Pink: Empathy
"Empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else's position and to intuit what that person is feeling. It is the ability to stand in others' shoes, to see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts. It is something we do pretty much spontaneously, an act of instinct rather than the product of deliberation. but Empathy isn't sympathy--that is, feeling bad for someone else. It is feeling with someone else, sensing what it would be like to be that person. Empathy is a stunning act of imaginative derring-do, the ultimate virtual reality--climbing into another's mind to experience the world from that person's perspective (159)." As teachers, as women and men, and as human beings, we are empathetic beings on almost a daily basis (at least I am). We have the capacity and the imagination to, as Pink says, feel with someone. Friday's class on Empathy was incredibly powerful. In light of my previous post on Meaning, I will break my mold a little bit and share with you an experience that was incredibly difficult for me during my first year of teaching, where I experienced more empathy than I ever have. This past spring, I injured my back and shoulder and had to undergo a rigorous bout of physical therapy and muscle relaxers, which meant that I had several doctor's appointments. In March, I had scheduled an appointment at Columbia Orthopedic Group and I took the entire day off work even though I likely could have used just half a day (I'm sure those of you who teach can understand the need for a day off once in a while). I now wish I had taken the half of a day. I was sitting in the doctor's office waiting for my physician to come in when I received a text from my mentor teacher, asking if I had a certain student. When I saw the name I immediately got worried that she would ask me about a student when I was not at work, so I told her where I was and asked what had happened. To make an incredibly long story short, one of my students passed away this spring, and not by freak accident or health conditions or any of the things that make death seem easy. My student had died on his on terms and by his own doing, and I found out by text in a doctor's office on a day when I wasn't with my kids. I have never felt so much guilt.
The tragic loss of a student is something that I hope none of you ever have to feel. The amount of empathy that happens is almost unbearable. I was feeling with my students, with my faculty, with the parents, and with myself. I still feel guilty for not being at school on the day that all of my students found out, but I recognize that I can not dwell on the past. It took a lot of time and patience to help my students heal, but each day was a journey on the empathetic path for all of us, and we all understood that. During our class on Friday, I held the memories and thoughts of my student with me as we were all empathizing together. It was an incredibly powerful moment and I am glad to have shared it with all of you.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Reading Reflection and Reaction 9
Pink: Meaning
Classmates: prepare yourselves for a lovely class tomorrow! Hopefully it doesn't rain and ruin our plans for being outside, but I hope you are all excited to learn about Pink's sense of Meaning. In this last chapter of the book, Pink discusses how important it has become to lead meaningful lives. He states that in the Conceptual Age, "freed from the struggle for survival, we have the luxury of devoting more of our lives to the search for meaning (218)." While I don't agree that it is a "luxury" to think about what our lives mean (since we have been doing it since the beginning of our existence), I do agree that it is important to live a happy life. In quite a lot of the chapter, Pink spends a bit of time talking about the role of religion in meaning, and I struggled a lot when reading that portion of the chapter. As a practitioner of yoga, I believe that meditation and quiet thoughts can greatly benefit one's happiness, but I do not align with any religion. During the chapter, Pink attributes happiness and meaning in life to finding a higher power and I found myself in an inner dispute with this portion of the chapter. I do believe that it is of the utmost importance to respect the beliefs of others, especially if those affiliations make meaning in someone else's life. In my eyes, Pink hit the nail on the head in the latter portion of the chapter, where he discusses happiness. I believe in living in the moment, in being present in every situation and paying close attention to surroundings, and I believe that doing so can lead to happiness. Sometimes this makes me a quiet individual, but it does not mean that I lack attention or the capacity to contemplate situations. I think that happiness and meaning come from this area of quiet, that thoughts and meditation and being alive are enough. Someone else says this a bit more eloquently than I:
"I believe the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we are all seeking something better in life. So I think the very motion of our life is towards happiness." -The Dalai Lama
UPDATE: Monday's class was an incredible experience for me. While most of you were writing, I sat in stillness and quiet an absorbed all of the emotion that occurred during the letter writing process. Thanks for a great day.
