Author: Greenberg, Pearl

Publication Year: 1971

Media Type: Report

Summary:

This report [written by a task force of specialists in elementary art education, Pearl Greenberg, task force chairman] has set forth the very broad domain for the teaching of art in elementary schools.

Abstract:

This report [written by a task force of specialists in elementary art education, Pearl Greenberg, task force chairman] has set forth the very broad domain for the teaching of art in elementary schools:

1. To develop each student's mastery of simple skills in expressing and realizing ideas in visual form - through familiarity with media that lend themselves to the expression and realization of ideas;
   
2. To develop in each student a positive self-image, a sense of personal confidence and willingness to deal with visual forms; to assume responsibilities for dealing with visual choices in areas of personal expression and the environment-at-learge;
   
3. To develop in each student empathy and appreciation for the work of others; to build awareness that the arts honor the distinctive insights afforded through the expression of persons in other times and places;
   
4. To develop a beginning awareness of art forms as part of a larger tradition of man's achievements; to have students grasp the larger context of forms (past and present) that comprise the history of art;
   
5. And, perhaps most critically, to develop aesthetic awareness - the capacity to seek out the unusual, poetic, in short, those dimensions that enhance the quality of life.

Overall, this report makes clear the breadth and depth of involvement on the part of teachers, administrators, and community cultural resources in developing an effective elementary school art program. Gone are the days when the arts could be thought of as simple, decorative additions to the serious business of learning. The challenge confronting our elementary schools is one of making them demonstrations of the very values we espouse regarding art being integral to the total school program. The ideal projected is one that calls for art teachers in each of our elementary schools providing their own unique insights into visual and aesthetic phenomena. In the long run, the strength of the arts will become more manifest as teachers learn to pay attention to the aesthetic potentialities in all of our experience. This has been a recurring theme in the literature of art education. What has changed are the possible media, ideas and contexts for instruction. New art forms and teaching circumstances present new opportunities for dealing with the continuing human quest to enhance the very quality of our lives. (p. 228)

CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Introduction. 
                Art and the individual, the culture and the community. 
                The outcomes of the art program.

Chapter 2. Art in elementary education. 
                Innovation or renovation? 
                An historical inquiry. 
                Is there an art education? 
                Some strategies for the teaching of art: 
                     Art approached as a discipline. 
                     The child-centered art program. 
                     Art approached as perception. 
                     Art approached behaviorally. 
                     The artist as model. 
                     Art approached experientially. 
                     Art related to other subjects. 
                     Aesthetic education.

Chapter 3. Art in the elementary school and the community. 
                Art in the elementary school: Who teaches art? 
                The elementary art curriculum. 
                Improving the elementary art program. 
                The role of the elementary art specialist. 
                The role of the elementary classroom teacher. 
                The role of the elementary supervisor of art. 
                An example of the challenges of elementary art supervision. 
                The elementary principal and the art program. 
                The role of teacher training institutions. 
                Conditions for a quality art program. 
                Towards an authentic art experience in the elementary classroom. 
                Some prototypes of special learning experiences in art. 
                Who pays for the art program? 
                Who pressures for change? 
                National support. 
                Facilities, materials, and equipment in the elementary art program. 
                Art in special education. 
                Art in the community. 
                Alternate school and community art programs. 
                The art museum. 
                The storefront studio. 
                The art-in-the-school program. 
                The artist as a resource. 
                Art in the recreation department. 
                The art school for children. 
                Media in the elementary art program. 
                Some possibilities with media. 
                Filmmaking in the elementary art program. 
                Television and the elementary art program. 
                Career education in art at the elementary level.

Chapter 4. Summary.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts Education