The first graders made collage eyes in the style of Renee Magritte's "False Mirror." The students in Mrs. Elliott's class wrote, "Today we learned how to draw an eye." Art teachers are concerned about preserving a child's "creative self expression." As educators we are in a constant struggle to provide skills and knowledge of art terms without corrupting the child's unique creative impulses. However, even by the time they are in first grade their perceptions of creative expression has been corrupted by cultural influences. We have to explain what the atmosphere is and that the sky is not a blue stripe at the top of the page, the earth is not a green stripe at the bottom, bodies are not circles or ovals with stick lines emerging from them, bodies have mass and dimension. Eyes are not dots or circles, they are almond shaped. The concept is challenging, because all knowledge is.
Study of the eye was reinforced in science also. In science we learned about: the sense of seeing, the parts of the eye, the basic function of the parts of the eye, dysfunctions of the eye, light, color, and UV light.
Life isn't all science so we considered the proverb, "The eyes are the windows to the soul." Hopefully, these young people will recognize that there is much to see, know, and express about life.
