June 14 is one that I am sure some friends of mine will never let me live down. I said the word penis in front of the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum for my school district. Yep, I even used the word peni! (Is it a word?) Oh my land what was I thinking. We don't use those words in front of important people. Even when they are older than me. I said it and I don't regret it.
An art teacher friend told me that "My classes aren't truly creating or learning until there is "d***" in the art." He isn't advocating for the male form to be part of the art but he understands the adolescent minds of children (and some adults) who are going to gravitate towards the fun of putting sexual symbols in their art.
We had an interesting discussion about creativity and how often creativity stems from the graffiti and doodles that school children seem to put on everything they own. He points out that from the moment a student gets a calculator they are instantly figuring out how to write boobs with the numbers. (80085) I began to understand as I looked at art throughout history. Europe is dotted with famous statues with the male flagpole prominently displayed.
An art teacher friend told me that "My classes aren't truly creating or learning until there is "d***" in the art." He isn't advocating for the male form to be part of the art but he understands the adolescent minds of children (and some adults) who are going to gravitate towards the fun of putting sexual symbols in their art.
We had an interesting discussion about creativity and how often creativity stems from the graffiti and doodles that school children seem to put on everything they own. He points out that from the moment a student gets a calculator they are instantly figuring out how to write boobs with the numbers. (80085) I began to understand as I looked at art throughout history. Europe is dotted with famous statues with the male flagpole prominently displayed.
The most famous is of course the Statue of David in Florence. Google returns an interesting subset of pictures adults will get an instant burst of adolescent giggles upon seeing the creative ways tourists will interact with the danglies. You begin to see what I am getting at. Our students, nay our children, explore what puritan America has hidden from prominent display. At some point we teach them that it is wrong to graffiti innocent white walls with the generous (or not) portions of man. My art teacher friend is communicating to his students that while it is humorous at times to include natures beauty it isn't always in your best interest to plaster it everywhere.
I took a walk through our end of year art show. I could see the influence of the use of forbidden subjects in a lot of pieces. I began to see that the students are determined to push the boundaries within good taste not as an expression of pornography or lewdness but as a statement. We had quite a few female artists in the show this year and the art ranged from a cow licking its nose to a slightly chubby girl in a small top.
The cow plays to the Rodeo art show. The girl? She is a depiction of a teenage desire to be seen but not quite sure if it is a good thing. She is hiding her face but not her imperfections. We could go on and on about how society treats young women and that this art is a symbol of the struggle each girl feels. But I digress, we were speaking of the p-word.
I took a walk through our end of year art show. I could see the influence of the use of forbidden subjects in a lot of pieces. I began to see that the students are determined to push the boundaries within good taste not as an expression of pornography or lewdness but as a statement. We had quite a few female artists in the show this year and the art ranged from a cow licking its nose to a slightly chubby girl in a small top.
The cow plays to the Rodeo art show. The girl? She is a depiction of a teenage desire to be seen but not quite sure if it is a good thing. She is hiding her face but not her imperfections. We could go on and on about how society treats young women and that this art is a symbol of the struggle each girl feels. But I digress, we were speaking of the p-word.
The art installation my Maker Space club built in the library is based on the videos from Kalina Silverman's work. She asks "What would happen if we eliminated small talk and went straight to asking the hard questions." We crossed this idea with the TED talk by Candy Chang on her street art in recovering New Orleans that asked the question "What do you want to do before you die?" The students took some donated plywood and created these two boards which we put up in the library with some chalk for 9 weeks. We stood back and let the students answer the question.
It was fun, sad, and inspiring to read the chalk responses. As soon as the board filled up we took pictures and erased it for another round. Everything was on the table. Students were talking about their dreams. Some big, some small, and many for others than themselves. We had everything from "Before I die I want to be a pirate! to Before I die I want to travel the world with the love of my life." One student wanted to "roll coal" another wanted to attend Coachella. The heart breaker? The young lady who wanted to "see her sister happy."
In the heart of the transgender bathroom ridiculousness, this young lady was very upset. Her older sister had discovered that she needed to transition genders. We watched this play out at the school for four years and many struggled with the decisions she was making. It wasn't ours to question, understand, or judge. It was our place to support him in his learning and be sure that the pressures of the life he faced didn't end in tragedy. His younger sister saw this ongoing battle both at home and at school daily. She felt the deeply rooted depression he felt living as his nature-assigned-she and knew he was happier as a he. She expressed it on the Big Talk board.
