For my Integrating Social Studies and the Arts class, we took a trip to the NCMA this week. The new building is a modern marvel! From the outside, the minimalistic metallic building looks small and bleak, however inside it boasts sky lights, windows, and natural light! A teacher could teach an entire science and technology unit on how this incredible building works. Our docent, who was once a school teacher, told us that the building automatically monitors and adjusts screens and shades to filter the light for the just right atmosphere, light conditions, and temperature.
I had an odd moment when I found myself standing in a (filtered) sunbeam gazing at a Giotto alter piece from the 14th century Italian Renaissance. Giotto is the "father of western painting"" because he basically reinvented the cannon of figure painting with more realistic, rounded, and proportionate figures and he inspired the great masters like DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. (And, yes, it is true that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were named after these artists) Having a Giotto at the NCMA is a big deal because Italy considers his work to be national treasures and typically his pieces are not allowed to leave the country.
When I was standing there looking at this amazing treasure, I started to wonder what it would be like to take a group of elementary students to the museum. What I would do is make the museum into a classroom by setting up discrete stations in certain galleries as learning stations. At each station there would be a task (or a choice between several tasks) for students to complete. Since they would want to touch things, I would set up a kit with a variety of math manipulatives, tools, and materials that they could use to do purposeful tasks that relate to the art in the gallery. The students would carry a "sketchbook" with them to draw pictures of what they observe; write responses, descriptions, or questions about what they see, or record their thinking as they solve a math problem. If a teacher were to do something like this, they might want to check with the museum for permission and be sure they have plenty of adult volunteers to supervise.
Our docent took us all around the museum and told us about many works from many different genres and time periods. In my opinion, the most compelling piece at the museum was a bronze sculpture by a contemporary artist named Michael Richards. In September 2001, the NCMA was preparing for an exhibition entitled First in Flight when the attacks on the Wold Trade Center occurred. Richards was working in his studio located in the WTC and he and his work perished on this fateful day in our country's history. The piece in the museum's public collection is a similar version of the work pictured above (with the artist).
As I stood there studying the craftsmanship of his work I was nearly brought to tears as I listened to the docent describe how he was working in his studio the morning of the 11th. Through his art, Michael Richards sought to challenge the viewer to think about issues of race, exclusion, and equality. The meaning of the his sculpture, Tar-Baby Vs. Saint Sebastian, was forever transformed from a homage to the Tuskegee Airmen, a segregated group of African-American fighter pilots in WWII, to a chilling reminder of the consequences of intolerance and hate.
In history, there are always two sides of the story and I think that a teacher who doesn't teach this to their students is not doing their job. I am not saying that it is appropriate to tell young students every detail of something as horrific as 911, but there are big messages that can be looked at in a positive, and productive way. In today's classroom sensitive issues need to be addressed with deference and care, and they must not be ignored. You don't have to lie to your students if "the biggies" like 911 come up in class. With young students I think it is responsible to simplify the explanation you provide and make sure you don't make them feel fearful or as if they are in immediate danger. As children mature they are able to take more information into account so the here-and-now is not always the place for answering those types of questions.
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