When Chaos Is an Asset, Not a Problem
There’s a design problem every art teacher runs into eventually: how do you leave real room for a student’s own decisions without the project turning into a free-for-all where nobody’s really thinking about anything? “Make whatever you want” isn’t a curriculum, and creativity research backs that up more precisely than intuition does. Researchers who study […]
Teaching Students to Write About Art — Why It’s Harder Than It Looks
Most students can tell you what they see in an artwork. Far fewer can tell you what it means, and fewer still can make that argument in writing using the visual evidence in front of them. That gap is not a talent problem. It’s a teaching problem. And it’s one that a structured analytical framework […]
What Happens to the Habit When the Framework Changes
When I began revamping the visual arts curriculum for HKUGA College in Hong Kong, I observed a problem in junior form visual art students that needed addressing. Students could describe what they saw in an artwork but couldn’t yet argue what the artwork was trying to express. The fix was a structured framework which I […]
Teaching Students to Write About Art — And Why It’s Harder Than It Looks
Most students can tell you what they see in an artwork. Far fewer can tell you what it means — and fewer still can make that argument in writing using the visual evidence in front of them. That gap is not a talent problem. It’s a teaching problem. And it’s one that a structured analytical […]
What the View from Inside a School Teaches You
There’s a question I never thought to ask when I was doing visiting artist residencies early in my career: what happens after I leave? I found out when I spent the next three decades on the other side — teaching in international schools across Hong Kong, Beijing, Mumbai, and Casablanca, inheriting programs, reshaping them, and […]
Why Assessment Is the Most Honest Thing About Your Curriculum
A curriculum can claim to value anything. What it actually values shows up in the rubric. For most of my teaching career I assessed using a framework built around Studio Habits of Mind — understanding the art world, experimentation, craft, reflection. That foundation was solid. But the creativity category, what SHOM calls Envision, was the […]
Sequence Isn’t Enough — Why Shaping a Curriculum Matters More
Many art curriculum frameworks share the same broad goal: students should develop thinking alongside making. Standards-based programs provide structure and progression. Teaching Artistic Behavior gives students meaningful choice and treats the classroom more like a working studio. Both have real strengths — and real limitations. Standards can create coherence but become too teacher-directed. Choice-based practice […]
What Should Art Class Actually Be For?
Here’s a question worth asking before you design a single lesson: what are you actually trying to do for the kid who will never take another art class after secondary school? Because that’s most of them. The majority of students sitting in an art room are not on their way to art school. They’re on […]
Does art class breed illiteracy?
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” – Cesar Cruz It’s difficult being a teacher in our current milieu. When your stock-in-trade is thinking and knowledge, it’s tough to operate when opinions are elevated over facts, emotion over science, and complexity and nuance are drowned out by soundbites and tweets. In a dumbing […]