Epiphanies with Arnie Aprill

Sitting in my first workshop for the most long-awaited University unit of my life - Introduction to Art Education - I had a beautiful epiphany. It happened as I listened with goose-pimpled skin to Arnie Aprill's humorous, yet moving, lecture on integrating the arts in authentic and purposeful ways into the generalist teacher's curriculum.  Arnie hails from the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education organisation and has 22 years of experience in this field. Much of what he said stuck with me - that authentically integrated arts activities appeal to a multitude of learning styles and thus, a myriad of children; that using the arts as vehicle for teaching the content of the curriculum engages students and makes there academic achievements rise considerably; that the most engaging and relevant way to teach our students is through inquiry by asking the "big" questions as this offers safe and genuinely interesting routes for all students follow through their learning; that if you as the teacher feel bored about what you are teaching - this will rub off onto our students; and that real artistic and creative expression and learning does not develop from ad-hoc art lessons that require a prescriptive way of completing the task in the hopes that it looks exactly like the teacher's example.

All of this is incredibly and excitingly interesting, but my career-altering epiphany was this - the way Arnie described the arts gave the way I had always wanted to teach a name, validity and hope. I had become somewhat jaded (already) that some schools I have seen are sterile and limiting in the resources and routes which students have access to in their curriculum (including arts) studies. Some schools do not seem that different from my experiences of school 15 years ago - and I thought that this was a real shame - where was the experimentation, the fun, the joy in creating, displaying and discussing our learning? But during this workshop on a ordinary Wednesday morning I saw my future as a teacher as exciting and different from the past! I now see it as long and bountiful, filled with students who will exceed my expectations and with days full of progressive and positive innovation through arts integration. This was also endorsed by reading John O'Toole's chapter The Arts and creativity: A manifesto for schools in our set text as he states that -

"schools and schooling systems are  mostly aware of the potential role of the arts in the alchemy necessary to find the new philosopher's stone of creativity" (p. xxiii).

 I cannot wait to begin!

Mel - I wonder, did you feel the same way? 

Teaching Tool-Kit

 See and use integrated arts units of work which have been tried-and-tested in the classroom.

References


O'Toole, J. (2009). The arts and creativity: A manifesto for schools. In Sinclair, C., Jeanneret, N., & O’Toole, J. (Eds.). Education in the arts: Teaching and learning in the contemporary curriculum (pp. xxiii-xxvii). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.