Maggie McCombs

Arte 302 – Reading Responses 1/26

Delacruz – Art Education in Civil Society

Having just implemented a 9-week curriculum on activism with 7th and
8th grade students in a private catholic institution, I found it an extremely
difficult task trying not to potentially step on anyone’s toes. I feel like the
political aspect of life, in school with relation to students and their
affiliations, is often frowned upon addressing in the classroom. I chose a
fairly innocent topic concerning the environment and the global warming
controversy since it seemed like it would be one of the more accessible
issues for the students to understand.
I think it is one thing to use multi-cultural curricula and material to
develop meaningful connections between individuals with differing cultural
experiences, values, and interests, but what students in classrooms, schools,
and communities that do not have a wide array of differences? Among the 20
students I had for that unit, all but one was not Caucasian. Also, in such a
setting, would it even be appropriate to have students talk about religion,
Catholicism, and what they really believe (not what the school and their
parents tell them they should believe).
I guess this privatization of education is part of the problem, but also
more generally, I think it’s peoples’ inabilities to either place themselves and
their children in diverse environments or to purposefully segregate
themselves within a certain community. What really begs the question for
me at the moment is whether or not this is really a discussion about the
deep seated racist, classist, and general dominant hegemonic stereotyping
and cultural divides perpetuating segregation and, aside from the obvious
political influences, that irrational fear and bigotry (both deliberate and
unconscious) is the culprit keeping us from questioning, crossing, and
eliminating those lines?

Taylor, et al – Community & World Connections

Reading this article made me realize how little community and service-
learning was implemented in my schools during my K-12 education. I can
only recall 3, maybe 5 instances where what we were doing something
directly related to our immediate surrounding community or was to benefit
those within it. Even more strangely, I wonder why we had to travel 4 hours
to a college on the other side of the state for our official 8th grade community
service field trip. I remember one of the days we helped habitat for
humanity, knowing the areas immediately surrounding where I lived I’m
know there were places we could had helped that were actually somewhat
part of our community. They dragged us on a long uncomfortable bus ride to
a city we’d never been to for community service. Makes me wonder how this
all worked out politically on the administration end of things.
Is is not better to create a service-learning experience in students’
local communities, so they can take pride in, but also remember it more
clearly and make more meaningful connections to it? Are certain
communities more adept to providing service-learning opportunities in
Maggie McCombs
Arte 302 – Reading Responses 1/26
schools and what are the reasons behind it? Money? Politics? Safety?
Personal agendas? Or is it a reflection of the parents wishes? If the parents
are not on board with taking students to certain areas outside of the school,
which we all know parents have a lot of control over what schools are
allowed to do with the students, does this essentially allow them to
discriminate against certain communities or parts of them?