Classmates: prepare yourselves for a lovely class tomorrow! Hopefully it doesn't rain and ruin our plans for being outside, but I hope you are all excited to learn about Pink's sense of Meaning. In this last chapter of the book, Pink discusses how important it has become to lead meaningful lives. He states that in the Conceptual Age, "freed from the struggle for survival, we have the luxury of devoting more of our lives to the search for meaning (218)." While I don't agree that it is a "luxury" to think about what our lives mean (since we have been doing it since the beginning of our existence), I do agree that it is important to live a happy life. In quite a lot of the chapter, Pink spends a bit of time talking about the role of religion in meaning, and I struggled a lot when reading that portion of the chapter. As a practitioner of yoga, I believe that meditation and quiet thoughts can greatly benefit one's happiness, but I do not align with any religion. During the chapter, Pink attributes happiness and meaning in life to finding a higher power and I found myself in an inner dispute with this portion of the chapter. I do believe that it is of the utmost importance to respect the beliefs of others, especially if those affiliations make meaning in someone else's life. In my eyes, Pink hit the nail on the head in the latter portion of the chapter, where he discusses happiness. I believe in living in the moment, in being present in every situation and paying close attention to surroundings, and I believe that doing so can lead to happiness. Sometimes this makes me a quiet individual, but it does not mean that I lack attention or the capacity to contemplate situations. I think that happiness and meaning come from this area of quiet, that thoughts and meditation and being alive are enough. Someone else says this a bit more eloquently than I:
"I believe the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we are all seeking something better in life. So I think the very motion of our life is towards happiness." -The Dalai Lama
UPDATE: Monday's class was an incredible experience for me. While most of you were writing, I sat in stillness and quiet an absorbed all of the emotion that occurred during the letter writing process. Thanks for a great day.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Reading Reflection and Reaction 8
Pink: Symphony
I absolutely LOVED our class today on symphony and, again, enjoyed the chapter. It keeps surprising me that this book is so well-written and easy to understand (maybe I'm a bit jaded after Freedman...). Pink describes the sense of symphony as, "The capacity to synthesize rather than to analyze; to see relationships between seemingly unrelates fields; to detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific answers; and to invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair (130)." As both artists and art teachers, this is something that we do every day. We make meaning by creating metaphors and ideas, connecting thing to thing to thing. This chapter reminded me a lot of Gardner's chapter in Five Minds for the Future and his Synthesizing Mind because they are essentially the same. While we as teachers and artists are skilled at creating connections, this may be something that our students may not be as experienced with. It is important to teach students to think metaphorically and synectically not only to create meaningful art, but for more well-rounded minds. Teaching students for symphony will aid them in all of their other coursework because they will be able to create intellectual spider threads that combine what they have learned to what they already know, building on prior knowledge and thus building a beautiful web of symphonic thought.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Reading Reflection and Reaction 7
Pink: Design
Whoops, turns out I read two chapters in the wrong order, so my thoughts on the Design chapter are coming after the presentation. First, I was absolutely inspired by CHAD public school. I have never heard of it before, and reading about it was a heartwarming experience. It's great news that there are some schools who value the arts and recognize their ability to help students excel in other areas. I was also struck by their attendance rates in comparison to other area schools. As a teacher in a very low income area (over 90% free and reduced lunch), I can easily empathize with the text. Our school, who has not had an attendance policy, is finally adopting one next year, and I hope that will help to solve some of the issue with kids skipping school. I believe that teachers can make a difference in making their kids want to be at school, and I know that I have done so for some of my students this past year. Allowing them to be creative, make independent decisions, and feel comfortable in their environment is key to encouraging attendance. I loved the quote from the text that said, "No matter what path these students [at CHAD] pursue, their experience at this school will enhance their ability to solve problems, understand others, and appreciate the world around them--essential abilities in the Conceptual Age (74)." I think it is important to give Design-based experiences to students because it shows them that there truly are "real world" careers in art. Without these kinds of experiences, students are sometimes left thinking that they can only succeed in art if they are able to paint like Monet. Again, I am loving this book and I really enjoyed the class on Design, thanks for the experience!