This led to me introducing the board to the Superintendent of Schools. She left the appropriate dream of "Before I die I want to make our community a great place." The joke we had was that she had to make sure her picture didn't include anything inappropriate. At my presentation I splashed that slide and told the packed room of teachers that the boards were checked to make sure the ubiquitous penis hadn't made an appearance. It just wouldn't do to have the Superintendent signing a board with her dream and a big ol' willy was on the next line down.
It was at this point that I realized the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction had slipped in the room. I had said the P-word! She laughed along with the rest of them. I was given quite the razzing by my fellow presenters afterward. After a few days I realized something. So what if one student had doodled a penis. It just meant that they were finally beginning to express creativity. Isn't that what we hope for children to do at school? It was a chalkboard. I could erase it and teach the student what an appropriate expression of art may be.
We need the students to be comfortable to grow creatively in our test obsessed world. The two minutes it would take to write on our chalkboards was worth the discussions it inspired. It showed the callous world that these students fates rested in their hands. That they had aspirations beyond living off of welfare as many assume when speaking of the neighborhood.
I also might have felt validated. We have good kids who know when it is appropriate to be rude. These are the students that most of America looks down on as they fight the school to prison pipeline. Yet they know when to take pride and abstain from rude gestures. I hope they remember the positive thoughts they expressed and continue to build on these ideas to be successful Americans.
If telling this story and making sure others hear it means I say penis in front of 80 adults I can do that. I believe my Assistant Super got it as well. She didn't question or challenge. She wanted to know what we were going to do next?
Personally, I do feel a bit cheated. We didn't get a penis. So by the art teacher's definition we weren't truly making art were we?
It was fun, sad, and inspiring to read the chalk responses. As soon as the board filled up we took pictures and erased it for another round. Everything was on the table. Students were talking about their dreams. Some big, some small, and many for others than themselves. We had everything from "Before I die I want to be a pirate! to Before I die I want to travel the world with the love of my life." One student wanted to "roll coal" another wanted to attend Coachella. The heart breaker? The young lady who wanted to "see her sister happy."
In the heart of the transgender bathroom ridiculousness, this young lady was very upset. Her older sister had discovered that she needed to transition genders. We watched this play out at the school for four years and many struggled with the decisions she was making. It wasn't ours to question, understand, or judge. It was our place to support him in his learning and be sure that the pressures of the life he faced didn't end in tragedy. His younger sister saw this ongoing battle both at home and at school daily. She felt the deeply rooted depression he felt living as his nature-assigned-she and knew he was happier as a he. She expressed it on the Big Talk board.
This led to me introducing the board to the Superintendent of Schools. She left the appropriate dream of "Before I die I want to make our community a great place." The joke we had was that she had to make sure her picture didn't include anything inappropriate. At my presentation I splashed that slide and told the packed room of teachers that the boards were checked to make sure the ubiquitous penis hadn't made an appearance. It just wouldn't do to have the Superintendent signing a board with her dream and a big ol' willy was on the next line down.
It was at this point that I realized the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction had slipped in the room. I had said the P-word! She laughed along with the rest of them. I was given quite the razzing by my fellow presenters afterward. After a few days I realized something. So what if one student had doodled a penis. It just meant that they were finally beginning to express creativity. Isn't that what we hope for children to do at school? It was a chalkboard. I could erase it and teach the student what an appropriate expression of art may be.
We need the students to be comfortable to grow creatively in our test obsessed world. The two minutes it would take to write on our chalkboards was worth the discussions it inspired. It showed the callous world that these students fates rested in their hands. That they had aspirations beyond living off of welfare as many assume when speaking of the neighborhood.
I also might have felt validated. We have good kids who know when it is appropriate to be rude. These are the students that most of America looks down on as they fight the school to prison pipeline. Yet they know when to take pride and abstain from rude gestures. I hope they remember the positive thoughts they expressed and continue to build on these ideas to be successful Americans.
If telling this story and making sure others hear it means I say penis in front of 80 adults I can do that. I believe my Assistant Super got it as well. She didn't question or challenge. She wanted to know what we were going to do next?
Personally, I do feel a bit cheated. We didn't get a penis. So by the art teacher's definition we weren't truly making art were we?