By Tegwyn Lea and Lily Krivanek
Hello EDV students! This month, we put out a form asking for your thoughts on artistic-centered assignments. This means work you do where you might have to draw or create something for your classes. We asked how you feel about them, whether you want more and how this type of work affects stress levels in the student body.
A lot of students said that they enjoy artistic assignments, and would like more in their classes. The form asked how many of their classes have had an artistic assignment, and the average was 2-3. About 36% of students said that they would like more of this in their classes. One student responded with what this portion of the student body was thinking: “MORE ARTISTIC ASSIGNMENTS!!!”
There is another side to feelings about this work. Some students said that the assignments were worse because they don’t feel confident in their artistic abilities, like this 8th grader who said “Artistic assignments can be fun, but I’m not a very artistic person, so it can be pretty stressful, especially if they’re being displayed somewhere.”
We also have some in the middle, saying that they don’t feel good at art, but they still have fun with the assignments, like Jaime from 9th grade who said “I feel like even though I am not good at art, I get to have a little more fun with the assignment.” We certainly had many students saying that this creative work was more fun than just writing about something.
Some students said they like them when it is not graded on how their art looks like Violet who said “I’m fine with artistic assignments if you don’t get graded on how your art looks.” and others who said that they would prefer if it was optional, like this 8th grader who commented, “I would prefer if we had the choice to do artistic assignments instead of having to do them.”
We certainly had many interesting responses, including one student who responded to a question with, “Sometimes, I feel as if I am nothing but a rainbow, fluttering away on the breeze. Life, in its fragility, has overcome me and made me realize something of utmost importance. Candy Crush Saga is awful.”
In conclusion, the majority of EDV students agree that artistic assignments should be a portion of some of their classes, along with a variety of kinds of assignments to accommodate everyone’s learning styles.
-Tegwyn and Lily, Peagle Press
