For the past several years, my mantra about art education is that it has to be more about process and less about product. So much of the art done in schools is product oriented and the process, where the real learning takes place, is ignored. But it is still a struggle. Right now I’ve been trying to come up with a woven beading project for 5th graders. It has lots of learning possibilities. It ties into art history since to introduce the project I’m giving a mini lesson about jewelry as a form of art and its history. It is a great lesson to go from 2D when the kids design their piece to 3D when they make the piece. It has tons of sequential processing skills involves. I am sure that any kids who does this project and then looks at a Native American beaded article will have an appreciation for the skill and time that went into creating the piece. BUT the product may be beyond many in the class. This project will really stretch them and I think that makes it a good project. But they might not be able to have a finished product at the end. Am I just bothered by that because it’s around the holidays and I feel this unspoken pressure to have the kids create something that could be given as a gift?
