Collaboration of the Arts

2-4-09

Reading response 32-58 Third Mind

Teaching art to children, not in a classical sense but rather as an individual expression, gives them a larger pot in which to spread their roots and grasp the world around them.  This idea is illustrated in the essays of both Susan Karwoska and Will Alexander where breaking down the few presumptions children hold in the world allowed their students to more easily express themselves in their writing.  The catalyst in both of these cases being art, the teachers simply watered these sprouts with images and moods that allowed a unique blooming of each individual without clambering for sameness among the class.

Bell Hooks, on the other hand, explores how hard it is to grow the strong barked roots of adults.  Hooks essay focused on the African-American struggle for individual expression in art.  She speaks volumes on this subject with a few well chosen words, and Bell boils it down to the hardened ideas about negative and positive.  She argues that with such a “colonized” view of history African Americans find it hard to express their sorrow without creating a negative image in the minds of their audience.  This is created by a universal connection in history so that an individuals sorrow is no longer viewed as individual, but rather as part of a communal voice.

Both art and writing share many things, but the most important is a sense of individual style.  The enemy to this individual style is the creation of shared perspectives which creates a drought of ideas and imagination.  Flooding children with perspectives and images will allow their minds to grow tall enough to be creatively self -sufficient.