In Landscapes of Learning, Greene (1978) talks about wide-awakeness and how being an artist is

“to make things harder” (p. 161). While practical inventions make life more convenient for people,

artists’ role is to provoke questions and imaginations beyond what we understand, which can be

more complicated for people. The unseen is what creates difficulties but is also what matters.

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Throughout my past teaching and professional experiences, I have come to an understanding that

true growth or learning happens when the process is emphasized over the results.

It is easy for students to be stressed about the final result because that is what they see at the end,

but their focus should be constantly redirected to put value on their efforts, which is invisible to the eyes.

In order to remind students of the importance of the things unseen, I strive to design an art curriculum

that encourages students to focus on their thinking and individual growth.

An art classroom is a crucial place for students to experience trials and errors,

and that process challenges students to develop healthy relationships with failures and uncertainties

prior to mastering any artistic skills.

 

Greene (2001) states, “…the primary purpose of education is… to make sense of actual lived

situations— not only cognitively, but perceptually, imaginatively, affectively” (p. 206). It is my hope to

help my students acquire skills to make sense of their own situations in creative and thought-provoking

ways, and that those skills will serve them well throughout their lifetime.