my kid won an art award!

That is GREAT news! Art can be such an important contribution to self concept AND academic skill development. You must be VERY proud!

I think it is a total shame that “academics” becomes an issue as early as second grade. So much of it is because of unreasonable expectations by our school systems. In many countries, kids don’t even start school until they are 7, and many kids don’t learn to read until 8 or 9 and end up being fantastic readers (my middle son is one of them). We have schools in Portland that focus on art as a main activity, which works really well for kids that are more artistically than academically oriented. There is actually strong evidence that art and music in the early elementary years is very helpful in developing academic skills in both the language and mathematics areas. Yet our schools cut art and music programs in favor of “academics”. Maybe there is a school in your area that makes art more of an emphasis that you can get her enrolled in.

Anyway, big contgrats to your daughter!

Again Steve makes an excellent point. Concepts are being taught in today’s schools that are not age appropriate and for the life of me I can’t figure out why.

Long ago Jean Piaget proved what kids can grasp and when they can grasp it. Educators are not the sharpest tools in the shed and perhaps the cognitive develpomental stages of children is something they don’t know about.

I have mixed feeling about giving awards for art because art is not a competitive sport but I see the importance of acknowledging your daughter’s talent. I wish i could paint like a child again. I guess expectations and aproval tend to make us all a bit conforming and our expression contrived and stifled.

I hope that your daughter can look back on school with fond memories.

Yes, Steve does make some excellent points. I know the merits of art education very well. It has made a tremendous difference in my life and I truly believe it will in my daughter’s. I recognize that she has the talent to make a career out of art (as I have) if she so chooses. If nothing else that creative outlet is invaluable. Even now she will spend hours creating and making all kinds of things. I’ve always had a large supply of art supplies available to my kids for whenever or whatever they want to create. My daughter was enrolled in private art lessons but actually did not like it. I will be looking for another place because I think it may have been the place she objected to. In the meantime I guess we are sort of lucky in that the arts in our district and state have been expanding. It is a graduation requirement that students have at least one year of fine or performing arts. They have been wanting to make it two years for a long time so we may see that down the road. The result has been that other elective areas have been cut but the arts are growing. In the past few years we have ADDED three art teachers and a music teacher to our high school.

Jerry, I appreciate your input but really have to object to your blanket statement about educators. Some educators are great. Others fit your description well. The one thing I can say about my daughter’s artistic expression is that I have never pushed my influence on her and I don’t think anybody else has. She intuitively creates things on a more advanced level— like Piaget (whom I learned about in college along with many others) Viktor Lowenfeld has developed stages of artistic development— she has skipped many preschematic and schematic stages. This is probably why her artwork stands out. As far as awards, I both agree and disagree. All students deserve recognition for what they have created. However, there are some students who do go way beyond and demonstrate exceptional skills and abilities that deserve special recognition. Why should awards be reserved for competitive sports or athletes? I think there should be more scholarships for the arts overall. Maybe the problem arises in WHO the judges are. Sometimes, I look at what was chosen and wonder what the judges are thinking. However, I have judged several senior citizen art shows and know that there is quite a lot of discussion among the judges regarding the basic elements and principles of design and their implementation. It is usually not about the taste of the judges but admittedly that can be a definite factor.

I would love to continue this discussion but I have to go teach my students. Thank you for sharing in my child’s accomplishment! More than anything else she needed that positive reinforcement and was thrilled to see her name in the newspaper the next day!

Jen,

I am so happy for your daughter. The big key with our kids is finding ways to keep their self esteem intact as we address the issues they have.

I signed my son up for art lessons too. It too was a total bust. I finally gave up and let him not finish out the sessions. I tried to sign him up somewhere else but he is now resistent. Hopefully, you will have better luck than I.

You are smart to get on the academic issues now. The most severe kids, like my son, get picked up earlier than second grade. But many get by until about fourth grade. Last year I spoke to several parents whose kids were doing much worse than my very LD son. They had gotten by and then everything crashed on them.

Beth

Beth, thank you for your good wishes!

Just curious, do you know what your son did not like about his art lessons? The place I took my daughter is great but it is very unstructured. You would think this is great and I think in most cases or for most kids it’s great. However, my daughter does not do well when things are hectic around her. I think it gets her more distracted and her anxiety kicks up a notch. She’s the kind of kid where if it’s too noisy or chaotic she gets a stomacheache from the stress.

I had a long talk after school today we the school psychologist at my school because I trust him much more than the people at my daughter’s school. He gave me some really good advice on how to proceed and how to get the help my child needs. In the meantime, we’ll keep on encouraging the positives!

JenM,

Glad to hear about your daughter’s accomplishment! I think its great that you and her share an interest in art. What a way to connect with your child.

We-five

Jen,

The program my son went to was Young Rembrandts, which is a franchise. I read through their website and spoke to them at length ahead of time and was very impressed. It is a very structured approach to art that works on building eye-hand coordination. My son is 11 and was the oldest kid there. He didn’t like that. They had two classes in the same room—a preschool class and a school age class. The school age class was more your daughter’s age.

He basically thought it was too babyish and they weren’t teaching him what he wanted to know. I think the age thing was real (it is supposed to be to age 13 but that wasn’t the reality) and I do think my son is also impatient. He wants to learn to draw faces better not snowmen.

It was a very calm environment and perhaps something to look into for your daughter. But then maybe she would be beyond what they are teaching.

Beth

Thank you we-five.

Beth, I have a book that your son might enjoy and I’m sure there are others.

From the Discover Drawing Series it’s called Draw Real People by Lee Hammond. I have it in my class so my students can use and borrow it. It’s pretty good because it illustrates how to draw the different features, shading, and proportions. Even if reading is an issue I think it would still be helpful.

Right now my daughter wants to try swimming lessons again. I limit the extra activities to one at a time for all of our sanities. Every year she wants to attempt the swimming but her anxiety takes over. This year will be the first year she will be trying it while being treated for anxiety and I am going to pay for private lessons. She needs one-on-one instruction. She really wants to learn so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this time will work for her!

Thanks for the book reference! I will look for it.

I think you are wise to go for private lessons with her. Most kids her age can swim so she would probably be in a class with younger kids. And I know how that goes…. Also, and probably most importantly, the teacher can adapt to her needs. Socially, it will be a great help to be able to swim. Now, of course, I live in Florida and everyone swims. My 8 year old swam really well by age 4 with Swim America programs. We had used Red Cross swimming programs before (when we lived in Buffalo) for our other two kids and I was really surprised at how much earlier my youngest could swim. My other two were not decent swimmers until age 6. There is more opportunity here but I think they have different techniques that are more appropriate for younger kids. Anyway, I think it too is a franchise and around here anyway they give private lessons as well.

Beth