The ability to generate ideas is central to the success of artists, but the teachers seem to not realise it, says Hasan. DESIGN: MUHAMMAD SUHAIB
RAWALPINDI:
Vocational schools in Rawalpindi encourage their students to copy ideas instead of generating them. Ghazala Aleem, mother of three girls studying in such art schools, feels this is tantamount to hoodwinking the students, rather than teaching them anything substantial.
Aleem is not alone in her complaint. Ahmad Hasan, who has a daughter studying in Sanad Zar Vocational Centre, said, “They do not take the trouble to help students learn how to generate original ideas, designs, and compositions. They borrow from others and copy.”
The ability to generate ideas, he said, is central to the success of artists, but the teachers seem to not realise it. “They fail to divulge these secrets to their students.”
A teacher from Kinza Academy on Saadi Road in Saddar agreed. “Imaginative thinking is at the core of the art discipline. But for many students the source of ideas for art really remains a mystery as teachers themselves lack ability.”
“Too often, the teachers expect students to produce art products before they are taught how to get ideas for the products. Perhaps, this is the reason why we are getting junk results,” says an art teacher at Ghandara Art.
But the answer is not as simple as simply hiring better art teachers. Many of the vocational institutes in Rawalpindi have to operate within the limited constraints of their budgets, which are necessitated by low fees.
Kinza Academy Principal Noor-u-Saba said they charge Rs2,500 for an eight-week course on glass painting. At one session a week, that comes out to around Rs300 per session per student.
Roshni Welfare Organization Vocational Institute at Saidpuri Gate charges Rs1,500 for courses like jewelry making, porcelain work, glass painting, and foaming flower.
The aim is to make the cost of attendance as cost effective as possible. “We try to lessen financial burden of parents,” said Tahira Mushtaq, the principal.
The school even has a prescribed shop, where students can get raw material from for less than the market rate.
With limited resources, these schools cannot afford to get the real artists in. In fact, they may even be finding it hard to retain their existing teachers. An official at the Women Development and Community Centre near Naz Cinema said they were not offering any art and craft classes nowadays as their only art teacher had “resigned because of meagre salary.”
As it is, these institutions seem to be catering to high-skilled art workers, than fostering artists in their own rights. The higher goals can wait. For now it is about getting the basics done, as Farzana Naqvi, mother of a student at one such school, said, “Class experiments are prescribed rather than invented.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2013.
COMMENTS (30)
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If I ask students to do whatever they want to do, they often avoid risk by doing something they already have learned in the past.The amount of creative thinking may be zero.When there are limits, there is a better chance of having a challenging task.We have to require limits on mindless repetition of past success. We have to encourage new and creative problem solving. The teacher's challenge is to make the limits seem compelling and interesting to the student. Good lessons ask questions, provide learning goals, reasonable objectives, and so on. As a teacher, my job is to make the easy challenging and to make the hard stuff accessible. Those who do not teach can't understand our difficulties.
"t is our collective responsibility to ensure that our girls go to vocational schools, learn art from there, join the workforce and change the art world. We need supportive environment for them.
“Look into yourself and ask who is failing who … principals, teachers or learners?” Shunning ‘business unusual’ we need a mind-set shift, delivery, mutual respect, clear thinking, smart approach and creative character from all.
Art schools should be springboards to inquisitiveness about the surrounding worlds of students. Unfortunately in Pindi they are just the opposite. Spontaneous art explorations are not possible under present conditions with art teachers having no original ideas at all.
Teachers should stress upon the enjoyment and the value of the process of creating art, more than the results or the finished product. The finished results of a student's work are not as important to her as the exploration and experimentation that went into creating them. Products are usually an adult value, and once students know they can explore and discover on their own, they stop worrying about how things must look. For example, a student may mix all the colors of the rainbow and make a brown smooshy painting. But think about what she saw and learned as she mixed all those colors together. The brown painting may not be much to look at, but the process she went through was thrilling for her, opening possibilities in creativity and thinking. It is important to add that students should expect to make mistakes. It is in finding solutions or modifying their experiences that will make the value of creativity most evident.
Things are not so rosy at art schools. I'm telling you out of my own experience. Traditional style of education needs to be changed. We are living in 21st Century and lag far behind our neighboring countries like Bangladesh. Creativity is on the rise there but we are still sticking to old concepts of teaching art. Fostering creativity in classrooms makes teaching more rewarding and fun and gives students a zest for imagining. .
Mr. Nasir, please don't mix up the things. If there is problem with every department, it doesn't mean art schools shouldn't be touched at all. Our dear parents' hard-earned money must not go down the drain and students like me should not be allowed to suffer any more without learning anything real from these so called vocational schools.
Please don't make much ado about nothing. Is there any department free of problems? So, why target just art schools?
When I was an art teacher I imparted successful art training. I helped students generate ideas for their own work. Today, education style has changed. As a teacher, you can start a new course by showing slides of great works of art in the area the students are expected to learn. I always started the course with idea generation activities. In this way they learn good practice methods and become creative.This is accompanied by answer question session.
