My 2 Cents...

It's Friday!!! And what a week it's been.  This concludes my 3rd week of school at SAIC in the MAAE program. Actually it's only my 2nd week of attending class because last week, work called on me to go out of town, so I had to spend a great deal of time catching up on all the readings, film, and assignments that I missed.  I think I'm all good now.

This week of school really has me thinking about people and how our experiences and perspectives all differ.  The main thoughts sticking with me this week deal with Oppression, Critical thinking really works, Technology, and lastly how powerful the film medium truly is.

Oppression-  I've been reading Paulo Freire's, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and it really dives into the relationship of the oppressed and the oppressor.  Being a black man oppression digs deep especially having witnessed racism and discrimination.  So when the word oppression is mentioned to me, I immediately go to images of the civil rights movement and slavery, and my own personal experiences.  Paulo Freire's book from what I've read thus far mentions how the oppressed can have conflict with each other, but have respect and be envious of their oppressor.  That's a powerful statement and I believe that there is truth to it.  He also in terms of education talks about the teacher and student relationship...and mentions scenarios where the teacher is the oppressor and the student is the oppressed...  Very interesting stuff and makes for an interesting discussion.  I had to read these materials and then write up an essay on them, after the class on Thursday night I really want to revisit my essays and rewrite them.

Critical thinking really works-  From the various readings this week I've been thinking about "critical thinking"  In a nut shell anytime you can have a classroom where the students can talk about the subject matter critically, and pose problems, and as a group attempt to solve those problems it is a win.  Ultimately it makes learning something more intresting and active.  In the readings I'm learning that this is far better than when a teacher just mechanically presents a bunch of information and the students in return work hard to memorize that information to make a grade.  In that model there is no critical discussion or active experince and its more isolation.  I thought about when I first went to art school after high school and was in a beginning animation class.  Clearly I was in a class with people that each had their own story and experience.  Some where new to the idea of using a computer and working with creative software, and some had already had some experience with it or were very familar with computers in general.  The teacher basically gave us all a tutorial and said follow the instructions.....and if you had a problem following the instructions he would come by and help you follow them.  Everyone did the tutorial and everyone got an "A."  But from what I realized later and even more so now is that, that was wrong.  When I graduated that school I was no where near a level to where I should be trying to work at PIXAR, so I went to another school and that animation class was different.  It was no tutorial, and we where all given a problem (making a flour sack move from point A to B) and we all had to think CRITICALLY on how that could happen.  What the result ended up being was you got flour sacks that had emotion....some sacks skipped, some ran, some walked, some were scared....All of us as students interacted with each other and got over our fears of communication and our past history and thought of creative ways to make that flour sack get from point A to point B.  In comparing the learning experience one was far better than the other.

Technology-  All I can say is that I'm excited about technology and art and it's always changing...sometimes it can be a little intimidating because you can lose the passion or energy to want to keep up with new things.  I am extremely excited about the idea that I have for some technology in our Art Museum and I'm hoping I can convey the concept clearly.  Next week in class we will dig a little deeper into the guts of what and how this assignment will move forward and I'm looking forward to that.  I'm also excited about the opportunity to work with the youth in the museum, it will be big time learning experience as I dive into the world of education and art.  I am hoping that next week is slow at the office so that I can potentially take a day off and get down to the museum and be a beta tester for the technology they are looking into. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed on that one.


Films-  The class has seen 2 films....one "Stranger With A Camera," by Elizabeth Barret http://appalshop.org/film/stranger/ and two "Wildness," by Wu Tsang http://www.wildnessmovie.com/  I won't go into a lot of details about each film, but I willl say both films where powerful.  Both films can be a spring board for a lot discussion and a lot of perceptions.  In class I was asked to compare the 2 films and see if they were similar in anyways or different, as well as relate them to our readings.

 I felt like I would say something that I remembered about the film and then would try and relate that to something else I remembered with the reading, but I was afraid of saying something that was incorrect or didn't make sense.  "Stranger With A Camera" was a documentary about how a town handled the murder of a notable documentary director, (who was trying to portray the towns issues with poverty) by the hand of one of it's own. (a respected man in their community who was offended by the film crew's presence.)  "Wildness," was a story of  a famous club called "The Silver Platter" that was located in a Latin community in Los Angelas, California. Wu Tsang is a  trans gender who with the help of DJ friends started a party called "Wildness," on Tuesday nights in the club.  It was a creative outlet for performance art and music. The trans gender, lesbian and gay community embraced the party and made it historical.  The film documents The Silver Platter and the Wildness party and what it meant to the trans gender community.    I appreciated the film and thought that it was well done and really liked the story.  I can identify with the concept of being an outcast or a minority and wanting to belong or have a "safe space" where you can be free.  I think of a safe space as a place where you have no fear, no worries, etc...

After the class discussion I realized that what had just happened in the discussion of the film was exactly what we have read in the class!  No one related the movie to the "socialization circle" that we read about in Bobbie Harro's, "The Cycle of Socialization." and how our discussion of the film was actually "Critical Thinking in progress."  I realized that we all have different backgrounds and life experiences and have to learn about one another and understand one another so that we could better communicate.  Just like as educators we should strive to learn about our students and understand them so that we can better educate them.  I realized I fell into a trap of defending my question or perspective vs actually looking for the answers amongst the context of the films.  As I thought more critically of the film, I have an even greater appreciation for it because I can recall more scenes that I hadn't thought about in the class discussion that made things more vivid.  I realize that I will have to continue to grow and work at being able to communicate my thoughts and conversations a lot more clearly, and I'm happy that the classes I have at the moment are going to really help me in that endeavor.