learned of this from DCARTNEWS.
The Art of Compromise
Higher Ground Academy grappled with a quandary: How do we teach art to Muslim students who can't create human images? The school found a solution.
read the article
here's my favorite quote:
But projects that would naturally lead to figure drawing are no longer assigned, Langworthy said, which isn't a huge loss when it comes to meeting the state standards.
not a huge loss? they took mask and puppet making out of their curriculum!
This is troubling in a few ways to me.
1. It obviously limits a students growth in the arts. a limit in growth in the arts limits ones imagination. limiting students imaginations limits what might be possible for our nation. limiting what's possible for our nation will cause us to stagnate. heaven forbide (literally!) that we open a students mind rather than reinforce the limitations their interpretive teachings have given them.
2. it kowtows to religion. we see this happening in science classes too.....
3. We have a culture that we must negate in order to placate those that don't agree with it. Rather than adding traditions, we are eliminating them. perhaps we should stop teaching English, since many immigrants come from non english speaking countries and might be offended by our language. We most certainly ought to stop teaching that abomination of "evolution" since obviously we are now devolving.
4. It limits choices rather than opens choices. it makes us smaller rather than larger.
i find it very troublesome that this article was complete with positive spin.
here is another quote:
Second-grader Hawi Muhammed said her parents don't mind if she draws people once in a while, but "God … doesn't like people to draw a lot," she said.
???????!oh, that poor child.
please keep religion out of schools. please.
please bring your culture to our country. share it with us, but don't deny ours, because we have a lot to share too.
2 comments:
I don't get it. What about all those Islamic miniature paintings that are screaming with human figures?
This doesn't bother me at all. I think they've found a solution that still teaches students about artistic expression and meets their curriculum requirements, and respects their personal religious beliefs.
The concept of separation of church and state requires that there either be no religion in a public setting or that all religious be equally respected - it's all religions or none at all. And as long as there continue to be school holidays for all the Christian holidays or classroom parties with Christmas trees or menorahs, then the Muslim students also deserve to have their beliefs and traditions respected.
Think of the alternative - if this school hadn't come up with the compromise program that the parents find acceptable, then the students would not be having any art class at all.
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