Author: E A Role: Student Location: Easton, MA Date: 10-13-03 After reading John Crowe's story, "A Long Road to Choice", I find his art curriculum to be a creative and innovative way of making art class more meaningful for students. First, I was very impressed that he discussed art so in depth with his high school students, something I wish my high school art teachers had done with me. I love the idea of discussing art with students of all ages, on an individual or small group bases, as Crowe does with his elementary and high school students. I agree with his grading system as well, showing it's not how "good" a project is that matters, but how much the artist puts into it. The concept of play and care projects is something I wish i had experienced in my art classes, not just at home. Learning from experiments (play) is how I discovered many techniques and what my personal preferences are. Having the opportunity to discuss them in class with teachers and students would make those experiments even more meaningful. Then to take the knowledge the students have gained to create a care project, seems like a great opportunity for the students to share their experience and to demonstrate their abilities. Prior to having survey's of the students' subject interest for projects, I think I would present the students with different subject matters and show them examples of paintings using these different concepts. This may give the students more ideas of what they would like to try. If the resources were available, I would try to expose the students to more art materials for each type of art. I would want them to be able to play with sculpture to create an object they would want to draw, and encourage the idea that no type of art is isolated.

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