I admit to being an art teacher and not spending as much time with students. I have periodically tested ideas by working as an art teacher at different schools schools. I have seen from very close what other teachers were doing and how things were working for students.
I admit to being an are teacher and not spending as much time with students. I have periodically tested ideas by working as an art teacher at different schools schools. I have seen from very close what other teachers were doing and how things were working for students.
I dream that art teachers can find ways to foster creative thinking, the knowledge of art analysis, of aesthetics, of our rich heritage in art. But seeing the present prevailing conditions at the art schools it seems impossible.
I repent having sent my daughters to an art school, They learned nothing except making some new friends, This is all the students want and the parents know it, but somehow they bow to the wishes of their children.
My experience as a teacher at the art school has been very poor. They pay so meagre a salary that I never wanted to teach seriously. Rather they just asked me to keep students engaged somehow without imparting to them anything substantial. Let the name of the school remain a secret as I was also at fault and feel guilty now.God forgive me.
I never see what a student might have imagined had I not provided the "right" way. So, a teacher's role is a must.
How can I encourage more imagination, better observation, and expressing what is remembered? Can I prohibit cliché production? Probably not. This is a case where two negatives do not make a positive. I have often seen engaged and inspired students producing what seems to me like trite and trivial work. However, I know that if I say anything negative about a student's choice, I inevitably kill off any spark of creativity or passion. I have never found that my criticism of a student's choice leads to more creativity in their artwork.
If I see a lot of cliché art, it tells me that I have not established a classroom culture of creative thinking and a joy of learning to learn. As a student, I asked my supervising teacher what he did in such situations. He said that he tried to encourage the student to do some experimentation or variation, but he would not forbid the student from including what they choose to include. So, what?
Real artwork is not borrowed from other artists. Ideas cannot be patented or copyrighted. They are free in the vapor of our lives. Real artwork is not borrowed from others. Ideas cannot be patented or copyrighted. They are free in the vapor of our lives. Steal them--Don't borrow them. Make them your own. Making ideas your own means that you choose them, improve them, shake them, pound them, deconstruct them, re-engineer them, materialize them, test them, internalize them, and so on. You cannot simply copy them or rent them.
People like Tahira Mushtaq, principal.Roshni Welfare Organization Vocational Institute at Saidpuri Gate are also found in the city who help mitigate financial burden of parents by prescribing a shop, where students can get raw material at a lesser price than the market rate. Other schools should try to follow her.
My friend at the Women Development and Community Center has rightly said that they can't afford to hire the services of real artists. Notwithstanding this inhibition the art schools try to teach whatever is available within their limited means.So, please don't raise much hue and cry over the issue.
Teachers who teach students how to develop ideas and help them learn to think and solve problems for themselves and ask them feel free to make mistakes and to explore and experiment will also feel free to invent, create, and find new ways to do things.Mere copying others doesn't foster creativity in classrooms and gives students a zest for imagining and learning to last a lifetime. My experience at Rawalpindi's vocational schools has not been very rewarding as the school administration has never been willing to change teaching method as they want art teachers at a minimum salary.
When the students participate in a project, it is important to encourage the students to think up their own twists and turns to make their project unique. Being an art teacher, I like to tell students, "There is no right way and no wrong way to do art. There is only your way.
The value of the process of creating art is more important than the results or the finished product.The finished results of a student's artwork are not as important to that student as the exploration and experimentation that went into creating them.The vocational schools must not allow teachers to interfere with the process of creating art by providing finished models to students. Yes, you're right, this way we churn up a skilled worker not an artist.
Encouraging creativity in students is a process where teachers must open their own channels of allowing, accepting, and turning over some control to the students themselves. But where the teachers are doing nothing except teaching how to copy others the students can learn nothing what creativity is all about?
What can we do as teachers to help creativity take hold? When a student presents you with am art work and says, "Look at what I made!", respond by saying, "Tell me about your art work," or ask, "What do you like about your art work?" These open-ended responses let the student evaluate his/her own creativity while initiating conversation about the work at hand. By not assuming anything about the student's work of art, the door to self-evaluation and communication opens. Copying closes all the doors to creativity. Let the art schools know it. From an art teacher
Creativity is as natural and necessary for students as fresh air and sunshine! By exposing students to creative experiences, we give them the gift of a rich and memorable days while laying the foundation for a lifetime of creative expression.There's no doubt about it. Art teachers must show seriousness.
Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery. In children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished product. What will be the fate of learning, if teachers don't bother about helping their students!
A critical factor in a student’s success is teacher's involvement. A positive teacher-student connection not only benefits the student; it also benefits the teacher. Mere imitating others is just opposite real creativity.
Yes, I totally agree. Vocational schools are producing stereotypes and not real artists.They are shockingly poor in standards. Many institutes teaching art and craft are stealing the ideas of others and using material already prepared by other schools.
Right you are Mr. ET. My daughter went to three vocational schools but she found them more or less the same as far as quality of teaching is concerned. Original ideas are the fountainhead of all kinds of arts. Copying is no substitute to creativity. Imagination is more important than knowledge. My daughter didn't want to be just a copycat, so she quit and applied her own mind to become an artist. She is one of the best known artists now.