' (which took me back to the eighties and my own mis-spent youth drawing red peppers halves..) and the inability of schools to  reward critical appreciation. 

Jessica seems to have an independent mind when it comes to responding to the visual arts, and at least she's interested.   No doubt she'll have the same approach to other forms of culture.  Education should be as much about creating confident adults who feel able and entitled to respond and engage with culture, as it is about creating the next generation of producers. 

Art education at any level should be about developing critical and creative thinkers as much as creating skilled 'makers'.  A few people are bemoaning the inability of students to draw.  Art education should be about 'Art', which has always been about thinking, expressing and responding to new ideas using a visual language.  Art education should be about getting pupils to see, understand and express themselves through drawing or any other medium, but it should also be about thinking and understanding and participating as a viewer. 

Not every art student will become an artist, but I think if we're taught to engage with visual ideas in school (without any pre-requisite of 'being able to draw') then there'll be more visitors to art galleries and less people thinking art's not for them.

It is my experience that currently the UK school art curriculum does not place nearly enough emphasis on drawing skills. Drawing involves looking and meditating, employing objective skills. By this method one absorbs the raw material for the imagination-Van Gogh-

‘I keep going and looking every evening, to redraw sections on the spot. But in the painting, I let my own head, in the sense of idea or imagination work, which isn’t so much the case with studies, where no creative process may take place, but where one obtains food in reality for one’s imagination so that it becomes right.’
Letter to Theo Van Gogh - Vincent Van Gogh.

The trouble is that teachers are really involved in crowd control much of the time-how much chance do they have in getting certain pupils to sit and work at a skill for life? As has been stated previously-drawing skills have fallen away-everyone should be able, is able, to draw in a workmanlike fashion given the right tuition. Instead, pupils are 'entertained' by superficial aping of other artists' styles and the art of other cultures when they should be being given the skills to let their own creativity come out. Their 'sketchbooks' are filled with writing and pictures cut from magazines. I went to art college in the seventies in Newport. On Foundation we spent 3 days a week in the Life Room-didn't stop us putting rabbits in perspex boxes way before 'Freeze'!  If more of the magical world drawing can open up was revealed to young people maybe there wouldn't be so much superficial, smart alick or sometimes downright shoddily executed 'art' around and maybe art in school would achieve it's rightful position in the curriculum as an integral part in developing each pupil as a human being who is not so easily 'bored'-who feels like they may have something to say, and not as a subject that, really I think many schools think of, as something to do when it's raining.

It is important to maintain a balance of practical skills with experimental skills, art history with new art.   

I have worked in education and I know first hand it is extremely difficult to find art teachers that have a basic grasp of what is going on the the art world today and with little art history knowledge. But they do enjoy kids company and can control a class.

I know there are graduates out there that can full fill all of these rolls, but teaching is payed so poorly and the media send out a negative perception of education.  

Art is not just ''about ideas''. You also need the skills to put ideas into practice and produce coherent art work. Drawing, even if not directly part of an artist's practice, is often used as a way to sketch, plan and visualise a final piece of work. Having gone to one of London's most well-known art colleges, I was staggered by the lack of drawing/planning skills displayed by most of my colleagues. Art foundations should give you the tools on which to base your development, and that includes drawing. We are short-changing young people if we tell them that art is only about endless talks and don't give them at least the opportunity to explore drawing, or painting for that matter. We also seem to produce more and more art tutors who equally lack these basic skills and are therefore unable to pass them on to others. Having a knowledge of a variety techniques and materials is not wasted but instead gives you more choice and possibilities.