Dear Parents,
I know your days are rough, and filled with life's demands but I'm writing this letter for you and your little one. Life is hard already, don't give up. Children are a light in the world and we as parents have a tendancy to put out their light by forcing them to be mature and grow up too soon. In this letter I beckon you to teach your children something in the Arts as an escape. Kids and adults alike have unconventional ways of learning. Sometimes Art is a pathway to understanding so many other subjects. So please with all seriousness, take art seriously in the life of your child especially if he or she has a disabilty. Art has always been my answer. As some of you may know I've lived with epilepsy all my life, and I've always exibited signs of depression which we found out once I was an adult as an exact result of living with epilepsy all my life. Art was my escape, art was my way to cope, and art gave me ways to think outside the box. I may have had to work very hard to arrive at conclusions but at least I enjoyed getting there. Today I have 2 degrees in the Arts and a certificate, so know that just because someone is a little different doesn't mean that it's completely impossible.
Love
Shakana Borders.
As an Art Teacher I've had the wonderful opportunity to teach little kids ages 6-12 Art, and honestly I wouldn't replace the experience for the world. It was only rough because I was homeless at the time and was in a bartering contract that took a lot of time away from me that I could've been using to get paid. On my first day of Art Class the Owner was fussing at all the kids about their behavior and saying she was going to cancel her order on all the tablets she ordered. I begged her not to. I know that's weird for an Art teacher but the computer is what helped me in so many different subjects including math. I had tons of PC games growing up and I struggled with math but it wasn't so horrible with practice from all the games I played. I realized as an Art Teacher these kids are out of touch. They don't love learning and they are always using good technology as a distraction rather than a way to gain information.
1. Encourage Art/Learning Apps
On my first day as an Art Teacher, I picked up the tablet and I browsed several sketching apps. I was looking for one in particular, but had no luck. However I showed my students all the cool apps that teach to sketch different things. They all were impressed but not as much as one particular student with ADHD that I had. While other teachers seemed to blow him off as a problem, I showed him a new way to focus all that energy into something constructive. He wasn't a bad boy, in fact he was rather plesant towards me and loved Art very much. It was the only time he was focused and curious, and even ambitious. Exposing him to Art sketchin apps made him curious, and he started to refocus his energy on doing homework so he can be on the tablet and learn to draw.
2. Encourage Art Therapy in School
Believe it or not there is a such thing as Art Therapy. It practices Meditation and Mindfulness. Since you are focused on trying to draw what you see, you are in a calm state of mind. If you think about it children have school all day. They basically spend all day learning and less on having fun, much like adults except adults get paid. This is harder for kids with disabilities because they have health road blocks. Art therapy helps them to get that energy focused somewhere else much like an adult who craves recreational time after a long week of work. I'm not about to deminish the work load of children because they're children and are so called "resilient". We have to fess up to the fact that they are being damaged by our methods of teaching more than they are benefitting.
3. Arts Connection to other Subjects
We can deminish the need for Art all day but it doesn't take away the fact that it's the doorway to other subjects. Science, math, history, and even language arts. It can lead us to many places not just fashion but also technology. Your kid may want to be a graphics designer but they may need to learn a little STEM to make it big in that industry. Do you understand? To me Art is the hidden niche of every niche. If you ask me it's all an art.
I was having a conversation with my mother the other day. I told her that math is in fashion from fractions to circumference. She asked me if I still hated math, and I told her only when it pops up on me unsuspecting. Fashion is my field of study so naturally anything associated with that I have to develop a skill for. I can get over that part, because that's a part of my trade. I remember asking a teacher in school if I was truly going to need this stuff and please show me where. She took my question as sass but I pleaded with her to really show me. Honestly as a teacher I would've done a simple google search but she did not and then eventually just confessed that she didn't know. I wished she would've said that first. I would've respected "I don't know" over "you're too sassy at the mouth for me," and "why are you such a smart alick?" That discouraged me a whole lot, so as an art teacher I try my best to make it easy for children to comprehend how the dots connect instead of making them memorize the dots. My question to my teacher wasn't to sass her, it was so that I could discover a way to apply the information to something that I understand. This is the reason I teach Anya the way that I do. I teach her that school is important, that in order to help me in business in the future she needs to learn to read, write, learn math, and science.
I don't know how many times people have tried to take away the arts in schools and say it's not business oriented. They're trying to make little robots out of these kids and I'm not having it! Unlocking my understanding came by connecting with me, and my children are the same way. When they struggle in a subject I try to impress upon them why they may need it. That way they're determined on their own to figure it out with all their might, because nothing teaches better then strong will and self driven ambition.
