After reading "Signs of Change: Art Education in the Age of the iKid," my eyes are even more opened to the importance of art education for our future students. The next generation, the "iKids," are going to require a completely new approach to teaching from every subject. I think that art to these students, now more than ever, will arguably be one of their most influential and beneficial subject areas. As art teachers, we can utilize their knowledge in technology, and push their capabilities and creativity. According to the text, "art education can make a difference in an increasingly complex, interconnected world." Understanding art gives the next generation a way of making connections and decoding culture through visual interpretation. The world we live in calls for much analysis; it is not black and white, but rather quite subjective. Art can teach students to be thinkers, problem solvers, and innovators.
The article "Interpreting Connotations in Visual Culture," allowed me to make further connections between art and the way society thinks. We are influenced on a daily basis by the images we see, and we sometimes mistake them for fact. Even those who are poorly educated are visually literate. They make inferences from the content they see in images and media, and then form opinions. Certain stereotypes have remained in our culture because they are confirmed by art and advertisements. I thought an interesting comment made in the text was that "learners as young as 3 and 4 years old were able to use the construct of denotations and connotations." As art educators, we can give our students the knowledge and the tools to make educated decisions based on the images that surround them. We can essentially teach open-mindedness and discourage ignorance for our future generation. That is a huge opportunity and responsibility that art teachers have.
