A teacher my son had said this to him about the art project he had just completed. A teacher who was supposed to bring out the best in him. A teacher whose very job is to inspire and empower all students. And so, his mind began to turn, "Was it really good or just good for a boy's effort? I am a middle school art teacher. When you train to for this profession, you are told that there are thousands of ways to praise. There is no room in art to undermine the creation, revision, polishing, and perseverance it takes to express oneself in art. In a subject where we think outside of the box, … [Read more...]
Curiosity: Parents Need to Nurture It in Today’s Wired Children
“So is every day a sunny day?” That is the question that stumped my father several decades ago when I took my first airplane flight as a child. Once we ascended through the dark gray clouds, I was stunned that the sunny blue sky reappeared in all its glory. My concrete-over-abstract brain at the time thought a gray sky meant the absence of the sun, not just its obstruction. Hence my question. “Well,” my father replied, “I guess you could say that.” Little did I know that by welcoming my question and exploring its meaning through a series of follow-up questions, he fostered my … [Read more...]
Fine Arts Promote Creativity, Growth so Let’s Stop Shortchanging Students
The greatest tool you can use to help your children grow is something they can't cram for to pass a standardized test. It’s creativity.
Creativity affects the way we learn and grow. It can be applied to any subject and teaches us that, even within rigid structures, you can find freedom of movement to make something new. And creativity is heavily employed and deepened in others by exposure to art, music and literature -- the fine arts.
Show children a painting and ask them to tell you what it is … [Read more...]
Encourage Creativity in Children Through Art, Conversation
It began with a simple question from my oldest daughter, age 4 at the time: “Daddy, what is art?” “Art,” I began, “is something that, well, let me think about that for a moment.” What was art, indeed, I asked myself while continuing the mindless routine of a frantic preschool morning: load the dishwasher, supervise the brushing of teeth, check the backpack, and head out the door. On the way to school, I muttered a few tidbits about art being a way humans change materials like clay or paint into beautiful objects. As with so many adult explanations of abstract concepts, however, the … [Read more...]
Lunch Doesn’t Always Need to be a Work of Art
Editor's Note: San Francisco Dads Group co-organizer Beau Coffron, aka Lunchbox Dad, has become an Internet and media sensation for the beautiful, creative and fun meals he sends with his kid to school. This means many parents think he is a rock star/god ... while a whole mess of others think he is an over-parenter with too much spare time. They are both wrong. He's human and just fine with that. So this is today's lunch. Why? Life happened. After this last week of the TV breaking, the car battery going out, thinking the DVD player broke, and waging the war against lice in my … [Read more...]