Arts in The NEK

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Created on Thursday, 12 May 2016 14:03

Written by Tim Laroche

CONSEQUENCES

The mess of conflicting federal rules and regulations, the current climate of high-stakes testing, and the economic factors of the region have contributed to a set of circumstances in which art teachers in the NEK are struggling.

But when teachers struggle, it is the students who bear the brunt of the of consequences.

The current climate of high-stakes testing and an overreliance on technology has given rise to a situation in which students may be losing creativity, arts advocates say. And art teachers are perhaps more keenly aware than any other group to the effects of this growing problem.

“They’re just overstimulated,” Clements said.

For art teachers, who have reason to fear for their jobs more than ever before, a lack of creativity in their students has become a major problem.

“It’s a frustration we have,” Clements said. “My theory is that kids are so connected to the computer and images that are created that they have no imagination, no creativity no sort of original thoughts. I get frustrated because every time I assign some sort of project they want to do something from a video game, they want to do something from anime, that’s it. That’s their scope of visual vocabulary, and it drives us all crazy.”

However, even though the use of technology has become a factor in the perceived loss of creativity in the classroom, not all teachers, even within the NEK seem to agree on how they can technology effectively.

“I have other conversation with visual arts teachers and they’re like ‘no computers in my class, I’m not doing any digital work.’ And I go back and forth on it,” Clements said. “I think we have an opportunity to meet kids where they are at, which is a digital age in a digital world. So you can’t just say ‘it’s not important, it’s not valuable,’ and you can’t not validate it for these kids.”

School administrators are pushing art teachers to include more work with technology and computers in the classroom, Clements says, but this trend is not specific to just the art room.

Lyndon Town School, for instance, has started an initiative in which all students have a tablet device to use in the classroom. And technology has been implemented into many components of the curriculum.

However, at Burke Town School, Mason has resisted the temptation to use technology in her teaching, in part due to the budget restrictions that accompany a smaller school.

But despite the ways in which technology has made arts education more difficult, teachers, like Clements -- who says she will probably continue to teach for another 15 to 20 years before she retires -- say that technology in the art room may be their saving grace.