Whoops, turns out I read two chapters in the wrong order, so my thoughts on the Design chapter are coming after the presentation. First, I was absolutely inspired by CHAD public school. I have never heard of it before, and reading about it was a heartwarming experience. It's great news that there are some schools who value the arts and recognize their ability to help students excel in other areas. I was also struck by their attendance rates in comparison to other area schools. As a teacher in a very low income area (over 90% free and reduced lunch), I can easily empathize with the text. Our school, who has not had an attendance policy, is finally adopting one next year, and I hope that will help to solve some of the issue with kids skipping school. I believe that teachers can make a difference in making their kids want to be at school, and I know that I have done so for some of my students this past year. Allowing them to be creative, make independent decisions, and feel comfortable in their environment is key to encouraging attendance. I loved the quote from the text that said, "No matter what path these students [at CHAD] pursue, their experience at this school will enhance their ability to solve problems, understand others, and appreciate the world around them--essential abilities in the Conceptual Age (74)." I think it is important to give Design-based experiences to students because it shows them that there truly are "real world" careers in art. Without these kinds of experiences, students are sometimes left thinking that they can only succeed in art if they are able to paint like Monet. Again, I am loving this book and I really enjoyed the class on Design, thanks for the experience!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Reading Reflection and Reaction 6
Pink: Story
I am still really enjoying reading this book. Though it was written for the business world, I think that it also lies in a perfect niche within the arts. This chapter, about the idea of story, details how narratives are, and have always been, important tools for humanity. Stories are...'Our chief means of looking into the future, of predicting, of planning, and of explaining...Most of our experience, our knowledge and our thinking is organized as stories (101).' In other words, story is a classification system for human beings. In the art realm, stories do the same. They are a means of communication to recite the artist's allegory to the viewer. The viewer, then, interprets those ideas and relates them to their own experiences to create a new and meaningful story. Though Pink talks about the importance of narrative in the Conceptual Age, he also states that factual thinking is still valuable: "Storytelling doesn't replace analytical thinking...it supplements it by enabling us to imagine new perspectives and new worlds (108).' In this way, storytelling really requires a lot of empathy. Pink discussed the work of Dr. Rita Charon, who developed a program for doctors that incorporated narrative in order to enable doctors to feel more empathetic toward their patients. This reminded me a lot of the brief presentation in class on empathy and what it might be like to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes. I think that story and empathy need each other to exist because stories depend upon emotion and viewer response. Without empathy, stories would not be as effective or as powerful. "Stories...provide--context enriched by emotion, a deeper understanding of how we fit in and why that matters (115)." These two ideas, story and empathy, as essential to each other and essential to the world in the future.
"We are each the authors of our own lives."
I am still really enjoying reading this book. Though it was written for the business world, I think that it also lies in a perfect niche within the arts. This chapter, about the idea of story, details how narratives are, and have always been, important tools for humanity. Stories are...'Our chief means of looking into the future, of predicting, of planning, and of explaining...Most of our experience, our knowledge and our thinking is organized as stories (101).' In other words, story is a classification system for human beings. In the art realm, stories do the same. They are a means of communication to recite the artist's allegory to the viewer. The viewer, then, interprets those ideas and relates them to their own experiences to create a new and meaningful story. Though Pink talks about the importance of narrative in the Conceptual Age, he also states that factual thinking is still valuable: "Storytelling doesn't replace analytical thinking...it supplements it by enabling us to imagine new perspectives and new worlds (108).' In this way, storytelling really requires a lot of empathy. Pink discussed the work of Dr. Rita Charon, who developed a program for doctors that incorporated narrative in order to enable doctors to feel more empathetic toward their patients. This reminded me a lot of the brief presentation in class on empathy and what it might be like to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes. I think that story and empathy need each other to exist because stories depend upon emotion and viewer response. Without empathy, stories would not be as effective or as powerful. "Stories...provide--context enriched by emotion, a deeper understanding of how we fit in and why that matters (115)." These two ideas, story and empathy, as essential to each other and essential to the world in the future.
