Michelle Dillman

Art 133
November 4, 2016
Unit Paper 5
I started this Unit by reading Elliot Eisner's 10 Lessons the Arts Teach. Eisner gives ten
different lessons to base teaching and learning art off of and with in that ten, two that stood out most to
me were, number three which states The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large
lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world. (Eisner 29) I loved this because
when it comes to many subjects in school, not just art, we can come together and share our opinions
and views and feed off one another and see things in a different way. I think its important to be able to
accept and see others perspectives, we don't necessarily have to agree, but being able to see how and
where someone forms their opinion is a wonderful characteristic to have. It allows us to grow as
students, peers and teachers. The second lesson that stood out to me was number eight. It states The
arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work
of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do that
job. (Eisner 29) I think this particular lesson stood out to me the most, because art is a was for us to
express ourselves, weather it be a painting or a simple doodle on a paper. Through art we can use
different colors or all types of media to express certain emotions that we cant quite put into sentences.
This allows children to express happiness, sadness, confusion, etc. that they hold inside because they
aren't sure how to express it vocally. I believe we can learn so much about a persons well- being, likes,
dislikes, personal life and feelings through their art work. I was able to relate the reading from Pink to
Eisner's because Pink applies these lessons in his reading. Pink talks about how Symphony is the
ability to bring together different parts and connect them together to make one big idea. I think it is
important that as teachers, we teach our students that they can all have different opinions and views on
certain things but that they can all connect in some way, to be able to relate to one another.

I think having a printed copy of Eisner's ten lesson in the classroom and possibly even a copy
for each student to have would be a great idea because it would just serve asa simple reminder that art
is not just something where we take paint to a paper. It can serve as an outlet to the escape the world
they are living and express their feelings and thoughts without being judged for it. Teaching younger
students especially, that there can be multiple approaches to coming to the same end product is also
important and I think you can do that in many ways, through subjects other than art like mathematics.
Allowing them to see that different approaches can work will allow them to work and do things at their
pace and not feel like they are being pressured to only do a project or assigned one way.

References
Pink, D. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York, NY:
The Berkeley Group.
Walker, S. (2001). Teaching Meaning in Artmaking. Worchester, MA: Davis.