What's with these attitudes?!

First day of school. Four art classes. Two English classes. And a study hall. All was well until 6th hour. Then the attitudes showed up. My morning had been spent with kindergartners and junior highers. I was reveling in the silliness of youth.

Hello high school. Study hall brought seven sophomore and junior boys and one sophomore girl. Study? What? You'd think I'd told them to go dance on the ceiling, not to use their study hall period as a STUDY hall period. The looks I got. And sit in the seats not on the table? What is this? School?

I didn't give in though. I stuck to my guns.

8th hour rolled around. I was anxious and excited to greet my Art I and II class. This would be it. This was THE class. I was brimming with ideas, excited to discuss theories and concepts that no one but artists would find enjoyable.

Bam. Attitude walked through the door again. What is it with these 15 and 16 year olds? Again. You want us to write an answer to a question? This is ART class. Why are you asking us to WRITE? We have a seating arrangement? Why can't we sit with our friends?

Finally. Teeth pulled, answers are written. But this is what I got: I am taking Art...because I like Art (an answer I did not accept), because the principal made me, because I didn't want to take Drama, etc. And what do you expect / hope to learn from this class? ...art, drawing, I don't expect to learn anything new because I have been doing art since I was a kid and I don't think I'll learn anything new or get any better than I already am. Hmmm.... Not exactly the answers I was hoping for.

It may be a long year.

God's Artwork

Battle lines were drawn at the 1913 International Exhibition of ModernArt, staged at New York's 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue. Though the "Armory Show" featured 1,250 works by more than 300 artists(including Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Kandinsky, Cezanne,Corot, Gris, Leger, Ingres, and Rodin), one work stole the show, NudeDescending a Staircase (No. 2) by cubist painter, Marcel Duchamp. The public was shocked by much of what they saw, even calling the room labeled "French Painting and Sculpture, the "Chamber of Horrors."

Little did they know how "horrifying" things would become. (In 1917,that same Marcel Duchamp would exhibit a "ready-made" urinal and callit Fountain.) It would be a century in which all moral restraint wouldbe cast off, and artists led the way.

At first, they fought for freedom to violate canons of decency. Ultimately, they fought to maintain taxpayer subsidies for such violations, whether in the realmof obscenity or blasphemy. Those who followed the news in the closing decades of the twentieth century were dumbfounded by the unspeakable works of Andre Serrano (with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts), Robert Mapplethorpe (at Cincinnati's Contemporary ArtsCenter), and Chris Ofili (at the Brooklyn Museum of Art).

While much of the art found shocking at the Armory Show has stood the test of time, there is still a strong sense, even among secularists,that things have gone haywire. Many argue for fresh attention to edification and beauty through the classic principles of line,texture, mass, rhythm, color, unity, and balance.

The artistic elite live and move within what philosophers of art now The Art World, the community of museum and gallery keepers, critics, patrons, foundations, and consultants and designers for corporations and municipalities. They decide what is celebrated and what is scorned. Evangelical Christians are scarce in these circles, either by exclusion or indifference, and pastors are likely to count themselves as people who have nothing much to say in that realm.

The Bible paints a different picture. Millennia before the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Pompidou Museum in Paris presumed to judge and direct civilization's taste, God filled a man with His Spirit to be artistic. The Lord called Bezalel to craft the Tent of the Meeting and its appointments for the children of Israel.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. (Exod. 31:1-5 NIV)

Contemporary art is much taken with novelty, expression, ugliness, provocation, and dark messages. God's artist, Bezalel, was given to craftsmanship. Knowledge was more important than feeling. Design trumped chaos. The love of God and His creation was obvious. Bezalel knew that the properties of his precious materials were so ordered because it pleased God to make them so. He worked in gratitude and reverence, not hubris.

Because God is a God of artistry, both in the creation of this world and in the commission and inspiration of artists, Christians should feel free and even compelled to study and address the world of art and to encourage artists within their ranks to develop and apply their gifts. From Giotto to Dürer to Rouault, Christian contribution to the arts has been substantial, and there is no good reason why this should not continue.

From the Kairos Journal

Am I a POSER or just sweating?

Teacher's meetings started this week at my new school. We've started each day with breakfast (there is ALWAYS food at teacher's meetings!) and devotions, then began training. We watched videos on effective teachers, classroom management, and the like. We've learned the grading system, been introduced to student handbooks and told our "tentative" schedules. We've spent hours hanging bulletin boards, haggling over elementary classes and searching every last inch of the building for any semblance of teacher guides/lesson plans we can find.

And at the end of the day, all I can think is: I FEEL LIKE SUCH A POSER.

I know I'm not. I know I have the education and the training to begin what I am about to do. But I can't help having these overwhelming feeling that "who am I to teach these students?" Honestly, I'm scared to death. I'm filled with questions and anxieties. I wonder if I can do it.

I know this is normal. The veteran teachers at my school look just as frazzled as I do. In fact, I've seen two lifers have break-downs this week. So, it's not only this newbie that is feeling the stress.

As a kid, I remember going to the first day of school with more then a few butterflies. My teachers, on the other hand, always seemed so confident. They could face anything and were totally prepared.

Now I know the truth. Teachers are just as freakin' scared as the students - they just know how to cover it better. So, I put on my brave face and remember words of the wise:

NEVER LET 'EM SEE YA SWEAT.