BLOG SEVENTEEN!!!

Community Based Education

In Community-Based learning environments where learning is concentrated around a specific objective or subject matter, students are able to obtain a completely rounded education in that field.

I believe that organizations who create community-based learning experience often try to hire specialists and because their focus is on one subject the students will be able to learn about so many different aspects of that material, while receiving personal attention from individuals who are professional or else well experienced or even in cases of volunteers willing to know as much as possible about the projects and forms of attacking the lessons.

I believe that this is a great opportunity for children to experience Art in Community-Based settings because this way they will learn about art as a solid and unique unit which is often lost in school settings where art is often lumped together with other subject matter. This is not to say that art is made for art sake in fact it is quite the opposite because in these settings students would be allowed to take projects in the directions that work best for their developmental skill level and personal interests because they are not trying to get a mark in these places and rather are there for the experimentation and experiences. The pressure it taken away as well when there are no marks involved and there isn't as much weight put into a final product. This will often let students create without fear or more importantly the need to please others it if for their own growth.

Plus generalized teachers cannot necessarily assist student who require further instruction or even student who require a challenge as they are not experts in the area of study. This can alienate students who are gifted and those who are challenged or perhaps need a different style of instruction. For example a generalized teacher says that things like 'that looks good'. An art teacher can bring up ideas about technique, creative response, further options or ideas, and suggestions, while giving praise for the aspects of art which the student has shown that they understand.

In these schools students are often allowed the possibility of working with materials and tools which are not offered in schools such as carving tools and stone, or silk screens, or even clay as kilns are not in all schools.

Students can learn about specific style techniques and about art history which they may not be able to hear about in a public education system as often very little time is awarded to art studies.

Teachers in a community based setting are able to work with student who are present for the very reason of learning about that one core subject matter and are often interested in learning about that experience. This way student will not have as many student who are disinterested. Often class sizes are much smaller so teachers can better assess their students and meet their personal needs. These classrooms often have support staff as well which can be a great success because the teacher can focus on assisting students rather than about the material clean-up and administrative issues. Teachers in these settings are able to teach the one subject that they specialize in and therefore can be better and more responsible teachers and they will be passionate and encompassing in their teaching and will not have to try to mix art into other subject matter and thus accidentally losing its relevance.

In Community-Based settings there is no curriculum and specific set of rules like there is in formal education. There are teaching mandates but teachers have the teachers have the flexibility to teach what they wish to teach about without having to worry about making sure that curriculum expectations and outcomes are being met. This would help to make a class that is based on student guided learning because the teacher has the freedom to accept the needs of the student over the content of the lessons.