A surprisingly inspring CNY-local children's television show has given me new eyes to look through myself as an Art Educator
A full 28-minute episode about utilizing drawing/coloring in order to explain manners to Pappy's woodland friends.
I watched "Pappy Drewitt" celebrate children's desires to draw and color in every episode on Pappyland with my father as a very young child. The Whitesboro, NY cartoon artist dedicated each and every episode to "children around around the world!" but it was primarily aired in my hometown area of Syracuse. The show stood as an important, positive connection between my Dad and I, and instated this part of my family as a creative, productive outlet for the rest of my life. It's easy for me to label these childhood moments with my father as the gems that continue to help motivate me as a person, and artist, and a future Art Educator today. I'm sure that this corny, but dear children's show had similar effects on a lot of other kid's lives.
My Dad called me last night out-of-the-blue. He had been doing work on a building that was simultaneously commissioning murals, by none other than my beloved 'Pappy Drewitt.' I had not remembered too many details about the show itself, and the phone call from my dad inspired me to search for some episodes on the internet and diagnose its significance in my life. Now, I find myself criticizing Pappy's episode as if he was my equivalent carrying out an art lesson with a classroom full of public-school children. What parts of his techniques are theories that have effective results with kids? Which ones practiced on me as a child were carried through to my young adulthood? Were some of my lessons learned from Pappy perhaps a bit damaging to my young, developing, artist mind?
Reruns of Pappy episodes make me review teaching practices that I have inherited, and personally determine the effect of the results. What things is Pappy doing in his art demos that you now know to be worthwhile practices in Art Education or not?
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