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Gaya P

Suhail, a student who recently immigrated to Quebec from another country, struggles to express themselves in French or English. The arts provide an important platform for students from all backgrounds to express their emotions, stresses, and experiences. Following the Reggio Emilia approach, schools should prioritize student voice and creativity by allowing flexible, unstructured exploration of art mediums over time rather than focusing on finished products. The author's perspective on arts education has evolved to incorporate these philosophies by designing activities that value student reflection and skills development over specific templates or models.

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272 views

Gaya P

Suhail, a student who recently immigrated to Quebec from another country, struggles to express themselves in French or English. The arts provide an important platform for students from all backgrounds to express their emotions, stresses, and experiences. Following the Reggio Emilia approach, schools should prioritize student voice and creativity by allowing flexible, unstructured exploration of art mediums over time rather than focusing on finished products. The author's perspective on arts education has evolved to incorporate these philosophies by designing activities that value student reflection and skills development over specific templates or models.

Uploaded by

api-490996432
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Gayathri S.

Rasiah (260931633)
Personal Statement: P. Lantz Scholarship for Excellence in Education & the Arts

As a student and an educator, I have always been an advocate for Art-Rich classrooms.
Children are innately creative beings; they thrive when provided the opportunity to explore and
materialize their wild imaginations. My stance on arts education focused on sensory
development and inclusive learning. However, the past year has broadened my understanding of
the arts and strengthened my belief in the necessity of arts in education.
Compare western society to a few centuries ago, and you will agree that we have
advanced in technology, medicine, inclusion, multiculturalism, etc. Presently, anyone will tell
you that western society is anything but perfect. Every day, the news boasts about: shootings,
racism, police brutality, riots, global warming, political unrest, etc. In addition, we are facing a
global pandemic, forced to stay in our homes and away from loved ones. Imagine yourself as a
young student with the world ahead of you, inheriting this unruly society that you were just born
or immigrated in. You could be Suhail, who just immigrated to Quebec and has trouble
understanding English and French. You have no idea how to explain what you feel to your peers,
teachers, or family. You feel voiceless. As an educator, it pains me to know that there are
children out there struggling to express themselves. It is our responsibility to give our children a
chance to voice themselves.
How do we do this? Arts provide students from all walks of life a platform to express not
only their creativity but also their stress, worries, sorrow, fears, joy, strength, and happiness. The
Reggio Emilia Approach positions students as capable and appreciated learners, prioritizes the
student voice, community, and arts/aesthetic learning. Reggio schools offer young students
unstructured and spontaneous exploration of art with little to no direction from the teacher.
Whereas many western schools focus on art as a finished product. Often, this product must meet
teacher expectations, follow general standards, and be complete in a constrained timeframe.
Under such authoritarian conditions, it is difficult for children to use art to explore themselves
and others. Reggio encourages students to engage with art over time, exploring each other’s
thoughts, emotions, and intentions through multiple perspectives and mediums.
Reggio’s “The Hundred languages,” reminds teachers that children express themselves in
an abundance of ways and that we should not use education as a political tool to curb their
unique methods of communication. Structure, expectation, time-constraints, all these factors
pressure students to rush their reflective process and limit their potential simply for a “finished
product.” As a tutor, I used to design art activities that developed specific skills such as fine
motor skills, color identification, etc. But I would make students copy a theme or model that I
had prepared beforehand. Viewing art instruction through a critical and political lens made me
realize my authoritarian teaching methods. Students do not need to paint a white snowman
wearing a red scarf, to test whether students know how to identify these colors. I could have
asked students to use any medium and create anything that demonstrates their understanding of
these colors. With such flexibility, students have the space to do a reflective artwork exploring
their emotions, identity, personal traumas, interests, stress, etc. In addition, the art would be
meaningful and relevant to student exploration of the self. Thus, I would still be testing student
abilities but not at the expense of their freedom, creativity, and themselves.
As a teacher, I will be mindful of these nuances as they make a difference in how our
students express and position themselves in our society. In the art activities that I design, I will
integrate Reggio's philosophy- to prioritize the student and their art/reflective process and skills.
To conclude, I believe that my evolution in understanding and critical perspective regarding arts
in education make me eligible for the “P. Lantz Scholarship” award.

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