"We are each the authors of our own lives."
Monday, June 10, 2013
Reading Reaction and Reflection 5
Pink: Play
I was so happy to read this book because I immediately recognized the name of Dr. Madan Kataria. As a practitioner of yoga for around three years, I am fairly familiar with the work he does with laughter yoga in India. It's been something that interests me, but that I have yet to try, and reading more about it just makes me want to do it all the more. Play, which includes humor and gaming and happiness, is something that I try to embody in my day-to-day life, as well as something that likely occurs in all of our art classrooms. Play is important to the art room because it encourages creativity and imagination and experimentation, which can sometimes be limited by assignments. I found this book to be a refreshing change of pace and I am super excited to see what is in store for us tomorrow.
Eisner Chapter 6
This Eisner reading focused on curriculum in the arts and how standards can impact the efficiency of teaching. In one area of the text I really liked, Eisner discussed assessment and the downfalls that it can have within art education. He states, "Like teaching, evaluation is often treated as a separate or independent process, something on does after one teaches a curriculum. The fact of the matter is that evaluative activity goes on concurrently with both curriculum planning and teaching (150)." I liked this idea because assessment was something I struggled with during my first year of teaching. I found myself giving my students arbitrary rubrics that were mostly based on technique and their mastery of that technique rather than conceptual ideas. As the year progresses, I began having my students write mini-artist statements at the end of projects to discuss their ideas and media instead of basing their grades on technical skill. I found that this had great effects on how interested the students were in their artwork because they knew that their ideas were important and not an offhand remark. I also liked that Eisner mentioned that standards should be something that teachers discuss and consider, but should not be something that is used to create cookie-cutter lessons in order to create assignments. I think that sometimes teachers can get caught up in meeting each and every standard required of them, and eventually lose sight of what is truly important in artmaking.
Freedman Chapter 6
This chapter was essentially a summation of this entire course. It centers around the issues of current art curriculum and how a positive change can be facilitated within our field. It seems unnecessary to go into depth here, as it is a review of the purpose of this class.
I was so happy to read this book because I immediately recognized the name of Dr. Madan Kataria. As a practitioner of yoga for around three years, I am fairly familiar with the work he does with laughter yoga in India. It's been something that interests me, but that I have yet to try, and reading more about it just makes me want to do it all the more. Play, which includes humor and gaming and happiness, is something that I try to embody in my day-to-day life, as well as something that likely occurs in all of our art classrooms. Play is important to the art room because it encourages creativity and imagination and experimentation, which can sometimes be limited by assignments. I found this book to be a refreshing change of pace and I am super excited to see what is in store for us tomorrow.
Eisner Chapter 6
This Eisner reading focused on curriculum in the arts and how standards can impact the efficiency of teaching. In one area of the text I really liked, Eisner discussed assessment and the downfalls that it can have within art education. He states, "Like teaching, evaluation is often treated as a separate or independent process, something on does after one teaches a curriculum. The fact of the matter is that evaluative activity goes on concurrently with both curriculum planning and teaching (150)." I liked this idea because assessment was something I struggled with during my first year of teaching. I found myself giving my students arbitrary rubrics that were mostly based on technique and their mastery of that technique rather than conceptual ideas. As the year progresses, I began having my students write mini-artist statements at the end of projects to discuss their ideas and media instead of basing their grades on technical skill. I found that this had great effects on how interested the students were in their artwork because they knew that their ideas were important and not an offhand remark. I also liked that Eisner mentioned that standards should be something that teachers discuss and consider, but should not be something that is used to create cookie-cutter lessons in order to create assignments. I think that sometimes teachers can get caught up in meeting each and every standard required of them, and eventually lose sight of what is truly important in artmaking.
Freedman Chapter 6
This chapter was essentially a summation of this entire course. It centers around the issues of current art curriculum and how a positive change can be facilitated within our field. It seems unnecessary to go into depth here, as it is a review of the purpose of this class.
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